British Summer Time

British Summer Time came into effect last night, so this morning we conducted the biannual ritual of tracking down all our clocks and advancing them by an hour. These days the average home is so full of electronic gadgets that adjusting for BST is in itself a time-consuming task. A couple of our machines are clever enough to reset themselves (the PCs, the video tape recorder), but most require manual intervention. Here’s a list (largely for my own future reference) of all our devices that require resetting:


Clock at London Underground's Acton Town station

Time was standardised in 1840 to provide reliable railway timetables

  • three wristwatches
  • bedside radio
  • three mobile phones
  • electronic barometer/thermometer
  • television
  • Polar heart rate watch
  • three personal organisers
  • digital camera
  • microwave oven
  • coffee maker
  • hot water/central heating timer
  • five “old-fashioned” analogue clocks

If I’ve forgotten any, I’ll add them to this list when they next surface.