Monday 23-Apr-12

23/04/12 05:33 [Monday]
I have woken up early with a bit of an upset tummy, asking myself if the tummy upset is related to my prostate problem. I do tend to look for common explanations for things and try to simplify all causes down to a few all-inclusive causes, and I may be over-doing it here. After all, Dawn very often has tummy upset and in the female case it is not going to be related to the prostate. It is only a mild tummy upset anyway and perhaps will clear now I have been to the toilet: a possible explanation is that I am making too much of nothing due to the responsivity of my dopaminergic systems, causing an effect of amplification I mean.
Some of the symptoms I had before I was on this Risperdal medication were related to having insufficient sleep and lately the times I have woken up around 5 am later in the day I have found myself nodding off especially on buses with the rocking as the bus travels along. In the years before 2011 I used to imagine things went on when I nodded off in the daytime, along the lines of me being spoken to - on buses say - with ‘hypnotising’ words. In fact I used to imagine things might go on whenever I was unaware, that is including in the nighttime when I was getting my few hours of sleep. This led me to try to develop detection devices to record what went on (in the nighttime specifically) for example by logging the amplitude of any sounds detected (thinking sounds at night might represent the speaking to me of ‘hypnotising’ words).

I am in the Travelodge Edinburgh Rose Street - on my own as Dawn didn’t want to come - drinking a morning cup of coffee. I ordered a breakfast bag (as they call them) for 6 am being pretty certain I would be up early. Evidently Travelodge has gone down the route of paring costs to the bone - not supplying shower gel or toothpaste for example - and charging for extras such as breakfast and WiFi. I think this is a good thing myself as if you can resist the extras you can get a bed for the night very cheap, especially if you book the Saver Rate in advance and risk not being able to travel in which case you lose your money. Those with money to spare though - or those whose companies pay - would no doubt want to pay for fuller service elsewhere, but I am a great believer in the provision of a multiplicity of offerings to suit all tastes and all budgets. When I was writing to Tory MPs (in the years prior to 2011) I often went on about the desirability of pluralism (as I referred to it) and my belief is that it is philosophically a good thing. Socialists might wish to reduce every provision to a common denominator but sensible people approve multiple choices which gravitate through the market mechanism to match the things people want (because those in an initially random mish-mash of provision that people don’t want to pay for fall by the wayside and indeed very many new businesses do fail in the first year or two).

Speaking of things the Travelodge does not supply: I have brought a toothbrush and toothpaste but have left behind my deodorant. And I have not been able to resist some extras you pay for: I ordered a cheeseburger muffin last night (which they rustle up in a microwave in two or three minutes if you go and ask at reception) and as I said a breakfast for this morning. The girl on reception duly noted down my purchases on my account even though I paid there and then, so plainly Travelodge retains statistics of spending by guests so it knows which guests to plague with offers and inducements for the future. I am joking about this in fact as I believe recording such statistics is a way provision can be efficiently matched to what customers want, and (I presume) one can always unsubscribe from emails sent by Travelodge.

I had thoughts yesterday on the train in the region of Newcastle Upon Tyne about what I may subsume under the heading King Coal, but I shall (as in times gone by when despite my symptoms I enjoyed life) defer writing down those thoughts as breakfast should be here by now.

23/04/12 11:44

I am presently sitting under the Scottish National Gallery, outside the Garden Café, and as it’s started to rain can say no more.