CLOCKS GO BACK? WHEN? What to do, UK, USA and Co-ordinating

 In the UK British summer time ends the last Sunday in October. In 2024 that is October 27th.

SUMMER TIME SATURDAY

The clocks change after midnight on Saturday, so if you are in bed before 2 a,m, no problem.

Two in the morning is the change over TIME

WINTER TIME SUNDAY

When you get up in the morning some of your clocks may have updated themselves. In the UK my family's computers, laptops, mobile phones, and clocks on radio links had adjusted

 themselves.

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Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Old fashioned watches with the four teeny wheels had to be checked by hand. You might want to check your car clocks. Also we had to do the cooker and the microwave.

Portugal

Portugal, which is on the west of Europe, keeps the same time as the UK, including the British summer time changed forward and back on the same dates. 

EUROPE

The rest of Europe also keeps summer time and changes their clocks. However, France, Spain and the rest of Europe, being geographically further east, are an hour different.

Memory Aid

A good memory for when you change times and in which direction, is in American English. It is Spring forward, Fall back.

The clocks change over the weekend to minimize disruption to the working week.

How does this change affect your Sunday.? In the morning, if you went to bed at midnight nd got up at 8 am, you had eight hours sleep, but the clocks are re-set to seven so you have an extra hour in the morning. 

However, in the evening, when your body clocks says it is midnight, the clocks are telling you it is only 11 pm. If you  go to bed at your body clock time you will be tired if you get up at the clock time on Monday morning.

If it gets dark at 7 pm, yesterday (Saturday) in London or Lisbon, today Sunday the clocks are saying it is only 6 pm when it is getting dark in the UK and Europe from now on it gets light earlier in the morning (supposedly helping farmers) but dark earlier in the evening so we need the Xmas lights to brighten the streets for shoppers and drivers from November.

USA

America observes daylight saving time, except for the states of Arizona and Hawaii.

AUSTRALIA

The seasons are reversed. Clocks change on different days.

Please share links to useful posts.

Hot to be on time. Marking Your Diary - UK BST Clocks changing in October! Time now and time in other countries.

Clock from Toastmasters tips for success.

Don't get caught out. Have all the year's important time changes marked in your diary.

At 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October the clocks change in the UK.

 Remember the American mnemonic (Greek for memory aid): Spring forward, fall back. North America, the USA and Canada, Europe and the UK, and any islands on daylight savings time which co-ordinates

My UK diary marks, British summer time ends, but in very small print.

I have made a diary note of the time zones for 24 hours between the UK and Singapore. I could do the same for the US and the USA. Or any other two countries.  I found an unused page in January and write the two sets of times. Than on the front cover's inside page I noted where in my diary to find the time chart.

So many quotations talk about time.

Spring forward, fall back.

Time and tide wait for no man. 

Better late than never, but better never late.

Social Disasters: Be Precise About Dates - which day, day of the week, time and year?

It is easy to get confused over dates. Especially on a flight which leaves one day and arrives the next day. We missed dinner with friends on a Saturday night because we had a flight leaving London on Saturday and somehow failed to convey that we would be arriving in Singapore on Sunday.

Many years ago I missed a trip to Venice. To the wonderful hotel. A free trip. Why did I miss it? Because I assumed the flight went on a working day, a weekday, Monday, but it actually left on Sunday.

I arrived at Heathrow to find my flight was yesterday. Unfortunately, the PR was not understanding. I offered to pay for my own flight out. She was not interested. As far as she was concerned, I had missed the welcome dinner, embarrassed her, let her down, was unreliable. End of story.

For me of course it was not the end of the story. Every time I hear the word Venice I think of my missed trip.

It is no consolation to know that many people, worldwide, have missed trips and events. But at least I can do my part in trying to help myself and everybody else arrive the right day and the right time.

Why State The Year?
Websites often refer to an upcoming event without stating that it is this year. If you do a search on Google, up come several websites referring to last year or even as far back as ten years ago, or the most read site which might be the inaugural meeting 100 years ago!

When I am looking for an event, which might have happened last month, I am often looking for the date of the event next year so that I can plan ahead.

Which Weekday?
I find it really helps to have the day of the week and the year for every travel date and meeting date.

Oops!
I often receive emails about meetings and one of the recipients writes back to everybody, the sixteenth of November is not a Monday. The sender of the original email was looking at this month's calendar instead of next month's or even this year's diary for a date next year.

When Is 'Next' Saturday?

I wrote to a group in Singapore that we were meeting 'next Saturday'. A Singaporean told me I should have said this Saturday, because 'next Saturday' meant the following Saturday. 

I am sure anybody in London would think that next Saturday or next weekend means the nearest one and 'the one after next' means the following Saturday. However, I concede that her statement is more grammatically correct, less ambiguous, as well as avoiding any misunderstanding.

Are there any dictionary or classical or authoritative rules on this? It doesn't matter. The important point is to check and double-check every date, and give as much information as possible.

In the Polyglots webpage forum somebody raised the question of next September being understood as being this year, whilst next year was the following year. I replied:

Eddy, that's very interesting, bringing up months and years, which are more distant. I agree that next September would be the one this year. As for summer, I concede I might say, 'I can't see you this summer, but I can see you next summer,' as my Singaporean friend suggested. I also seem to recall a nursery rhyme, for a game supposedly predicting the future from folded paper: This year, next year, sometime, never.

Now let's move onto the question of times in other countries.

Clocks

How do you remember which way the clocks go from one country to another? How about the USA and UK and Europe. I remember that when Kennedy was assassinated, it was afternoon in the USA, but we turned on the TV in London, England, in the evening.

I remember that when we lived in Washington DC the latest we could phone my parents in London, England was when my son came home from school, and if my husband came home from work early. Depending on the time of year, for British summer time. I ended up writing a note above the phone of the hours in the USA when I could phone the UK.

Night Time Or Day Time
My most embarrassing moment was phoning the USA from the UK. I had received a Christmas card from somebody in the USA after my uncle died. No address on it. They had not bothered because he knew their address. I remember when I was a teenager you always wrote the sender's address on the back of a letter so that if the letter was misdirected the post office did not open the letter to try to find the sender's address. Nowadyas with security concerns, people are less keen on putting their address on the back of the envelope. But an address inside could be helpful.

Anyway, months later, I was reading through all the entries  in my late uncle's address book to try to distinguish the business addresses form the friends. Even the businesses had to be told he had died, so that they did not waste time and effort sending him reminders and offers. I came across an American address. That was it! The sender of the Christmas card. Maybe not, but I had the number so at least I could try.

I was so pleased to have solved the mystery that I grabbed the phone immediately to call whilst I had the number in front of me.

The phone rang for ages. I was disappointed, and had almost given up, when somebody answered. She sounded sleepy. I wondered if she was having an afternoon nap.

I told the puzzled woman at the other end, "You don't know me but I'm the niece of my late uncle Ronnie and I am sorry to have to tell you that he - has died."

After a silence, she said, "Ronnie who?"

"Ronnie from England."

She replied, "I am sorry to hear that your uncle has died. But I cannot recollect anybody in England called Ronnie."

"Ah," I said, Maybe you knew him by his professional name, Arthur."

"Oh, Arthur!" she replied. "Oh, no! I am so sorry. I am sorry if I sound a bit confused, but over here in California it is 4 am. And I was asleep."

I replied, " Oh my Go -sh. I hadn't realised. Shall I ring back tomorrow?"

"No," she said. "Let's talk. I am wide awake now."

Even if I had thought about the time I used to make calls to and from Washington DC I would have got the time wrong. America is thought of as a country, but it is actually a continent. Not only in terms of size, regarding population and politics. In terms of geography, the setting and rising of the sun, the time zones.


California, USA.

The USA has more than one time zone. People in New York might already be at work. People in California might still be asleep.

The moral is, check the time zone overseas, the country and the area, before you call.

24 Hour Clocks
I'll see you at nine could be nine in the morning or nine in the evening. To the speaker it seems obvious. To the listener it is no always clear. Many tickets use a 24 hour clock to avoid conclusion. This can cause more confusion if you just look at the last number and think that 14.00 if four o clock when it is 2 pm.

To be doubly safe, write down both systems, 14.00 hours (2 p.m.)

May you always arrive on time, on the right day!

Useful Websites For Travellers & Phone Callers
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/usa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_and_time_representation_by_country

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. Please share links to your favourite posts.