Strange hours

There are some hours when it is better to be asleep than awake. The majority of people would freak if they had to rise at 2am every day of the week; most would probably refuse to do so. Nevertheless, I am often happily sipping my first mug of coffee at such an hour, if not already immersed in my workday. I may live in Australia, but I very firmly retain Californian hours. Working self employed/freelance at home, you might think I would be much more likely to rise at noon or 2pm, than at 2am. However, 2am where I live happens to be either 7am or 9am in California, dependent upon which way the daylight savings has fixed it.

My strange hours do not cause many problems, because much of what occupies my daily life does not have to be done at a set hour, and I am therefore free to choose when to do it. However, on occasion I may have a guest staying or visiting. They are more than likely to want to keep regular and local time.

On one occasion, I was trying to explain that rising at such an hour helped in many ways. Firstly, there was little disturbance to distract my concentration for several hours, despite living in a city. Secondly, most of my jobs came from overseas destinations and if I had a deadline, it was usually lying at some point around 3-4am. Finally, I explained that having a lover and many friends in the States, it was usually easier to keep their schedule anyway, now that my son was a keep-to-himself teenager.

The friend I was explaining to just could not understand. Not being able to envisage using such strange hours themselves, they could not open their mind far enough to comprehend my doing so. It was just - impossible! In the end, I used this song and a smile to back my case. Being unacquainted with music from the Paradise Boys, my friend had no idea what I was talking about when muttering about 2am and quoting two lines from the song. It did however stop her from continuing to push against my chosen course with her conventionality. She gave up fighting against my weird ways, even if she never fully understood.