Sleepless

Well not in Seattle, but in Sweden. For the second night in a row I've gone to sleep around 23:00-23:30 and then woken up by 2 am and been awake for about 2 hours. This is incredible rare for me. I actually don't know if it have ever happened before. Of course I have had restless nights tossing and turning, but not fully awake wondering if I should get up or not.

The first night I blamed it on having had popcorn right before bed and being thirsty. Also that I had had wine, which has never been a problem before. Another reason could simply be that I'm on my 5th week of leave and is becoming rather well rested.

Rather surprising I didn't feel tired yesterday and was therefore expecting a good night's sleep when going to bed, but no. During the evening I started getting texts and tweets from friends all over London about looting, robbing and arson. As the footage also came in and watching BBC news I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. Just horrid and unbelievable! By bedtime I had thankfully heard from all friends and they were safe and sound, even though some of them had or was definitely too close to where the riots were going on.

What broke my heart the most was probably the lawlessness and lack of respect for people and property. Why trashing your own community (and others as well) just so you can get new trainers and TVs? I don't get it. I'm not surprised though that it's happening. Somewhere along the road it seems like Britain has forgotten about its youth and the people being lesser off (yes, it's social liberal in me talking) We have it here too. Kids growing up in areas where both parents (if you still live both your parents) live on well-fare and from a young age you know that there is no future for you. I don't know any solutions, but the problem will not go away and from time to time I'm sure we will see riots like this. Unfortunately. Anyhow, this article from The Independent explains a lot better what I'm thinking about.

So what about my good night's sleep? Not so good. Right after falling asleep I had a text from a London friend saying he was fine, but London was burning. So again, awake between between 2 and 4 am with all kind of thoughts. Sigh! Catching up with friends tonight. Hopefully a night of laughter, food and drinks will make me both relaxed and sleepy when time comes.