off, finally

Since late in March I've been feeling crushingly fatigued. I go to bed late and probably don't sleep as much as I should, but I've always done that, and it has never hurt me. Over the last two weeks however, I've really come to suffer from what can only be described as complete physical exhaustion. I haven't done more than survive the days at work. Even last weekend didn't lift my spirits or bring me back to freshness and vigor.

It really couldn't go on like this. This week felt it would never end. It was the longest week in my life, longer than any in high school when vacations were rare outside summer and the days filled with relentless studying. It was even longer than the final week of my month-long bike tour to France fifteen years ago, days of horror when all I wanted was sleep in a real bed again. All that wasn't more than brief unpleasant moments by comparison. This week, in contrast, the week that has just ended, was eternal.

It was also extremely short. Easter is coming up. Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays in England. Imperial College does one better, giving everyone Thursday and Tuesday off as well. The week that caused me so much suffering, the seemingly infinite week, only lasted three days. This paradox, the disparity between the length of the week and how I perceived it, told me in glaring terms that I was not only ready for a break but in dire need of it. Indeed, I've never craved a vacation as much as now.

Over the last few years, trips over Easter had developed into some sort of a tradition. Tradition because last year and three years ago, I went to Istanbul, and some sort of because I don't remember – not even after consulting this blog's archive – what I did in 2007. This year is another some sort of year. I'm not going anywhere but I'm taking a trip.

The resolution of this obfuscation? I'll be a tourist in my own town. For the next six days I'll be seeing London like I haven't before, and I'm really looking forward to it. I've never spent six days in London, just being a visitor, having nothing to do, no obligations, nothing to distract me. I'll go see exhibitions that have been so low on my list that they have continually fallen off when it came to deciding what to do on a weekend that was inevitably too short. I'll visit parks that have never been on my way and galleries that have either tempted me for too long or just recently opened. I might go shopping – which translates into hunting for books – or ambling, being driven along well-trodden paths by throngs of Easter tourists. But mostly I'll be sitting in coffee shops or on the springy boards of wooden park benches reading and relaxing.

The reading and relaxing part started this morning, when I whipped up a big breakfast and frothed up some good Turkish coffee to mark the break from the ordinary. I kicked back and started the day doing nothing in particular. Despite the general plans outlined in the previous section, doing nothing will really be the theme of the next six days. Marathon training in Kensington Gardens will require me to stop by at work, but only to change and feed. I won't have science on my mind, not until my energy has been restored. For now, I'm off and away. Happy Easter!