Back in Time

~ tidalscribe.com

With real humans visiting I have not spent much time in the blogosphere, but luckily I have an extra hour this weekend… and time for a tiny tale…

Back in Time

   It was Edward’s second favourite night of the year, staying up till 2am to watch the changes and do the alterations. An ancient ceremony to be revered, conducted for over one hundred years.

Edward’s home was analogue and digital, flashing on the cooker, ticking on the wall; a grandfather clock and his grandfather’s pocket watch he used to joke and promised he would leave his grandson the first digital watch he saved up £50 to buy…

Watching the time on his iPhone change, alert to see if this time it would change at 01.59 or 02.01 but it never let him down. Clambering up the folding steps in several rooms… adieu BST welcome back GMT. His son said he did not need a clock at all, let alone his horology collection. After all, he had the time on his smart phone and Fitbit, so he did not need to risk life and limb, especially to reach the grandmother clock high up in the stair well.

The night the clocks went back, changing from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time, would be no fun without his beloved clocks. He was never ready for sleep after all the excitement and anyway, everyone was getting an extra hour in bed. He would go on the computer and check the time in other European countries changing their clocks.

He could not lie in for long in the morning as he always went round to his sister’s house for breakfast; more clambering on wobbly steps to change her clocks and the all important reconfiguring in her bedroom. He had bought her one of the first digital radio alarm clocks and after all these years she still had not figured out how to change the time.

Of course Edward’s favourite night of the year was when the clocks went forward in spring.

Facetiming is tricky at this time of year when you are talking to other countries, even other states, let alone other hemispheres. Some change, some don’t, not all choose the same weekend. If and when are you changing your clocks? More importantly, are you gruntled or disgruntled with the whole procedure?

34 thoughts on “Back in Time”

  1. Unlike Edward, I think it’s astonishing that much of the world persists in this twice a year ritual. There’s been talk for years here in British Columbia about ending it, but so far no luck. One province (Saskatchewan) has never had it, and one territory (Yukon) is now on permanent daylight time.

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    1. Yes it is strange Audrey, especially when states do things differently. Some states in Australia tried it then ditched it. Whatever we do with the clocks, one thing’s for sure, by the middle of winter people who work indoors will not see daylight!

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      1. That’s true, Janet. I remember leaving the workplace at 4:30 pm at the beginning of November just after the change back to standard time and being surprised by how dark it was. But of course by mid-December it was normal.

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  2. When my daughter lived in New Zealand I had no problem remembering that they were exactly 12 hours ahead of us, except for the weeks we changed clocks. They did it a week (or was it two weeks?) after we did (or was it before?) and that really used to confuse me.

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    1. Hello Cathy, yes I could cope with twelve hours. When my sister in Perth says 5.30pm I always have to work out what time in the morning. They don’t change their clocks so its just 7 moving to 8 hours they are ahead now.

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  4. Here in the United States, we’ll be setting our clocks back next weekend on November 2nd. Since most of my devices switch automatically, I don’t mind the twice yearly changes, though they sometimes disrupt my sleep patterns.

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  6. I certainly get irked by some of life’s annoying quirks, but this has never been one for me. I get that it really throws some people’s sleep cycles off, but I’ve never understood how worked up some people get about changing their clocks. There are plenty of other irritating things that bug me far more.

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  9. I no longer wear a watch, and we don’t need alarm clocks. I have never set the correct time on the cooker, so the only time I have to change is on the microwave, which takes seconds. The hearting/water clock self-adjusts, as does my phone, tablet, PC, and car clock. I hate the time change to the darker afternoons, and wish it could stay at one or the other. (Preferably lighter afternoons/evenings.)

    Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. Next weekend, the US will add to what I feel has been our long legacy of stupidity by having to adjust our lives back an hour from what we’ve been used to since March. This is one of those things where it seems everyone I meet or talk to says we should just settle on one year-round time setting, and plenty of politicians all call for it to change when it happens…and it never changes. And it never will. And it is stupid. (Thank you, Janet for the space to go on this rant!)😁

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