Today is Thursday, right? ... How do you know?

Maybe you know because it's your fourth day of work. Maybe you've been gearing up for an important meeting on Thursday. Or looking forward to lunch with friends. Or your cleaner comes today, or it's the day you pick up your dry-cleaning. Perhaps the TV series you've been following is on tonight.

How do you know it's Thursday without any of the usual social markers to guide you? And more importantly, how much proof does it take to convince you that it is Thursday when you think it's Friday?

Is this a hypothetical question? As usual, it is not.

At some point this week I lost a day. I'm not sure which day that was (because, obviously, I didn't realize at the time that I'd lost it). I've been sort of chuckling to myself when friends and family ask "What are you going to do this weekend?". It's a common question in normal circumstances. But these aren't normal circumstances, so my answer has always been "More of the same things I've been doing all week."

Since I've been here there's been as little distinction between day and night as there has been between weekday and weekend. If I feel like reading at 3am, sleeping at 3pm and going to the gym at 9pm, I do, or eating yogurt and toast at night and noodles in the morning, I will.

So into this slightly Alice in Wonderland existence steps an actual appointment. My friend is flying in from London and I'm meeting her at the airport. She arrives Friday. Which I thought, was convinced, believed wholeheartedly, was today.

How did I discover that I lost a day? I called my Mom this morning (having set my alarm at 8am to ensure that I had time to go to the gym before going to the airport). In the course of our conversation she said "I'll be at work tomorrow and Friday."
"Ha ha Mommy, tomorrow is your Friday". Being in the US, and twelve hours behind Hong Kong, it was her evening/my morning.
"No, honey, today's Wednesday."
I didn't believe her. Oh no, I thought, it's starting. My parents are getting too old to remember the days. This is a slippery slope. Next we'll be pinning their addresses on them when they leave the house. "It's Thursday Mommy, your Thursday, my Friday."
"No" she says with the patience that only a parent can have, "Today's your Thursday, my Wednesday."
Now this is an extraordinary conversation to be having with my mother, who spent the first several years of my move to London starting every conversation with 'Now what time is it there? Are you sure?'. "Are you sure?" I ask her now.
"Yes honey." Again, with the patience of Job.

Huh. The penny finally dropped. It explains a lot, like why my friend who emailed yesterday evening wrote 'You can call me tomorrow or Friday at the office.' I sniggered when I read the note, thinking he must be working too hard because there was only one day left in the work week. It also explained why my blog stats seemed so out of date (Only Tuesday's stats? But it's Thursday already! Must be because it's an American company and they're 12 hours behind).

The fact that I got the day wrong isn't really the point. The point was that I managed to explain away so much evidence pointing to today being Thursday, assuming overworked friends, parental forgetfulness and poor business practice rather than considering that I might be wrong.

Dangerous eh? So thank you Mommy, for saving me a trip to the airport a day early. Perhaps I should pin my address on myself before I go to meet my friend.