STACEY DOOLEY’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE PASSAGE OF TIME

“So did anyone else forget the clocks went forward this morning?” she asked, crackling over the radio. “I lucked out,” continued she, “because this show is pre-recorded, so I’m at home in my joggers and I sorta got away with it.”

I was suddenly fascinated by Stacey Dooley’s understanding of the passage of time. She either had the remarkable prescience that she would oversleep this morning having forgotten to change the clocks, (despite reminding herself while recording a radio show ahead of time) or she’s a time-traveller - who managed to record her show in the future, travel back in time to the past so she could upload it ready for this morning’s Radio 5 broadcast in the present.

I drummed the steering wheel and looked up at the traffic lights. Red. The dashboard said 9:03 still, the time of warm duvets on a GMT Sunday morning rather than ‘driving to church’. And even then I’m supposed to actually be there by 10 so it’s not really driving to church time in BST either!

Ah well. We get lighter evenings.

I’m guessing Stacey was just scrabbling around for something to say while being simultaneously on the radio and not on the radio at the same time. Schrödinger’s DJ. After all, she probably was in her joggers when the show went out today, she may well have forgotten about the missing hour after all, and she could easily have lucked out by not having to do the broadcast live. 

These days smartphones sort it all out for you. Only the oven and the previously-mentioned dashboard clock need a little hand. And the chances are you’re either a type A person (it is vital to change those clocks as soon as possible or the sky will probably fall in) or a type B (you’re very happy to drive around/cook a pizza in the wrong time zone, as in six months’ time it’ll all be back to normal anyway. If anyone asks you’ll say you just haven’t got round to it).

I wonder if you can guess which I am. The lights turned green, I revved the engine, let Stacey tell us what would be happening on her show in the future tense from her comfy living room in the past, and then drove my car through the Greenwich Mean Time bubble, ready for the first Sunday of the summer.