Spring forward, Fall back

Our clocks are going forward this weekend, as we head into British Summer Time, and I have always loved the mnemonic 'Spring forward, Fall back' as a way of remembering which way the clocks go at either end of the year. My husband used to have to get up at 5am, ready to start work at 6am, and he hated the extra darkness – especially as he loves to cycle to work as often as he can. Apart from saving us money, going in on his bike (a journey of about 14 miles) means that he starts his work day with plenty of endorphins. 

 He has been cycling to work quite regularly over the last few weeks, and because he now starts work at 8am, the dark mornings haven't been such a problem. He has effective lights, and always wears High-Viz cycling gear – and he also steers clear (pardon the pun) of major roads. For years now, there has been a bit of a grumble from him at the switch in time, but the change in his hours should alleviate that. I have never had a problem with the change of hours, even when I worked full-time. I would simply set my watch and clocks an hour forward as I went to bed, and then carry on as normal the next day. Having said that, there were two fairly memorable occasions when 

I forgot to set my clocks forward (I had a really good excuse for one of these occasions – more of that in a later post). The first was while I was still married to my first husband. We were due to drive down from London to Kent to a friend's engagement party. I had no idea what to wear, and rang to ask her – not realizing that it was still (in her mind, at least) 'stupid o'clock'. Oops. When we travel abroad, I set my watch forward as soon as the plane takes off, and go from there. Even when we flew to Australia in 2008 I seemed to cope, and didn't have any jet lag when we got there. However, coming home again was a completely different story!