Hands off our GMT

Keith over at Zen Mischief - link at the top of the page - has posted about the advantages of not chopping and changing the clocks twice a year. The cost - if you add it all up across the country - must be huge. The clocks on our floor have still not been changed because the person who usually does it has been busy all day, and none of us are supposed to stand on anything to reach them - but don't get me started on rules and regulations!

All the people I work with say that whilst they like the light evenings having to persuade their reluctant bodies to get going at what feels like an hour early, makes them feel really awful for several days at least. Added to which, if you get up at 6.00am as I do, it has now gone back to being not completely light - which makes me feel worse though I had started to feel better because of the light mornings we were having.

What I want to know is how many accidents are caused by the change from light mornings to darkish mornings? Whereas if we'd carried on with GMT the evenings would have continued to get lighter and so would the mornings. I found out over the weekend - somewhere - that it was the Germans who first thought up the idea and that we've had the legal option to do it since the early 1900s - about 1907-08 I think. Must look it up again. I'm sure I read that Daylight Saving Time is 100 years old.

After 100 years then I think we deserve to say - there's no point to it - let's stick with GMT. Then we can forget all about feeling zombie like twice a year and get back to feeling normal. Maybe I'll write to my MP about it, having discovered a very good site - www.writetothem.com which will let you compose and send an e-mail to your MP, MEP or local councillor.

Let's back tradition and stick with GMT - we invented it after all!

British Summer Time

I feel like starting a campaign for sticking to GMT all year round. I can never see what good it does to change the time forward and back. I must say here the weather in my part of the world seems to have paid attention and it's bright and sunny after the rain and wind of yesterday, so a welcome change. It takes at least a month for me to get used to the change and I wander around like a zombie for the first few days every time. I suppose it's good for us - but I remain to be convinced.

I started reading 'In the Red: the diary of a recovering shopaholic' by Alexis Hall last night. Very fly on the wall and compulsive reading because of it. (Strange I don't like reality TV shows) I am also reading 'Indulgence' by Paul Richardson about his world wide search for the best chocolate - naturally he is a self-confessed chocoholic. I've just about finished Edmund Crispin's 'Holy Disorders' - an excellent example of the Golden Age of detective fiction. Reading it makes you realise how styles of writing have changed and how authors assumed a must greater education in their readers. I really need to read it with a dictionary in hand as there are several words I had not come across before and I consider myself reasonably literate!

I'm now off to read the Sunday papers on line - cheaper than buying the real thing but not quite as satisfying as curling up with a pile of newsprint.