British Summer Time

It’s official – the clocks went forward last night (but it's hard to tell by looking out of the window - cold and grey). Somehow I missed the announcements on the radio, television, so we’re a bit behind ourselves today as we try to catch up.

The clocks change throughout Europe on the same day, though this hasn’t always been the case. I can remember there being a three to four week lag between the UK and mainland Europe, causing great confusion when trying to contact people – were we on the same time, or two hours ahead, or behind?

One autumn, a good many years ago, we went on holiday and totally missed the clocks changing because we used to avoid all radio or television, and we had no mobile phones in those days. The time apparently changed half way through our two week holiday and we spent the whole of the second week being mystified by the ways in which the rural community in France paid no heed to opening hours or general timekeeping. It wasn’t until we arrived at the port an hour early that we realised.

And now someone is going to tell me that the clocks changed in North America, what, about three weeks ago? It's finally dawned on me. I have a vague recollection that my sister said they were changing earlier than usual, and, when I’ve been looking at the traffic on here, I have been thinking you are all going to bed very early ….