On Sunday Mrs Bob went on another one of her excruciatingly long charity walks. Last time she did this, you will recall, she walked 55 kilometres in the Oxfam Trailwalker 2014. The walk this weekend though was just a mere 35 kilometres.
It started at Woody Point…
Then across the Houghton Highway, a road that I have only ever driven across…
But as you can see, this road/bridge has water on both sides, so it’s probably quite a pleasant walk. They then went through Brighton…
Sandgate…
Before heading inland towards Ascot and in particular, Crosby Park. As they approached the final straight, our collection of daughters ran to greet them…
These wonderful daughters then encouraged the mothers to sprint the final 500 metres and they all ran straight past me before crossing the finishing line…
It may have been a shorter walk, but it was every bit as gruelling as temperatures topped 30° C. It could have been worse; temperatures maxed out at around 36° C today. This post isn’t about another charity walk though, it’s about early risers in Brisbane.
Early risers in Brisbane
The walk began at 7 AM from Woody Point, but the organisers wanted those participating to arrive one hour before the start, so everybody had to be there by 6 AM. It’s about an hour’s drive, so that meant Mrs Bob and the other girls had to leave at about 5 o’clock in the morning, so as you can see, they all had to get up very early indeed.
This event also clashed with another event.
The Brisbane Schools Music Festival
Elizabeth plays clarinet in the school band and on Sunday it was their first ever concert outside of their own school; it took place in Centenary State High School in Jindalee.
Elizabeth and the band members were due on stage at 9:20 AM, but the organisers wanted those participating to arrive one hour before the start, so we had to be there by 8:20 AM. It’s about half an hour’s drive, so that meant Elizabeth and I had to leave at about ten to eight in the morning, so as you can see, we had to get up very early indeed as well.
Well, it’s ridiculously early for me, especially for a Sunday, as I am without doubt a night owl.
The joke is though that there were five bands on before Elizabeth’s school had their turn, so some people would have had to have got there by 7:30 in the morning.
So it struck me this weekend, with these ridiculously early events, that maybe as a night owl I could possibly be living in the worst place in the world. Everybody here in Brisbane does seem to get up extraordinarily earlier than most.
More early start examples
Even when Elizabeth plays netball on a Saturday the games kick off at 9 AM and yes, she has to get there half an hour earlier than that and it’s a half hour drive. Hers is not the first game either, they start at 8 AM.
When we had air conditioning fitted the other month, the contractors were knocking on our door at 6:30 AM to start work and they were gone by 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Most tradie’s seem to work those early hours.
I once ordered some fencing off of a guy who lived more than an hour’s drive from me. He insisted on making the delivery at 6 AM at my house.
6 AM!
That meant he was getting up at something like 4 o’clock in the morning. The day before he was due to turn up I realised I needed one extra corner bracket, so I called him at about 6:45 PM, he picked up the phone and said…
“Mate, what are you doing? You’ve woken me up!”
Yes, he was already in bed.
So, surely the people of Brisbane are the earliest risers in the world and it really is the worst place for a night owl like me to live?
Remember my post Australia, UK and USA Price Comparison: Fitness Trackers?
Well, the people who make the Jawbone fitness trackers have answered my question.
Brisbane earliest risers in the world
One of the things a fitness tracker does is monitor peoples sleep patterns and information from over 1 million users has been fed into the Jawbone system. Admittedly they only crunched numbers from 29 different countries, so is not the definitive answer, but they can answer this question more accurately the most.
And in August of this year they announced that the people of Brisbane go to bed earlier and also get up earlier than anywhere else in the world.
Apparently, those who live in Brisbane go to bed, on average, at 10:57 PM and get up at 6:35 AM.
Here are some more ‘get out of bed’ times from around the world:
- Brisbane 6.35am
- Perth 6.45am
- Sydney 7.01am
- Melbourne 7.16am
- Tokyo 7.17am
- London 7.31am
- New York 7.33am
- Paris 7.56am
As you can see, it’s not just Brisbane, but those in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne also get up quite early as I imagine the whole of Australia does, it’s a country dominated by morning larks. The people of Paris get up substantially later, but those who get up the latest, according to Jawbone, are the residents of Moscow.
They don’t get up until 8:08 AM but they also go to bed the latest in the world, not hitting the sack until 12:46 AM. My mate the fencer has already been asleep for at least six hours by that time!
So it would appear that Brisbane really IS the worst place in the world for me to live as a night owl. Maybe I should move to Moscow?
BobinMoz?
Nah, it’ll never catch on.
Sources: Jawbone and The Courier Mail
