Daylight saving is a bastard

Every 6 months I ask myself the same question, 'What is the point of daylight saving?' I can't fathom it out. I've heard many different theories as to why we still put the clocks forwards and backwards in Britain, but none make sense. After all, it's the sun that dictates how many hours of daylight you have in a day, not tinkering with your watch. Give the farmers more daylight hours? Hmmm. As we live in a northern isle, the daylight hours fluctuate dramatically over the course of the year. In summer it can get light at 4am and dark at 10pm, so what's the big deal about the winter, without putting the clocks back it would get light at 9:30am instead of 8:30am and dark at 5:30pm instead of 4:30pm (personally I would prefer a lighter evening over a lighter morning). I was in Lapland a couple of Xmases ago and it got light at 11am and dark at 2pm, it was no big deal, that's just the way it is. Ok, the locals were all as mad as reindeers, but hey, that's what made the place interesting.

I think I am like some farmyard animal, I just get all confused, and it ain't just me. I have been following the Moto GP with great interest all year and was looking forward to yesterday's climax. It's the first time in 7 years that the championship would be settled at the final race. I couldn't watch it live as I had to visit relatives, so I set up the recorder to catch the action. On returning home last night at 5pm, in the dark, I dispatched the wife upstairs and settled down to watch the race. Hitting 'play' I was greeted with tennis, so I skipped forward a few chapters. Tennis, tennis, tennis, DVD runs out. WTF? I then twigged, my DVD recorder doesn't automatically adjust the time when the clocks go back, so I missed the race. Excellent.

The clock next to my bed seems to add on about 15 seconds every day and is currently about 20 minutes fast. That's ok, I've got used to it and as it's fast, I know I can have an extra 5 minutes in bed here and there and I'm still early when I eventually get up. Subconsciously in my sleep last night I knew that something was up. I woke up every half an hour and was doing mental arithmetic trying to work out what time it was. Ok, it's not that complicated when you are awake, but when you are in and out of sleep, simple tasks of seeing number, deleting one are like trying to understand 'A Brief History Of Time'. Now I have to try and figure out how to set the clock or else I'm going to go through the same trauma tonight.

None of the above would have happened if wasn't for this pesky daylight saving.