It has only been in the last few years that I have finally managed to retain in my brain the whole shifting of time that generally happens twice a year. For years I struggled to remember when the clocks went forward and when they went back. Then I met a Canadian girl who told me she had grown up memorising Spring Forward, Fall Back as a child and no sooner had I heard it than it stuck, of course I had to remove all knowledge of Trigonometry to make room for those 4 words!
In case you are wondering when it is that the clocks change it us generally at 2am on the last Sunday of March and October. I’m not sure why 2am was the time chosen to make the change, it’s as good a time as any I guess.
In the UK we have been tinkering with time in this way since 1916 after intense campaigning by a builder named William Willett from Petts Wood in Kent. Willett first proposed the idea of British Summer Time in 1907 in his pamphlet entitled The Waste of Daylight. What he noticed was that the morning light of a Summer morning was wasted while people slept so by putting the clocks forward that lost time would be better utilised in the afternoon. Years after he started campaigning the British Government finally adopted the system a year after Willett’s death.
Personally I don’t mind the clocks changing, I just wish there was more certainty that the Spring really would lead us in to a sunny Summer, that would make Autumn and Winter so much more bearable. I really do value sunshine and think I would be a Royal pain in the ass (more than I am now) if I had to live somewhere like Iceland where it’s dark half the year;I’m sure the good citizens of Iceland are not too upset at discovering I’m unlikely to relocte Omneo Towers there anytime soon…
Of course the other good thing about Spring is it is a perfect excuse for clothes shopping. I know some people need no excuse for clothes shopping but as I have to keep a tight reign on my spending I more often than not try and match it to seasonal changes, this of course means Spring is where I’ll generally buy things that I will never wear because I liked the bright colours on the faceless mannequin that is 15Kg lighter than me and has more hair, even if it does lack a jaw, mouth, nose or eyes.
So far I’m doing OK. In the Lyle & Scott sale I managed to come away with only a polo shirt, a sweat shirt and a jacket. I did have some lurid pink and yellow polo shirts in my basket but by the time I got to checkout I’d given myself a slap and removed them; who was I kidding? yellow is not my colour, I’ve learnt this from experience!
