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Tag: Sleep

  • 6 ways to prevent getting up to go the toilet at night – A “Michael Hyatt” style guide.

    It’s Wednesday and our bathroom renos started yesterday. By bathroom renos I mean BOTH bathrooms which means that we are without a toilet and shower.
    We arranged a portable toilet and shower to be placed outside in the carport about 50m away from the side door of the house, and for the moment we have to go through our partially covered patio and then step down some slippery steps. So going to the toilet is an adventure.
    Needless to say, doing the middle of the night toilet trip is something you really don’t want to have to do.
    So after listening to Michaels Hyatt’s podcast “Achieve More by Sleeping More”, I thought of a few ways in the true Michael Hyatt style that we all could all develop to prevent this ritual.
    After all, whilst it’s not every day that you renovate bathrooms there are times that you just don’t want to get up. If it’s cold, if you are camping or staying in a caravan, sharing a bathroom etc. etc.
    So here are my 6 ways to prevent getting up to go the toilet

    1. Don’t drink anything
    I mean it just because you’re are meant to drink 2 point something Litres per day doesn’t mean you have to.

    2. Don’t go to sleep
    There’s plenty of successful people who survive on less than 2 hours of sleep. They have the odd health issue but who cares at least you don’t have to get up.

    3. Don’t drink anything after 4PM
    If you can’t do 1. Then do this. After all, if you go to bed at 10 then you’ve got 6 hours to get rid of all your fluid.

    4. Don’t get up
    Just suck in it and hold it. You’ll be OK.

    5. Have an accountability partner
    If you share your bed with someone else, then there’s a good chance that they too will need to get up to pee during the night as well. Just have an agreement that both of you hold each accountable to NOT get up.

    6. Don’t drink diuretics after 4PM
    This is actually a more serious one. Diuretics are things like alcohol and caffeine and they make you pee. So don’t drink ‘em! You’ll be considered pretty antisocial at the pub or a restaurant but you will have the satisfaction of not having to get up in the night whilst everyone else who is drinking will.

    9N_15

    So what about if you have to get up but don’t want to have walk too far
    Here’s 6 tips on that as well:

    1. Pee in the kitchen (or any other close by) sink – easier for blokes I think!
    2. Find a nearby tree
    3. Pee out of the window – again easier for blokes
    4. Wear a nappy
    5. Have small chemical toilet
    6. Have a potty

    So there you go. Can you think of anything I’ve missed? How many of you have been in the same situation? What have you done?

    Feel free to comment below
    Oh and Michael, feel free to use this if you think it will be useful for your readers.

    This was once two bathrooms!
    This was once two bathrooms!

  • African shoestrings – South Africa Day Fourty seven – Kalahari

    On that subject, of food, these tours feed you well. Whether it is a budget tour like ours or a five star tour, the tour companies must drum into the tour leaders that the guests must eat. I can just hear them now “Never mind the spectacular scenery or the animals, the object here is for the tourists to eat at least three big meals a day, and if possible morning and afternoon tea and equally as important on time!”

    On one tour we did in Kenya the 4WD got bogged in sand in Lake Nakuru and despite our protestations our guide insisted that we get a lift with a passing vehicle so that we wouldn’t be late for lunch. It was a long lunch because he turned up 6 hours later, covered in mud from head to toe. We would have much rather stayed and given him a hand.
    In Uganda on a Gorilla safari we had a guide called Charles. Charles had a small straw picnic hamper that he spent a great deal of time arranging and rearranging after use so that all the crockery would fit in a certain way. Watching him go through this ritual for the first time it, was merely amusing, by the time we had our last morning or afternoon tea it was all we could do to prevent ourselves from breaking into absolute hysterics, as he fastidiously and obsessively arranged everything first one way then another until satisfied and then sighed, contented with his final arrangement. What didn’t occur to him was that we could have quite happily saved him all this pain and skipped morning and afternoon tea!

    Strangely enough most tourists remember the food they have on these trips more than the experience they had! How often do you hear “Oh and the food was wonderful/crap”
    Maybe the tour operators have a point!

    We had some unwanted visitors that night. Jackals, like the baboons in Golden Gate come in darkness and scavenge anything they can get at. We weren’t affected but a group of school kids who were sleeping under the stars had a torrid time as the jackals ran off with all their stuff and scattered it around the camp or worse took it into the bush.

    The next day was our last of the tour and that meant heading back to Upington, 160 kilometres away, 60 on gravel, slowly at first so that we could search for any game. But once again it appeared that the script had been ignored. We were all now thoroughly depressed and ready to give up.

    Suddenly by the side of the road Roland exclaimed “Lion”. Sure enough right by the roadside lay two male lions asleep under a small but shady tree. The lions of the Kalahari are meant to be amongst the biggest in Africa and sure enough after seeing them up close, I can see why. They were big! They didn’t really entertain us apart from one of them standing up, moving 5 metres and plonking himself down again with a heavy thud before going back to sleep. But we didn’t care we had finished on a high and all of us had a bit of a smile on the dusty journey back to Upington.
    Mind you I think Rolands smile was more one of relief than joy. He had, at the beginning, dangerously bragged about how much game we would see in the park and felt personally responsible for any success or failure. Not that he should have done. Game watching is a bit like trying to win at the races; you can study the form but in the end it’s pretty much out of your control.

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    A lion sleeps in the shade of an acacia tree in the Kalahari national park on the border of South Africa and Botswana
    A lion sleeps in the shade of an acacia tree in the Kalahari national park on the border of South Africa and Botswana

  • A sleeping painter in the Paseo de Marti, Havana

    In the midst of a city rich in culture and tradition lies the boulevard of Paseo de Marti, one of Havana’s icons. Also called the Prado, the boulevard, initiated in 1772 and completed in 1852, stretches a kilometre southward and uphill from Parque Central to the mouth of the harbour. Being the city’s most well-known thoroughfare inspired the erection of aristocratic mansions on each side. Remodelled in 1929, the boulevard is guarded by eight bronze lions and at night is given light by brass gas lamps topped with griffin-shaped globes.
    Most of the time it has a lot going on. Thronged on either side by artists of different genres it is also a part time playground for school children and adults alike.
    Obviously this guy had had enough of trying to sell his works of art and decided a siesta was in order.

    An art vendor asleep on the job in Havana's Prado
    An art vendor asleep on the job in Havana’s Prado

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