After working for much of the night on Sunday, I finally finished my work at 6 in the morning. Felt fine the next day, as I normally do after a night without sleep – it’s the second night that gets me zonked – just a bit slower than usual and unwilling to make much of an effort to do much of anything, including making lunch to take to work with me. Instead I ended up standing at the kitchen counter meditatively splitting a grapefruit into segments, which served as a refreshing, but rather meagre, lunch. Also, the juice leaked over all my belongings so I keep finding sticky patches on my computer charger, etc.
Other than that yesterday was a fairly quiet day: constantly busy, and I didn’t get out at closing time as I’d planned, but was delayed first by realising I’d missed an important email and had to edit the document in it, and secondly by a long wait for my pickup. I use the Careem app, which is the local equivalent of Uber, to get around Islamabad and while it is very convenient I do feel guilty about not knowing – and not trying to know either – what the impacts of it are.
It does feel both safe and convenient. When I used to come to Islamabad for work a few years ago, my options were to wait for my host to be done (or ready to go to work) and get rides; to call a limousine service or to take my luck with the decrepit black-and-yellow cabs which were notorious for kidnappings and hold-ups (at least a couple of people I know had experienced one or the other). I often did use the cabs, though nervously with much pretence of talking on the phone loudly to a powerful male who was expecting me, and the limousine service was both expensive and had to be booked a day in advance for hope of getting a car on time. So by comparison this is relatively reliable and far, far easier. I did ask the driver what he thought – he felt it was not a company on the side of either drivers or passengers, but at least they were very strong on passenger safety. So, who knows. Guilt remains and I keep using it still.
This morning I lingered in bed and got into the office an hour later than usual, and am also updating my blog. So clearly the tiredness hasn’t worn off.