But waking up is hard to do. It probably takes me about an hour to properly wake up, which is why I have a routine so that I can do things on autopilot. I generally pack my bag the night before, too, as I'm likely to forget things in my dawning phase.
There are very few things for which I will wake up early. Travel is certainly one - there's nothing like an early dash to the airport (or, less glamorously, to the bus station in Armidale at 3.20am). Work I will tolerate, but only if it means I can finish something. And, it seems, art excursions.
Due to an error involving a flight back from Brisbane the night before and a one-hour time difference, I missed my name on John Baldessari's Your Name in Lights for Sydney Festival, which was at the fairly civilised time of 12:23:40am on a Sunday morning. So I submitted my name again, and a few others. The time came back 5:53am on a Saturday morning.
I decided to hand the decision to my boyfriend. I rang him: "What are you doing at 5:53 tomorrow morning?" "Um..." "Would you like to go on an excursion with me?" His answer would determine whether we would. "Okay. What is it?"
So I woke up at 4.30am, caught the first train (4.56am) from Artarmon to Town Hall and found myself staring up at the side of the Australian Museum at 5.30am, and arranged my photographic equipment. Here is the result:
Then I heard that Sydney Festival were after more names for the final weekend of the event, so I put in my family's names, hoping for a better timeslot. It came back: 2.28am Sunday morning. Sigh. There was only one option: stay out all night and catch the 3am Nightride home with all the drunks. At least it didn't involve waking up early.
