Sunday 30 March 2014

Greenwich Mean Time, Body Clocks and Seagulls

It is a well know fact of nature that all creatures have an internal body clock; it is what ensures that nature does not fall into a state of chaos and is a key feature in the survival of life on Earth. It is what allows birds to migrate at the right time, animals to have young at the right time and it dictates the work and sleep patterns of all life on the planet.  It is also a well known, OK slightly less well known, but true fact that the internal body clock of creatures on Earth is slightly different to that of the present length of a day and year.  This is because the planet is slowing down, OK I might be wrong maybe it is speeding up I can’t remember, but slowing down is more logical as it looses energy.  In short nature and life has adjusted to the natural cycle of the planet, in nature a seagull can not look at its watch and say OOOOOOo is that the time, I should be on the cliffs doing my courtship dance and stealing Puffin eggs.



However one creature on the planet is stupid enough to mess about with the natural cycle of the universe with clever mathematics and light bulbs so that it can pretend that it controls not only nature, but time itself. . . OK one guess which life form we are talking about. . . . . . Correct, us, mankind. Here we are all peering at clocks (unlike seagulls) or iPhones going Ooooo is that the time I must go shopping and buy some puffin eggs for my evening meal.  We now have twenty four hour shopping, working, or leisure and strawberries in the middle of winter (although in general they are rubbish).

Here in Britain we can proudly boast that time on Earth was standardised throughout the world and fixed to a line in the ground at Greenwich, so called Greenwich Mean Time. The entire world with the exception of a few countries such as Ethiopia who insist on working eight years behind everyone else (I have discussed this before)  now use the time as set by Britain.

So what did we all do in Britain last night at two in the morning, we moved all our clocks forward by one hour making today twenty three hours long and messing with my head and internal body clock. Oh yes typical, Britain has moved to British Summer Time and in doing so has shifted us one hour away from the time that every other country (almost all)  bases its own time on. This is typical of us Brits although ironically it has no effect on Seagulls.

I will suffer for days now and will be wandering about in a haze looking like an IDIOT shouting . . . . Where are my Puffin Eggs and probably getting told off as folk miss hear what I say . . . . .  


I even took a photo of a tulip that has opened up today as proof that nature does not need man made clocks.

8 comments:

  1. I know there is a word 'interregnum', so perhaps there needs to be a word to describe your new time period after the clock change. I would suggest 'inter-irregular-numb' without the hyphens, of course, so interirregularnumb.

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    1. The time change meant I even spelt Greenwich wrong, it just goes to show, although having said that I am rubbish at spelling . . . . .

      I may have Interirregularnumb Lag.....

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    2. I had noticed the improper Greenwich but I had enjoyed it. Author Truman Capote attended Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Connecticut and wrote for their school literary journal named 'The Green Witch'. I thought that Greenmich would have been axceptable for you as weLL, with the w & m being rotational cousins.

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    3. I just finished printing a shirt that had your Letter L design for AtoZ. I used an inkjet to heat transfer process. The color was a bit more of a blue shade but stiLL looked nice. I think my very light magenta ink is messed up in the ink set (out of 10 inks).

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  2. I think my seagull must be English. He is very confused today. Although in all fairness, he was confused before, because I live in the desert and he's a freaking seagull. Maybe he's not English. Maybe he's brain damaged.

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    1. If your sea gull lives in the desert he might be rain damaged.

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  3. I think this lady sums up time best of all. (don't worry, there's no swearing - but it is very funny indeed) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvpbW7JRu0Q

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  4. Yeah I had to get up at 2.30am because of that time change, isn't 3.30 bad enough? I was cranky and lost all day because of it. Next year I'm booking it off work.

    Obviously I don't mind in autumn when I get an extra hour in bed. It's OK then.

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