Saturday 29 October 2011

That Extra Hour...

I hate the changing of the clocks. It irritates me - I honestly can't see the point. London is on the Prime Meridian, zero degrees longitude... all time zones throughout the world use Greenwich Mean Time as the baseline.

Monkeying about with the clocks each year so that we can have British Summer Time is pretty pointless. The guff about the changing of the clocks giving us an extra hour's daylight is complete rubbish - we have exactly the same amount of daylight as we would get without changing the clocks...

Another excuse is that the number of road accidents with children on their way to school in the early morning darkness is reduced. I wonder why the accident rate for children going home in the dark evenings doesn't matter?

It annoys me because, just as my body is adjusting to light levels in the summer mornings, I suddenly have my body rhythms interrupted by the jump forward. My body tells me it's 6am... but the alarm clock says 7am. Somehow or other the extra hour "gained" in the autumn doesn't seem to register in the same way.

As for moving the clocks so as to be on the same time zone as Europe, well, that's just crazy!

Ok, rant over. I just had to get that off my chest.

BTW, we return to GMT tonight, so the clocks go back an hour. I wonder if the kitties will try to wake me up for breakfast...

6 comments:

Joe @ Defend Us In Battle said...

Ok I am soooooo confused... half of the people I know say we switch clocks tonight, another half (plus my Catholic calendars) say it is next weekend.

Is there a difference between the UK And the USA in this? Ugh... so confused.

Mulier Fortis said...

There is indeed a difference - according to the Greenwich Meantime website, the US and Canada change from Daylight Saving Time at 2am on 6th November (ie. NEXT weekend) whereas the UK and Europe change THIS weekend.

Zephyrinus said...

" GIVE US BACK OUR ELEVEN DAYS !!! "

Mulier Fortis said...

Zephy, don't be childish!

john-of-hayling said...

how long do the kitties take to adjust to new feeding times?

Anonymous said...

I had three cats and it would take them at least two weeks to adjust to the new time. There is nothing so irritating as a cold nose in your face under the covers because Puddy, Vlada, and Miho were expecting 5:00 feedings instead of 6:00. My son and one of my brothers, who is a solid state physicist, never change there times. I am totally confused, as I am in Malta which has just changed and is one hour different from GMT and for one week or so , eight hours from the USA. Hate it. --It is for the golfers, I believe.

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