Despite it happening every year with measurable regularity, and sunrise and sunset times having been published in almanacs for hundreds of years, people who like small talk are beginning to have one of their favourite conversations, the one about the nights drawing in.
Small talk fan Trevor Brown likes to start off with ‘It was light at nine o’clock a couple of weeks ago’, then proceed to say ‘The kids will be back at school soon.’
His neighbour who prefers medium to big talk responds with a half-hearted ‘It’s darker in the mornings too’, because it so obviously and predictably is, it can be no other way. Trevor grins and says it’ll be dark when he puts the bins out next week.
His neighbour nods, feeling he’s done his end of this highly formulaic conversation now. Trevor ends with ‘Christmas will be here before we know it’, delivered with a sort of eye roll as if Christmas thunders at him out of the blue rather than being a constant calendar feature. Trevor intends to enjoy the nights drawing in chat as much as he can because Easter next year is neither early nor late.