"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once"

Quiz time again. Try and guess who is credited with the quotation I've used as the title of this entry. Answer at the bottom.

Thought I'd make an entry on the subject of time. Chances are it will go off at a tangent to tell you about an unusual bus journey I had this morning, but we'll see how things pan out.

I never really thought I'd get used to the time difference. I remember when I came to Malta for a three week stint near the start of the year I was constantly converting my watch back to UK time in my head. Time for sleep, time to get up, time to eat - everything was being done at the moment I would have done it in Southampton. Of course I was still on Hampshire time for work anyway so in many ways that made sense.

This time though, I seem to have adjusted to the difference relatively quickly. Ok, it's only a sixty minute switch and yes, there is no English office to work along side, but I don't find myself converting the hours anymore....

..well that's not strictly true. I do catch myself out on occasion. If I know there is soccer on the telly I always sit down to watch it an hour early by mistake. Saturday afternoon games are still 3pm to me, not 4 and my brain tells me the midweek European games start at 7.45pm, not 8.45.

Ok, I knew I'd get onto the bus journey story one way or another. For the past two weeks we've been experimenting with 6am starts, and in return the late finish is brought forward to 10pm from 11pm. Covering the office 7am til 11pm was a direct result of the UK office hours which were 6am until 10pm. (Are you following this?) So now it was time to go back to 6am until 10pm, but on Maltese time. Good God I'm confusing myself now!

Ok, so this morning was my first attempt at getting into the office for 6am. Remember that's actually 5am if you're on UK time. I knew there was one bus line that started it's service at 5.30am, came through Sliema and went past work, so it should just get me there ontime. I'm waiting at the stop at exactly 5.30am and after about 15 minutes of waiting the bus arrived. (not waiting in the cold as you might expect either. I had shorts and a light summer shirt on and that was perfect for the temperature)...

...here we take one of my usual sidesteps. The route the bus takes is to begin in an area called Paceville, through a baytown called St Julians, onto Sliema to pick me up, next it's Pieta (where I get off) before it heads onto the depot at Valletta. All you need to know about those places is Paceville is the main area for the whole of the island to go for a night out. It's a small place, but every building is either a bar or a night club (or both). IT's also packed with fast-food outlets and more neon than the Las Vegas Strip.

..Ok, so this bus has set off from Paceville at 5.30am, pulls up at my stop and I get on. For that time of morning the bus is surprisingly busy and the first thing I notice is an overpowering smell of stale alcohol. As I pay the driver and look down the bus, all I can see is a crowd of deshevelled men and women, slumped over chairs and each other, hair all over the place, make-up smeared, true 'party animals' who've partied a bit too hard over the weekend. Ah, but that makes sense of course, clubs and bars would finally kick out the stragglers at about 5am. Most of them probably not in a position to pay the extortionate cab fares, just hang around until the buses start up again. I was basically on what we'd call 'The Night Bus' in the UK. I sat next to an older lady on the front row. I don't care if I am supposed to give it up for the disabled and elderly, I wasn't going anywhere near the rabble at the back. I was getting drunk on their breath as it was!

But I arrived at work at exactly 6am, so as far as the experiement goes, it will be possible for us to run the office 6am until 10pm....

...but I dread my first 6am start on a Saturday or Sunday when the REAL party animals are dragging themselves home!

ANS: Albert Einstein