Its-me-asha: while you were sleeping

this week, while you were sleeping, i was up at work. conquering my first ever week of night shift. i decided to diarise my experience seeing this was to be a great challenge for me; in my normal life i'm up with the sun and down with the moon, no compromise.

sunday in preparation:
i tried to stay up until midnight, knowing that the following day of travel would be a difficult yet necessary tiresome day. by 10:30 i was getting anxious knowing that my alarm was set for 4:30am so triple checked that i had packed everything and got ready for bed. made it in bed by almost 12. win!

monday:
4:30 alarm goes off, slept well, still wish i had more.
5:30 an hour wait at the airport for the plane, buy two trashy magazines to occupy myself. board at 6:40.
7:40-ish wake just in time for breakfast on the plane, eat it, sleep.
9:30 arrive in sunny broome. i wish i could just stay here and laze on cable beach. its almost torture to go and check in at the heli-port (is that even what its called?) leave within the hour for the 2 hour chopper ride out to the rig.
13:00 arrive on the rig, a little too amped to sleep, am skittish walking around unpacking and then moving things from draw to cupboard, cupboard to draw. decide to shower and pretend its night time. have a little nap, awake at 18:20 and get ready for dinner. its strange having dinner at 'breakfast time'.
19:00 head to work and arrange my week.
22:55 travelling ok, have decided to run a midnight yoga class from tomorrow night which i am excited about. unsure as to whether i feel anxious or excitable, perhaps both.
3:00 have hit the wall, decide to nap, awake worse than when i went to sleep. struggle through the next few hours snacking on cereal, fruit and water.
hit the hay at 7:30, setting the alarm for 4pm...

the next few nights followed a similar schedule: wake up at 2-3pm and catch the last few hours of sunlight, have dinner and work through to midnight. run my yoga class for the guys finishing work (they work 12-12 here on the rig) and struggle through the early hours of the morning before sleeping from 7:30.

amazingly, i'm a lot less emotional than i expected. yes, my fatigue levels are sky high, but there is a newfound respect for just how difficult this type of work can be. i imagine it much worse where a high level of attention to detail is necessary, all those doctors and nurses, i salute you!