Seasons in the sun

The clocks have gone forward in the northern hemisphere to herald the arrival of spring as happens regularly at this time of year of course. However here on the other side of the world we are still waiting to put our clocks back for autumn thus are in theory even further behind than the usual six months. This is due to a universally accepted governmental directive in Chile to prolong daylight saving time thereby taking positive if somewhat unusual steps to combat an energy crisis, which in turn has been caused by a lack of rain to drive the country's hydroelectric power. Thus we find ourselves in the perhaps enviable position of enjoying an even longer "summer" with long light evenings though the flip side is that most of us have to get up and ready in the dark in the mornings. Clocks usually go back here in the second week of March and forward in the middle of October, conversely mirroring daylight saving measures which are adopted back in Europe. However due to the energy crisis this year we shall be putting our clocks back in the first week of May and forward again in August apparently, which gives us a winter of four months' duration. In addition to the continuation of summer time, climatic conditions have also been milder than is normal for this time of year with temperatures hitting 30 degrees Celsius even today in the afternoon. And the sun shines practically every day, which is the main reason to be glad one lives in Chile at the moment as far as I'm concerned...