Here but started There. So instead of being 11 hours ahead of Scotland, New Zealand is now 13 hours ahead. This morning should have been much lighter but I was rather upset to realise that it was still dark enough to had to put the lights on when I got up.
So it's alter the clocks morning. I used to have a list of them. Then I realised that many of the devices in the house alter their time automatically these days. The computers, cellphones, televisions, radios, phones, central heating, weather station, radio controlled clocks and probably other things I've forgotten about or take for granted all change automatically. That just leaves me with about six 'ordinary' clocks and my watches to alter manually.
It's a far cry from my youth when there was the living room and dining room clocks and individual watches to be wound and altered and that was it. Well apart from my early childhood when there was a weights driven clock in my bedroom (which wasn't as ornate as the one on the left).
Thinking about it our timepieces then were not only fewer in number but they were a lot greener: no batteries and they were repairable (and, I have to admit, far less reliable).
I think you mean NZ (and AUS) is ahead in time? You guys don't wake up until way way after us in the far far East.
ReplyDeleteOops. You are absolutely correct Carol. I have altered it. Correctly I hope this time.
DeleteMy dog doesn't wear a watch, and was therefore unaware of the time difference this morning. He was baffled that I was having my breakfast in daylight, and pestering to go for his walk at 6.15am.
ReplyDeleteCro you are obviously a man of consistency. My dog (if I had one) would live in a state of permanent confusion if he were to rely on my breakfast time.
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ReplyDeleteIt's a plot, Adrian, to keep the population under control. Your comment about doctors and Oz is apposite but I suspect it's not the daylight that attracts them! After all they could come up here to the land of permanent summer daylight and then go to Patagonia in our winter.
DeleteYes it's that time of the year and no doubt the news media will be full of dire warnings................200,000 school children and a quarter of a million cyclists set to die due to darker mornings. School teachers struggle to find their way to school in the dark. Badgers infect Tories with Bovine TB. Etc, etc. No doctors left to treat the victims as they have all buggered off to Australia as it is always daylight there.
DeleteI suddenly realised that I had my mornings and evenings muddled up. You were on the ball with your reply. No it's always sunny in Oz. I have seen pictures of them on the beach and very few folk sit on beaches in the dark. Well some do if they have a masochistic streak.
DeleteNice one Adrian. I missed that. It took me a while to see the change!
DeleteAdrian you're not going to believe this but I have walked along Coogee beach (south of Bondi) in the dark. It was wonderful.
DeleteGraham you have lived in Scotland for too long. Scots sit on the beach at all hours and usually in a biting wind and persistent drizzle. It doesn't mean it's sensible or enjoyable.
DeleteBriagha was up and about and waiting to be fed and walked one hour earlier - she doesn't go much on clocks anyway. So I was off to the beach for walks one hour earlier and in pouring rain and wind that was decidedly breezy.. Oh well - such is life!
ReplyDeleteWell, Spesh, at least it wouldn't have mad any difference if you had walked an hour later. It's still raining and it's almost dark this evening.
DeleteI always get confused about the lighter/darker mornings/evenings. I'm still not sure which is which. And why.....
ReplyDeleteFrances I think the original reasons and their justification have long since gone by the board. Heaven know why we persist. The way of remembering is "spring forward and fall back".
DeleteYes. I know that bit. It's the trying to work out whether the mornings or the evenings are lighter now. I'm still not sure. I've got the wrong kind of brain.
DeleteFrances how can one have the wrong sort of brain. No. Belay that. I don't have the sort of brain to write a novel. I take your point.
DeleteWe change time next weekend. You do have many time pieces. When I retired I quit wearing a watch. I never set the watch for time changes. I set 3 other timepieces .
ReplyDeleteWhen I stopped work in 2005 I took my watch off and only wear it on rare occasions now. However I still have several and keep them on time for when they are needed. Apart from anything else I am never without my phone which has the time anyway. I do always wear a watch when travelling though.
DeleteThe actual dealing with the clocks aside, I find it easier to deal with the change in the autumn than in the spring...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure which I find easier Monica but I certainly prefer looking forward to summer than winter. Having said that, last year (my first winter for 9 years) went so quickly I never got the chance to do all the 'winter' things that I'd planned.
DeleteGood heavens! You must have been rich when you were a lad Graham. Two clocks! We had a primitive sundial that my dad made from a rock and a stick. As for having a dining room and a living room, we only had one room - a former concrete coal bunker round the back of the vicar's place. He was very kind to the destitute. Once he even gave me a cornflake.
ReplyDeleteRich is a very subjective term YP. We were rich in that we never went hungry and had two clocks. Today you and I are rich beyond imagination compared with the majority of the world's population.
DeleteI've stopped wearing a watch in... let me think... the 1990s, and I don't miss it at all. At home, there is a radio-controlled alarm clock (which is never set to give an alarm, because I always wake up at 7.00 anyway) on my bedside table, a radio-controlled wall clock in my kitchen and the self-adjusting clocks on my mobile phone, computer and TV receiver. The only clock I have to adjust manually is the wall clock in the living room. That's my "train clock", always set to be about 5 minutes early, so that I never miss my train to work.
ReplyDeleteThe whole changing business twice a year is annoying and unnecessary. It has been statistically proven that it does not really DO anything to save energy etc. When I still had a cat, they were always insisting on wanting their breakfast at the usual time, and it took them a while to adjust to the new schedule.
Meike your comment was so in tune with what I would have expected from you: the most organised of people that I know. Like you, I have never needed an alarm clock although I do set my clock and phone if I have to get up before 5am for the early ferry: they never actually go off. I underestimated the number of clocks I have and forgot about my cameras (automatic) and car (manual) and garage/workshop (manual).
DeleteHow organised you are Geeb. I have noticed a persistant tendancy in this house towards having and doing less. Re clocks, I change the two walls clocks (quartz) and my watch. I know when the kids have been to visit because the microwave and oven clocks are set to the right time.
ReplyDeleteKate I completely forgot about the microwave and my oven is gas so has no clock. I'm afraid that my intentions of less have not really materialised.
DeleteI never wear a watch anymore and changing the clocks is Richard's job! :-).
ReplyDeleteKay I'm afraid that I'm both you and Richard in this household (of one).
DeleteI don't own a watch. It's years and years since I've owned and worn a watch. I have only one little clock beside my bed...and it is little. It runs forever on one AA battery. I bought it back in March 1998 at Woolworths in Mackay for around $10.00 or less...less, I think.
ReplyDeleteWe here in Queensland don't do "daylight saving time"...and I'm glad we don't.
Lee I own a number of watches which is silly in that I hardly ever wear one. I suppose apart from when I'm travelling the watch is simply jewellery. What a memory you have: March 1998. If you'd said March 1999 I'd have said that I was in Perth, WA. I might even have been correct. Queensland has just gone up immeasurably in my estimation for having no daylight saving time.
DeleteWe have a Cuckoo Clock similar to the image. But it needs winding each day so sits silent unless the Grand Kids come. Summer approaching?, hopefully? Not yet it seems http://www.metservice.com/national/home
ReplyDeletePeter mine was just driven by the weights which had to be pulled up each day. Hmm. Rather typical October/November weather in NZ from my memory although after a Hebridean summer my NZ Hawkes Bay arrival was always an into a generally warmer situation. I miss that.
DeleteMany years ago, some bigwig in the government thought it was a good idea to have DST here on the island...that soon became a thing of the past...thank goodness....not necessary for this neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteMy dad built a grandfather's clock which he would "wind" every Sunday morning....when he finally showed me how to adjust the weights carefully it became my job after that....a job that I looked forward to and now that I've written this it has brought back many memories....I need to write a post about my dad and his clock.
Virginia at least you've had one sensible government decision. A post on your Dad and his clock would be good.
DeleteWell Adrian I have had Christmas dinner on Coogee beach, which I admit isn't the same at all as wandering along in the dark! Graham, you must have something of an obsession about time, or else a deceptively large house with several timepieces in every room? Or a clock collection?
ReplyDeleteOf course, Jenny, the dark on Coogee beach is relative in that the sky was dark but there's still plenty of light from the surrounding area.
DeleteHaving written the above I had a think about how many clocks I actually have. Realised that there are two in the bedroom for a start. Good grief, we are all obsessed with time!
ReplyDeleteAnd, Jenny, a lot of clocks and an obsession with time I suppose in a way I do. I don't wear a watch and am not constantly looking at the time (consciously) unless I have an appointment or am meeting someone. However I am obsessed with not being late so I suppose there is a link. There always seems to be too little time as well. On the subject of clocks I was very surprised when I realised exactly how many I have in the house. There is at least one in every room and if you add things like the clocks on all the static equipment (i.e. not computers and gadgets) from the central heating to the phones then I have just counted 15 off the top of my head and I'm sure I'd find more if I tried. It's a far cry from my childhood.
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