The closer to the end of a contract I get, the more sleep seems to avoid me. When I started on this ship I was up early enough to go to breakfast in the mornings, now…well, I have a routine, and it still involves breakfast, just a little later than I would perhaps like.
I am ready to go home.
However, it is a relieving change to find that while I am ready to go home, I’m not desperate to go home. Previous to this, at this point in the contract, I would be almost to the point of counting hours. Now, time continues to trot merrily along. It’s not dragging, nor is it speeding, just moving along at a quite normal bearable pace. I still wake up in the morning mostly looking forward to going to work – although last cruise the numbers were so low that I’ll admit it did get a bit frustrating, less because of working and more because I couldn’t really work (it’s hard to give a class to just one person).
This is our last week in the fairyland that is Norway. After this we’ll leave waterfalls and trolls behind and head up to the chilly beauty that is Iceland. I’m more than a bit excited about that, since I’ve never seen Iceland, and also we’ll be stopping in Scotland along the way, and that has been on my bucket list for a while. Sadly, I’ll miss seeing Itzy by a few days, which is a shame, but can’t be helped; timing is what it is and all.
I’m amazed at how quickly this contract has gone, or at least how quickly the last few months of it has gone. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have a contract fly…it hasn’t really felt this way since perhaps my second year on the fleet.
Still…definitely a good change.
Now, if only the gremlins would let me get some sleep!