Do you have the time?

Do you sometimes observe someone doing something peculiar, or saying something totally out  of context, and you’re at a loss for words as to:

“What on earth is he on about?”

This morning Sunday 6 April, I was that “someone”. Possibly not for the first time, either. I have been told that I’m half-deaf, but I’m not listening to that sort or rumour-mongering. But, when an animal gives you “that look”, then it’s probably time to sit up and take notice.

The animal in question was Coco the Cat, awakening from his overnight sleep on my chair. He gave me that unmistakeable look as I walked into the kitchen to make coffee. The clock on the wall above the kettle read “07:43”  The rest of the family are late risers on Sundays.

“Hello, Coco.” I rubbed his purring furry body in a ritual feline greeting.

Kettle boils. Right. The water in the kettle boils, tea-bag and sugar in the coffee mug. I don’t do coffee early morning. Actually, I don’t do coffee at the moment at all. I just call it coffee, made with a tea bag.

I switch on the laptop, a customary habit – so that I can see what they’ve been getting up to in the world whilst I’ve been visiting Mr Sandman, perhaps even get to read an important email or two, now and then.

Gulp! I’d forgotten the clock before going to bed last night.

The computer is quite a wonderful device – it had changed automatically, and the little display on the taskbar bottom right, clearly reads “06:45” The phone has also followed suit. But the old-fashioned kitchen wall clock still says 07:45 – outside, it is far too light for 6:45

Coco the Cat is obviously in the laptop/ phone category when it comes to telling time. I am clearly not. Whilst we were snoozing, they gave us an extra hour by turning back the clocks an hour, as our grandfathers would have said. The sleepy-heads have been allowed to sleep an extra hour.

In new Zealand’s second time zone, namely the Chatham Islands the time-change was done at 03:45 because they are 45 minutes ahead of us using Auckland time. They are on CHAST (Chatham Island Standard Time)

To balance our books before Christmas, as it were, 28 September will  be the night where we get robbed of some sleep and clocks are advanced by an hour.

We are now in NZST (New Zealand Standard Time), also known as Fall Back or Winter time.

(Above): The Chatham Islands (circled in red), lie about 700 km east of New Zealand’s South Island.

The Chatham Islands form an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about 680 kilometres (420 mi) southeast of mainland New Zealand. It consists of about ten islands within a 40-kilometre (25 mi) radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island.

The archipelago is called Rekohu ("misty sun") in the indigenous language Moiori, and Wharekauri in Maori. It has officially been part of New Zealand since 1842, and includes the country's easternmost point, the Forty-Fours.