Eat or Sleep?

The question is always the same: Should I have something to eat?

Yesterday I woke up an hour before my new Boots bought travel alarm went off. So I sat around and had several leisurely cups of coffee before going to class... and grabbing a mocha at Café Nero. I usually drink a huge iced coffee with 3 pumps of mocha syrup before doing a class, but here in London there is more call for warm drinks than cold - especially compared to Los Angeles. Cold drinks are unusual.

Though it was cold wet and a little windy, the weekend has been warm. More LA weather than London weather. So I drink hot coffee and then take a brisk walk cross town in warm weather... drinking hot coffee along the way. I end up sweaty by the time I get to the venue. Yesterday I decided to wash my face in the restroom - but the venue has no paper towels., just one of those blower things. Can’t really dry your face on one of those.

Today, I also woke up an hour early - sun coming through the not-very-good black out curtains. But today I decided to go back to sleep instead of drinking coffee for an hour. Was that the right decision? I ended up with less coffee and more sleep. How much sleep equals an hour of drinking coffee?

This morning, only Café Nero was open. Yesterday I passed a Starbucks, and I thought they might have iced coffee... but they were closed today. They open late on Sundays. So I have no idea whether they have iced coffee or not - I was back at Nero’s drinking hot mocha as I took my brisk walk cross town. I didn’t even try to dry my face today, I just splashed water on it.

Because the venue was used by someone else last night, we disconnected all of my video gear... and today no one was there who remembered how it was connected (not me). So one of the Raindance guys had to phone another Raindance guy who talked him through the connection. He got it working (excellent) but partway through the DVD player just crapped out right before lunch. Ended up being the DVD itself - had a huge smudge on it. I always bring *two* extra clip DVDs, and put a new one in - worked perfect... so we broke for lunch.

Yesterday I didn’t eat lunch. I was afraid it would make me sleepy... and maybe even make me puke. Day over here is night back home, so it’s like eating lunch in the middle of the night - I’m kind of afraid my body will reject it. Don’t really want to vomit in class. But mostly I’m just afraid of the post lunch drowsies. I’m already jet lagged and half asleep, difficult to keep the energy up... last thing I want to do is eat a meal that brings me crashing down...

But I always wonder if that is the right decision. Maybe that lunch is the energy I need to keep going? Difficult to tell.

Today during lunch I was interviewed by a magazine reporter comped into the class. Took about half an hour. Always interesting to be interviewed by someone - I always think of other questions I would ask myself that they haven’t thought of. One of the reasons why I prefer email interviews is that I can answer questions never asked. The ones they forgot to ask or the ones they just never even thought of - but should have.

After the interview I had a half hour,,, and bought a pastry stuffed with potatoes and ham and some cheesey sauce stuff. Though it didn’t make me fall asleep during class, it did make me belch these terrible belches. Yech.

Clips worked fine for the rest of class, and I only went 45 minutes over. I even remembered to mention my CDs for sale...

When I did my Thursday night class - packed room, maybe 100 people or more - I had brought me CDs to sell... and forgot all about them. Never mentioned them. I’m terrible at the commerce part. Yesterday I had my CDs and forgot to mention them at all. Today, I set some out on a table and almost forgot there were there - but someone asked. So at the end of the class I mentioned I had some other classes on audio CD, and that was that. I sold a couple, but I’m taking most home with me (as usual).

I packed up all of my stuff in my rolling bag and dragged it back cross town to the hotel. Over the past few days my plan has been to go to the cinema and see this French thriller, but every time I get back to the hotel I’m just too tired. Already I know it won’t be tonight. After I clean up and get some Indian Vegetarian food in the neighborhood, it will probably be too late.

I actually felt better today with more coffee and less sleep and lunch... but maybe that’s just getting over the jet lag?

A/V HIJINKS

So, as we were playing with the A/V stuff yesterday, one of the guys mentioned this screenwriting teacher who had come over a years or so ago. They were trying to get his laptop attached to the digital projector, and he hit the wrong button on his laptop... launching a slideshow of his personal porn collection for the class to see. And it was *unusual* porn - though the guy wouldn't divulge specifics. But when a fellow with a bunch of tattoos and some face piercings says the porn was unusual - well, I'm betting it was something I may not even be able to imagine.

- Bill