Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Lazing on a sunny afternoon


But what does it mean? I always thought I was doing ok with this self expression stuff, having mastered the rudiments of the English language quite a few years back (not meaning to boast, but I did win a highly commended prize in a newspaper competition for a short story about a gorilla at the age of 6)... however it turns out I don't know the difference between the Afternoon and the Evening.
I see Afternoon as 12.00 midday to about 1pm - it's kind of like after eight chocolates with me, that get consumed as quickly as possibly, but I will easily refer to anything that happens after 1pm as something to be regarded as taking place in the Evening.
Is this why I go to bed so early? As I start my evening's so early that I'm bound to run out sooner than most? What could be the explanation for this ruthless efficiency that I seem to display in getting through the Afternoon so fast? Or could I just be calling it wrong? and if so could I be wrong in other areas...? Surely not.

16 comments:

The Bug said...

You're funny :) I think of evening as after 5:00 p.m. Especially since it's 2:40 p.m here at work & I most DEFINITELY don't work in the evenings!

Niamh B said...

whereas I work 5 evenings most weeks!

Louise said...

Ah Niamh, you can't consider 2 o'clock as the evening??? I'm with The Bug, up to 5 is deffo still the afternoon. But look at it this way, it hasn't made a blind bit of difference to you, so more than likely, it shouldn't make a blind bit of difference to anyone else!

Peter Goulding said...

Doesn't make a blind bit of difference if its an afternoon, an evening or a hedgehog, so long as its sunny.

Dominic Rivron said...

12 till 1 sounds like lunchtime to me. I'm with Bug - 5pm onwards is evening. When it gets dark, it's night.

Domestic Oub said...

I'm sure it's evening somewhere in the world at 2pm... just not here.

General consensus - you're a bit mad. But like, not in a muttering to yourself on a bus mad. More endearing mad. Creatively mad?

Cork mad?

Yes, maybe that's it...

Niamh B said...

Thanks Socks, yeah not sure where it comes from, but true it hasn't, so far, ruined my life.
True Peter, Hedgehog starts early to me, about 7.15 to about 8.23 am, but I don't want to get into that whole debate.
So Dominic is lunchtime still part of the afternoon? It could be a language thing too - there's no Irish word for distinguishing afternoon from evening - there's just evening and early evening.
Good point Oub - on the time difference thing - maybe I'm just cosmopolitically in tune with other nations who are having their evenings at the same time. Or else it's Cork Mad striking... though no one else around here seems to be afflicted

Batteson.Ind said...

up here in the hills, evening can be any time after 12 noon! the other thing I've noticed is, no'one goes out of an evening, until it's night.. 10 pm or later.. basically, round here, mornings are 4am till 12noon, evenings are 12 noon till 9pm, night is from 9pm onwards.. or something! the magic road is on the Waterford side of dungarvan, and someone recently cut down the fairy tree there, which caused mass outrage.. an appropriate sapling was re-planted there so I think the magic road still works.. we live more on the Tipperary borders.. not far from the vee, and the haunted loch :-)

Niamh B said...

I agree with your definitions cats! I've been on more school and brownie trips to the Vee that I can count, beautiful spot.
That's mad about the fairy tree! Must test out the road again some time.

Titus said...

OMG! Evening starts at 6pm. Official. Write it down.

Morning: Midnight to Midday

Mid-morning: 10.30am, for some reason

Noon: Noon

Afternoon: Noon to 6pm

Evening: 6pm to 9pm

Night: 9pm to 6am. Which is also a bit of morning

Midnight: Feast time!

See, easy. Just off for a snack...

The Dead Acorn said...

Technically speaking, EVERY time is after noon; it just depends on which noon you're talking about. I have not hesitated to describe my goings-on as something I did "yesterday afternoon," while, in fact, it was 2:00 am. Evasive semantics? Surely. Life-saving? Just as surely.

Totalfeckineejit said...

It's quite simple really,Morning starts at the quarter past of the requisite hour of the third sector before the meridian between April and November, other days within the same parameters except of morning afternoon or evening of the post meridian ie afternoon or PM is earlier by two fifths in all other months except june (hosting the longest day)This mainly applies though with variable exception in the southern hemisphere unless it is a leap year in which case the sequence is reversed. For the Northern hemisphere or parts therein assuming there is not a full moon (waxus gibbous maximus)in all cases except two the 'proto'morning is classed as still being 'morning' or 'AM'- ie anti meridian in the second sector and parts of the third.If however they both converge on the same rotational axis in accordance with the Greenwich mean time then this is evidently still evening and morning starts finishing earlier than the beginning of the end of the late afternoon or in sequence with the onset of tidal fluctuations and the earths some what erratic orbital plane around the sun.

Totalfeckineejit said...

That's a rather brilliant pic of your dog BTW!

Niamh B said...

Titus! Never knew you had such fixed ideas?! lol
Dead Acorn, where would we be without evasive semantics?
TFE - the first 10 lines of that comment make so much sense you'd think they were pasted over from wikipeeeja but when I got to "morning starts finishing earlier than the beginning of the end of the late afternoon" I knew we were in proper TFE Territory.
And tks re the pic - of terrior territory...
:-)

Totalfeckineejit said...

It's all from wikipeejit.

Niamh B said...

the font of all wisdom