KYQ4: The Clocks Go Back

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

The Clocks Go Back

Morning walk/run on Lime Craig

Topping out

The last few weeks have taxed my patience with 2021. The mainly dry summer has given way to grey days with no frost, just mild windy wet autumn days. The clocks going back has always signalled the reduction of outdoor activities amid the gloom that descends on life. I have never seen the sense of British summertime reverting to Greenwich Mean Time at the end of October. If we had summertime all-year-round time, there would be light at the end of the day, which is more useful for most folk and most activities than in the morning when for a couple of months it is dark anyway on the way to work or school.

Life is still very restricted with Covid cases higher than they have ever been, 1 in 16 people have Covid in England according to research from Imperial College with children having the highest proportion of cases and England seemingly encouraging a free market in herd immunity. The other home nations do not have the same levels of Covid but they have retained mask-wearing in shops and public transport, social distancing and adopted a less cavalier approach to opening up. Devolution seems to have been more adept at handling the operational issues than the centralised managerialism that Westminster has foisted on England.

I am still managing early morning exercise 4 or 5 times a week by climbing a local hill and running down. It gives some purpose to the day. My 40 kilometres a month seem paltry compared to Gregor's 100 kilometres a week, even after the London Marathon where he managed a very respectable 2 hours 23 minutes and 24th place. He competed on the day the clocks went back in the local 10k race starting from his old school and made it look easy when winning in 32:02 over a tricky undulating course with hills and some trails. The number of entrants was almost 600, a figure that would have been impossible pre-Covid, so there are some positives beginning to emerge as we slowly ease out of lockdown.

For the first time in two years, I travelled by train to Edinburgh to meet with former colleagues who have become firm friends during weekly Zoom sessions that began during the first lockdown. We have written papers, produced videos of lived experiences and had occasional competitions on such topics as what was our first record, earliest job experiences, the favourite car we have owned, best national anthems or what colour loons did we wear. Reliving the 1960s and 70s was fun and kept us vaguely sane.

Meeting these colleagues again, now 3% older since the last meeting with them in late 2019 was strangely reassuring. The prizes for our competitions had been appealing until they were presented at the splendid flat of one of our group by the Mercat Cross on the Royal Mile. I had won my colleague's Heinkel Bubble car for my detailed memory of my first job but was presented with a Chinese Dinky Toy equivalent version of a bubble car instead. I had to catch the train home. Friends!