Hm… I’ve just noticed that the clock just skipped an hour. It’s that time of year again when we lose a precious hour of our lives!
But at least it’s ‘officially’ summer now… and the evenings will be lighter for longer! So that’s all good.
This daylight saving time thing sometimes makes me wonder. How come not all places do it? Britain, Ireland and (most of) Europe do it, also America and some places in Canada. But why not others?
Another thing is time zones. They’re so irregular it’s weird. Like, Britain’s time in GMT, but France is an hour ahead, even though France is directly to the south. I’ve read that France used to use GMT, but when they were occupied by the Nazis, it changed and then the French never bothered to change it back. And also, when in China and cross to border to Afghanistan, you have to set the clocks back by three and a half hours.
Three and a half hours? That’s just taking the piss, that! Imagine living by the border and you thought you’d just pop over the border to have a cup of tea or buy the local paper… and then to find out they’re closed because they’re hours ahead. But not that it may be possible to do that there; I don’t think they have such a thing as Schengen in that part of the world.
And it’s not even darker there, either. So if the sun sets at half past six in that part of China, then it’s sunset at 3 o’clock in Afghanistan?
And there’s this place in Alaska that has two sunset on one(?) day of the year. On the 9th of August, a sunset happens at the early hours of the day, and then they set the clocks back, and then there’s another sunset towards the end of the day. They celebrate it, too. Seems awesome. I think I’ll have to see for myself one day!
But why are the clocks being set back and forward an hour? Apparently it’s because of working hours. For some people who have crappy jobs in offices, they find it depressing to go to work early in the morning when it’s dark, and then come home in the late afternoon as it’s getting dark. So to reduce the depression and suicide rates, maybe they thought to go in early-ish when it’s lighter, and then go home when it’s aaages till dark! I think that’s the reason. Could be more reasons, which are more plausible than that theory… but I’m not going to search for them!
And one thing that annoys me about the changes, is that I have to change the clocks everywhere. On my phone, I set it to manual, because when automatic, it decides it wants to be somewhere else and change timezones. And in my car, the buttons are awkward and I'm guaranteed to screw it up and press too hard or too many times so that it goes too far, meaning I have to go over it again and possibly run the risk of buggering it up again!
But at least it’s ‘officially’ summer now… and the evenings will be lighter for longer! So that’s all good.
This daylight saving time thing sometimes makes me wonder. How come not all places do it? Britain, Ireland and (most of) Europe do it, also America and some places in Canada. But why not others?
Another thing is time zones. They’re so irregular it’s weird. Like, Britain’s time in GMT, but France is an hour ahead, even though France is directly to the south. I’ve read that France used to use GMT, but when they were occupied by the Nazis, it changed and then the French never bothered to change it back. And also, when in China and cross to border to Afghanistan, you have to set the clocks back by three and a half hours.
Three and a half hours? That’s just taking the piss, that! Imagine living by the border and you thought you’d just pop over the border to have a cup of tea or buy the local paper… and then to find out they’re closed because they’re hours ahead. But not that it may be possible to do that there; I don’t think they have such a thing as Schengen in that part of the world.
And it’s not even darker there, either. So if the sun sets at half past six in that part of China, then it’s sunset at 3 o’clock in Afghanistan?
And there’s this place in Alaska that has two sunset on one(?) day of the year. On the 9th of August, a sunset happens at the early hours of the day, and then they set the clocks back, and then there’s another sunset towards the end of the day. They celebrate it, too. Seems awesome. I think I’ll have to see for myself one day!
But why are the clocks being set back and forward an hour? Apparently it’s because of working hours. For some people who have crappy jobs in offices, they find it depressing to go to work early in the morning when it’s dark, and then come home in the late afternoon as it’s getting dark. So to reduce the depression and suicide rates, maybe they thought to go in early-ish when it’s lighter, and then go home when it’s aaages till dark! I think that’s the reason. Could be more reasons, which are more plausible than that theory… but I’m not going to search for them!
And one thing that annoys me about the changes, is that I have to change the clocks everywhere. On my phone, I set it to manual, because when automatic, it decides it wants to be somewhere else and change timezones. And in my car, the buttons are awkward and I'm guaranteed to screw it up and press too hard or too many times so that it goes too far, meaning I have to go over it again and possibly run the risk of buggering it up again!
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