Daylight savings

As someone who struggles through the short, dark days of winter, I always dread the clocks going back and the prospect of it getting dark before I've even finished my working day. So this year, I'm trying something different ... I'm staying on BST for a bit longer. Yes, I did change my clocks yesterday (that would be too confusing), but I'm shifting my day so that I get up an hour earlier, start work early, have an early lunch and hopefully, finish at my desk before it gets dark. I've never been particularly good at getting up in the morning and one of the key benefits of being freelance is being able to get up when I want, so I was a bit unsure at the prospect of a seven o'clock start, but it wasn't too bad this morning and so far, the new routine's going great. In fact, I was so productive this morning, I'd finished work for the day before four o'clock and that was with a break mid-afternoon to go out and do some chores and admire the autumn colours (see below). It's still bright and sunny outside, and now I've got a couple of hours to myself before my boyfriend gets home and I start my evening proper - feels like a nice luxury.

Okay, it was a particularly beautiful, sunny day today, so perhaps not entirely representative of what's to come, but it's an encouraging start. I know the strategy's only going to work for a while, because at some point, I'm going to find myself getting up in the dark, which is probably even grimmer than having to switch the light on mid-afternoon. So I suppose at that point, I'll claim back some extra time under the duvet and my start time will creep later and later, but even if I can stave off that winter feeling for a little longer, I'll be happy.

Autumnal tredpidation

Autumn has definitely arrived. In the past couple of days I've been buffeted by wind and rain, mixed in with spells of glorious sunshine and bright blue sky, and this morning I picked up my first conker of the season. It was sat on the pavement looking incongruously shiny on the grey concrete and I couldn't resist picking it up and slipping it in my pocket. It'll no doubt stay there for the next few weeks until it loses its shine and finally shrivels up.

For me, autumn always seems to be a time of dread. I truly hate winter - I've always suffered from SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and find the winter months a struggle. The cold and damp also exacerbate my aches and pains, adding to my general grouchiness. So every year around this time, I determine to head off and sit out the worst of winter in warmer climes.

One year I had quite advanced discussions with an old friend who lives in New York about a plan in which both of us would spend 2 or 3 months in Buenos Aires, sharing a flat, taking laptops to work from, learning Spanish and perhaps a bit of tango too. Somehow, we've never quite got round to organising it though.

This year I had thought of a couple of months in Australia. Quite a few friends seem to have emigrated that way recently, so again, I'd considered heading South with my laptop to work from the other side of the world in the sunshine through the worst of the British winter. And when the cost of that worked out to be rather prohibitive, I toyed with the idea of renting an apartment somewhere in the Med instead through October to at least catch a last dose of late sun. I'm still mulling over the last option, but haven't quite found the right spot at the right price yet.