NOTHING good ever happens after midnight. Or so the wisdom goes. My younger self – who once went bar-hopping in New Orleans into the wee small hours and on another occasion stayed up until dawn to watch a magical sunrise over Sydney Harbour Bridge – would possibly disagree.
But these days I would argue that nothing good ever happens after 8pm.
Unless it is squeezing in an extra episode of cosy crime drama Only Murders In The Building before my pre-bedtime rigmarole gets under way (nothing very exciting; mainly popping vitamins and applying a vat of moisturiser).
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Then it is lights out by 10pm (although preferably 9.30pm). This is my polite way of saying please don’t invite me to go anywhere in the evening because I will only make it embarrassing for us all with a slew of outlandish excuses (alien abduction, being called away on a top-secret mission etc).
As a morning lark, rather than a night owl, “going out-out” (as folk seem to call it these days) rarely ends well for me.
For years, I attributed the groggy headache, crushing fatigue and general rubbish feeling the next morning to the ill-effects of a hangover.
It was only when I stopped drinking alcohol and realised that I felt every bit as awful the following day that the penny dropped. It was actually down to sleep deprivation and disruption to my circadian rhythm – the 24-hour body clock – from staying up past my bedtime.
Yet, being an early-to-bed hermit does have its downsides. The last time I danced was at 5.27pm on a random Wednesday, an impromptu kitchen boogie enjoyed in the interlude between straining the pasta and waiting for the Bolognese sauce to thicken.
Which is why I’m such a big fan of Vicky McClure’s latest brainchild. The Line of Duty star and her husband Jonny Owen have created a nostalgic club event that opens mid-afternoon and closes at 8pm.
Day Fever – a nod to the 1977 classic tune Night Fever by the Bee Gees – is a matinee-style disco that operates based on four key rules: 1. “Over 30s only”; 2. “Last entry is 5pm”; 3. “Get ya glad rags on” and 4. “No d***heads!”
The idea is that you dance the afternoon away, skip the worst chaos of the taxi queue/night bus hellscape and are still home in time to watch some Saturday night telly with a post-clubbing pizza or kebab.
After launching the debut soiree to great success at Sheffield City Hall in December, the couple are bringing Day Fever to Barras Art and Design in Glasgow this April (testament to the popularity of the concept, it has already sold out).
This has got me thinking about how nice it is to enjoy wholesome afternoon activities rather than feel obliged to stay out late.
In a similar vein, I recently saw an internet meme that extolled the need for more “run errands with me” friends.
It read: “No, I do not want to spend $85 on a dinner to catch-up. But I will go to Costco and an estate sale with you and then some tacos.”
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Which sounds exactly like my kind of day out. Let’s go to the library together and browse thrillers. Pick up dry cleaning and listen to podcasts as we eat snacks in the car. We can drop off packages at the courier return lockers, then head to a garden centre to peruse bedding plants and put the world to rights over coffee and croissants in the cafe.
Or do the weekly grocery shop, followed by a visit to the dog park and a leisurely rake around a few antique stores to unearth random curios.
Oodles of fun and still tucked up in bed bright and early. I highly recommend it.
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