Annual Adjustments

"C'est aujourd'hui le 1er Octobre", the teacher wrote on the blackboard.  She then read it aloud - I can remember it now - and explained that this was the day when pupils at all French schools returned after the long summer break.  I've no idea whether this is still the case but it certainly makes a lot of sense that the whole nation operates in unison in this way ... as any parent with children at school in different counties will agree.

Whether or not, it's certain that the start of October marks a significant turning point in the year.  Evenings are becoming dark earlier; by the time I've had my evening meal and washed up, I need a light to see my keyboard.  Mornings have already become dark.  We have a weekly church breakfast at 6.30 on Mondays and for several weeks we have arrived in the dark; we now have to leave for work or home afterwards also in darkness!

And there are cold bursts, too.  The other morning I woke up aware that I'd not been properly asleep for some while.  I realised that I was cold and, with several hours before 'getting-up time', I was forced to dig out a blanket to throw across the bed to afford any possibility of further sleep.  It used to be a tradition that there was no heat in school until the start of October; this discipline is one that has followed many into adulthood, me included.  I remember giving way soon after the start of last September, but I did stick it out until Tuesday this year, and a resolve that it was still not really required - accompanied by a Wednesday switch-off - didn't last and it's now on again ... this time for the duration.

The arrival of the heating season in my home was accompanied by a slight re-arrangement of furniture to allow the heat better to permeate into the rooms.  This was particularly necessary in the bedroom, where 'stuff' had been allowed to accumulate close to the heater. This isn't very effective anyway, being both too small for the size of the room (in my chilled but unskilled opinion) and tucked away in an outside corner.  In order to sort things out in the most useful combination, I bought a new extension lead long enough to run around the edge of the room to feed, among other things, the clock-alarm beside my bed.

Unplugging this, of course meant that, when it was plugged in again, the clock would need to be re-set.  I decided to be lazy, with the clocks 'falling back' at the end of the month, and set it for GMT.  I thought it would be easy enough to add on an hour when I look at it for the time.  It was about 8.30 last evening when I suddenly heard voices coming from the bedroom and realised that all was not as it should be.  Not only had I set the clock element for 'AM', when it was already afternoon: I had also mis-calculated the hour difference and set the alarm for 7.30 to get me up at 6.30, when I should have set it for 5.30!  By this morning, all was working as it should, thank goodness.

Another seasonal change that will come into effect next week concerns what I call 'work', my volunteering activities at the local hospice warehouse.  Instead of working on the vans on Friday mornings, visiting the high street shops, I've arranged to fill a vacant slot indoors on a Thursday afternoon, thus giving me clear Fridays to match the clear Mondays at the other end of the week as well as keeping me from getting cold and wet in the winter weather.

I described it as a seasonal change but it might become permanent, because it also relieves me from the mental strain of dealing with a variety of 'pre-loved' items that are no longer required and have been carefully packed and parted with in the hope of their finding appreciative new homes but when they arrive at the warehouse, those with far more experience that I can see that this will never happen and consign them to re-cycling straightway.  I say mental strain, I suppose because I've inherited in my growing up the wartime concept of 'make do and mend'.  While not actually mending things these days, the practice has evolved into one of being content with something secondhand if it will do the job.  Therefore the thought of replacing something that is still working by a flash new article smacks of vanity and waste.

If you're wondering how that squares with my driving around in a new car, see my earlier blog here, explaining why this was a necessity.  While you're doing that, I'll drive off with my friends tomorrow to the ringers' annual autumn outing.