On time, and timing

How often do you think about whether you should be on time, late, or early? Do you think about it, or not really?

Here on Clove Island I often have to consider whether the event I'm going to calls for being early, on time, or late.

Recently, there was an English certificate ceremony that I was supposed to go to which was planned for Sunday morning. They agreed to start at 11, giving my team time to worship and study together before going to the ceremony. Then the invitations were issued for the ceremony: the time on the first ones was 8:30, the rest of them said 9:30. Students we asked claimed that the ceremony would start anywhere between 9 o'clock and 10:30. They were planning to be there by 8. Well, you can imagine my anxiety-- am I going to be late to the ceremony? That would be embarrassing, since they have teachers sit at the front! I checked again with the administrator and he assured me that they would try to have things ready so that things could start after we arrived at 11.

Well, we arrived at 11 to find everyone sitting in their places, the pre-ceremony music performance going down, and administrator and teachers gathered in a back room still organizing certificates. At 11:15 the ceremony started. As the ceremony started, I sat in front of a stack of certificates and started signing them.

So was I late? Was I early? On time? Or does that vocabulary just not work so well in the situation?

Normally, when deciding what time to go to an event, I ask myself a series of questions:
-- is it with people who are used to using exact times? (then it will start closer to the stated time)
-- is it a social event? (these tend to start a lot later)
-- is it a women-only event?  (these tend to start later)
-- who told me the time? Did they tell me the real time or the "invitation time"?
-- is it work-related, and not social? (maybe closer to the announced time)

But the best option is really to just go with a friend. Some events you know will start around 1.5 hours after the announced time. Others are only 15-30 minutes late.  If it's in your neighborhood, you can just listen for the loudspeakers of the event to tell when they're getting started.

And when all else fails? Be patient. For the most recent ceremony I went to, the invitation time was 2 PM. But they told us to wait until they call to arrive, because maybe it would start late. So at 4:45 I got the call, "We're about ready." The 2 o'clock event ended up starting at 5.