Tuesday 27 October 2009

Clock and Bull



Winter is coming. Brrr
I'm feeling a bit fragile today. This has nothing to do with a huge excess of red wine; it would be wretched and debauched to be suffering from a hangover on Tuesday. No, it's jetlag from turning the clocks back. Plus the sheer effort; there are no fewer than 21 clocks in my house, all showing a slightly different time. What a waste. Does my microwave really need to know it's 3:30 a.m. when it's heating up cold pizza to combat my munchies?

It's a strange time of year. We struggle home in the dark to the merry sound of schoolchildren bouncing off car bumpers. So what's the point? Apparently it's so that the last fourteen farmers remaining in Britain can have a bit more daylight. Obviously you can't buy tractors with headlights. Or at least you couldn't in 1916, when we started messing with clocks.

But what's really bugging me is this. Our cheap nasty Japanese car, used for trips to the dump, happily sets the clock from the radio. Unlike our luxurious British motor, which cost as much as a small house (admittedly nowhere you'd actually want to live). We Brits are no longer capable of practical things. So don't expect to see the clock-changing mallarkey stop any time soon.

There is one bright spot. ChrisProles reminds me that October 25th was also the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. Ha! Take that you Frenchies. We may not be able to build cars anymore, but we've got a really long memory.

7 comments:

  1. Ubergrumpy fails to take account of the fact that we are now on GMT which is THE marker from which every person on the planet takes their time. Makes you proud to be British! Mind you it was agreed in the mid-Victorian when we had a bit of clout. We might not be able to make cars but GMT stands proud! (wipes tear from misty eye - the one with the plank in).
    BTW Did you clock the goose bumps on that lady...

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  2. When did the cloicks change? How long has this been going on? Bloody Tony Blair.

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  3. I can remember when the clocks first went back. I was 5 years old and apparently they went back because we hadn't kept up the payments. There's a lesson in there about buying things on tick, I think.

    And does Mrs Ubergrumpy know about the Francophone tone of your most recent offering? Ah, I can remember when a Francophone tone was what you heard when you used a Parisian telephone kiosk ....

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  4. If GMT is THE marker from which everyone on the planet takes their time, why isn't this comment timed at 17:20?

    And another thing: I think I meant Francophobe, not Francophone.

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  5. So that's where there the pizza went

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