Life in England

You Spring forward and Fall back
- My brother trying to figure out if he was getting more or less sleep on Saturday night

The clocks turned back on Sunday morning at 1am which means British Summer Time is officially over. We are now two hours behind South Africa as opposed to one hour. To answer my brother's question - we got one more hour of sleep on Saturday night.

The most discernable change is when I catch my train. I catch the 7:14 train and a week ago it was cloudy and dull at that time of morning. This week it is sunny and bright because the sun has been up in the sky for an hour longer (basically, it is as bright and sunny as it was at 8:14 a week ago. Confused yet?

It is also colder. I believe it is because the sun has had a chance to burn off the layer of cloud and we are left without that blanket of cover, so to speak. I always tell people how icy Johannesburg winters are because the sky is a crystal blue colour and without cloud cover, temperatures drop to icy conditions. Of course, the tilt of the earth will always exceed lack of cloud cover and in the months to come, the sun will hit England at such an oblique angle that it wouldn't be able to burn away the cloud cover anyway.

The most exciting thing for me is that Sunday marked the beginning of Winter in England.  I absolutely love winter here.  I find winters full of bright colourful lights, fireworks, costumes, gifts and cheer.   I believe my love of winter was programmed into me from when I stayed in England until I was 9.  I never got used to the dry, icy, still and yellow winters in Johannesburg.  Of course, the winters in Johannesburg were always followed by a summer and the same can't always be said for England!

In six weeks time, Ste's parents are arriving from South Africa for a holiday.  We are going to take a road trip and visit Stonehenge, Bath, Liverpool, Manchester, York and Grimsby.  I'll update in more detail about that soon.  Any suggestions as to what we can do on the way back down to London from Grimsby?  We like castles, monuments and old stuff.