I wasn't built to get up at this time

There's a Half Man Half Biscuit song... no, wait, come back! I promise this isn't another long boring post about bands and records you've never heard of and really couldn't care less about. Honest! Please, just give it a chance...

So there's a Half Man Half Biscuit song called Breaking News which begins like this...

"We’re just receiving reports of an incident at a farm in Sussex where a number of people have been arrested in connection with “Annoying The Nation”.

It is believed that the owner of the farm, a Mr. Hibbert, has been co-operating with Police and government officials in a plot codenamed Operation Less Pricks, and kindly granted the use of his seventeenth century tithe barn as a temporary holding place for those arrested. Although not confirmed, we are led to understand that those already charged include:

Bus drivers who don’t wait for people to sit down before pulling away from the bus stop;

Taxi drivers who use their horns instead of knocking on the door;

People who moan at the council about the streets being full of litter, not stopping to think that it is people who drop litter, not the council;

A room full of drama teachers listening to Bjork..."

And so it goes from there, listing in typical HMHB fashion every single annoying tosspot who was getting up Nigel Blackwell's nose on the day he wrote the song.

(Thanks to Chris at The Half Man Half Biscuit Project, a worthy endeavour if ever I found one.)

It's always nice to hear a long list of misanthropic gripes and sigh with relief that your own particular quirks and failings aren't included. Unfortunately, when Mr. Blackwell reaches the following item...

"A man who informs people that he gets up at six am every morning and seemed to want a medal"

...I have to hold my hand up, shamefully, and mumble 'guilty'.

OK, maybe not a medal. But a cake would be nice.

I was thinking about this the other night when driving home after 11pm - a time I'd normally be fast asleep (sporadic insomnia permitting). Here I was, out and about at a time I'd forgotten even existed. Since I started my early morning regime, if I'm not tucked up in bed by 10, I'm no good to anybody the next day. (Insert your own, yes, you know.) But it wasn't always the case...

Fifteen years ago, I lived and worked at entirely the opposite end of the clock. I got up at lunch time, went to work for 7pm, got home after 3am. Back then, 6am was an alien world. Hell, 6am didn't even exist. It's strange how you adapt to different schedules... and how you forget or kid yourself that the world doesn't really exist during the time you're asleep. OK, maybe not literally ceasing to exist - but I remember how shocked (even offended) I was when I started the early mornings to discover that the motorway was full of people even at that time. Because somewhere in my subconscious I secretly believed that everybody worked and waked the same hours as me - and I'd been certain that by getting up an hour earlier, I'd have a head start on them all and the roads to myself.

Still, even though I get tired and grumbly if I have to stay out after 9pm, even though I'm constantly moaning that bands should come on at 7.30 rather than 9.30 (not very rock 'n' roll, I know), even though I do seriously want a medal for the time that I get up... I do actually quite like my new hours. There was a time when even the idea of being up and about before 9am would have been anathema to me.

But what about you? What's your schedule like? Has it changed a lot over the years, or have you always been a morning or night person? What's your preference? Go on, your answers in lieu of a medal...