...and late to rise. That's my take on Swissy's modus vivendi.
I drove Mrs. TBF to the train station this morning at about 6:20 a.m. There was no traffic, very few apartment lights were on, and we made it to the train station in less than five minutes.
When we arrived at the train station at around 6:25 a.m., Mrs. TBF said, "...I wonder what I'm going to do for the next ten minutes to stay warm if my train isn't already at the platform." Ooops! Even though we've lived here for over five years, I still have that Chicagoland frame of mind that dictates that you allow plenty of extra time to get to where you're going in the morning because you're going to hit a wall of traffic as soon as you pull out of your subdivision. I keep forgetting that this is just not the case here in Basel.
We tend to go to bed between midnight and 12:30. By that time, most of the lights in the apartment building across the Birsig River from our building have been out for at least an hour or two. In the morning, when Mrs. TBF is getting ready for work at around 6:30 a.m., there's very little activity going on in the outside world (...except for the two businesses located right next to our apartment building...the only two businesses in Switzerland - Migros and Primus - that feel the need to begin working early in the morning, and exist, I'm convinced, for the sole purpose of waking us up!). In my opinion, the Swiss are a people who are definitely not lacking in sleep.
On a related note, I'm happy to report that my insomnia from the night before last ended up being an isolated incident. Mrs. TBF informed me this morning (...when she woke me up at 5:48 a.m., by the way!), that I was back to my somnambulist sawing of wood during the night.
Yours truly received a rather strong hint at 5:49 a.m. that fetching a cup of coffee would be most appreciated by the better half. I made a somewhat bleary utterance to the effect of "...it's not easy being me!", or some other ill-advised comment closely related to it. Upon returning with said cup of coffee, I was in fact reminded that it IS actually very good to be me.
You know what? It is!
6 comments:
I think couples go to bed earlier if they have kids. But really I never saw that while I was living in Switzerland. Almost all of my friends went to bed at least after 11pm and more like midnight.
What I noticed is the Swiss sleep in more than the people who have to start their early commuters. Again, this can be observations of people I know.
I'd say most people here in Vancouver go to sleep early and get up late. But then again, I think it all depends on what type of job you hold.
Funny. We go to bed "fairy early" - 11:00pm - but then start work around 8:15 and work through without a break untill 6 or 7 or 8 pm. I usualy havê "lunch" - if I don't forget about it - in front of my pc and if I^'m lucky, I'll have a real lunch break - with real food - onece a week (mostly every 2 weeks!
Sitll early to bed??
Mrs. TBF - Dx-Dave is one ahead of you! ;-)
When we went to England last month, I started bugging out because we were across the train station from a train that left, on the timetable, in one minute. My husband just strolled along and I am semi-running, then my husband says, "Where do you think we are, Switzerland or something?" The train left four minutes late.
Not to comment incessantly, but I forgot to mention that in Zurich those suckers wake up early. I get on the tram at 8am and it is empty, except for old ladies going grocery shopping. I get on the tram at 5:45am (what I had to do when I commuted on the weekends, coming back to Lausanne on Monday AM) and it is PACKED.
Maybe it's just me... I find that people start work here early as all heck. There are people in my department who are in the office BEFORE 7 AM EVERY DAY(not person, people). I guess they don't have the crazy commute so they don't have to get up so early, but they do make use of that time.... my way of using the non-commute is SLEEP. Sleep is nice. Sleeping is good. OK, sorry for ranting on you, I just get frustrated by what seems to be a country of morning people...
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