Shortly after moving into my new place, I realised that I needed a wall clock for the living room. I had my old faithful electronic one in the kitchen, but the only way I had to tell the time in the room I relaxed in was by putting my book down and turning on the computer.
So, I went to Ikea, where I found one for €1.99.
After mounting it on the wall, I got confused due to the fact that it has a 12 hour face. All the other clocks I’ve in the 10 years I’ve been in Europe have been electronic ones using the 24 hour clock, so regressing back to the 12 hour clock confused me.
I knew that I went to bed around 23:00 on work nights so at first it didn’t click that I should go to bed at 11:00.
And then there was the time a couple weeks ago that I finished work one day at 14:00 due to my evening classes cancelling because the students were on holiday.
I hadn’t slept well the night before and was very tired, but determined to stay up because I generally don’t sleep well if I take an afternoon nap.
I got home at 15:00 and fell asleep around 16:00 in my armchair, waking at 7:00 (according to my new wall clock).
Then the panic happened.
I wondered how I had slept in the armchair for 15 hours and how fast I’d have to move to get to my 7:30 class without being too late.
‘Skip the shower!’ I yelled to myself.
‘Forget tea and breakfast!’
‘Run upstairs, throw on the first work clothes you see and drive like a bat out of hell [my class was in an outer district of the city]!’
It didn’t occur to me til after I flew up the stairs to the bathroom and was about to start shaving that it was 19:00 (7pm not 7am) according to the digital clock there (at this time of the year it’s very bright here at both 7:00 and 19:00).
‘OH!’ I thought to myself and strolled back downstairs to burn the new wall clock for a cup of tea.
Posted by: J
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