'Clocks Spring Forward' in spring. My brain did not. The clock by my bedside is a radio controlled one so I had not noticed there had been a change and had not heard there was an imminent alteration to the time. I thought I had got a really good rest and lie-in on Sunday morning, only to find out about midday, when we were visiting mum-in-law with a mum's day pressie, that the clocks had changed for springtime.

I have been in flu mode so ears and grey matter have not been concentrating on anything other than combatting the pest and getting through to the other side. I am miffed though, that I lost an hour.

Up here in the far north of Scotland where I live, spring does not visit us till about six weeks after it has reached the balmy south (that latter point, refers to both sides of the border). Our daffodils are still in glorious bloom - if they don't get blown to pieces with the variable winds we get - when yours down south have already bowed out but, by then you have other super blooms bursting out to take their place.

Our climate and daylight/night-time patterns are very different to those many miles south of here. There are times in the year when we have no real daylight to speak of and time changes do not favour us at all, it makes for safety concerns, especially for kids walking to and from school. But in the mid year months (note I do not use the seasonal descriptor)we are almost the land of the white nights and I have read a credit card outside at 11pm quite easily. That was a long time ago, I do not know if I could still do that with the need to permanently use specs. Again, time changes do not mean an awful lot for us far northern mortals other than, it is a disruptor of routines and sleep.

My personal view is that I would be happy with a regional time zone; other countries have them and accept the difference. We can't all be congregated in the same zones and it is time this fact was accepted with good grace and appropriate arrangements for suitable variations put in place.