Mark Murphy suggests we use the extra hour in bed to check our cars – why don’t we do that these days?
Don’t forget the clocks change tonight, spring forward and fall back, so if I’m correct that means we get an extra hour in bed!
If you work odd hours like me you’ll know how precious that extra hour is.
It also means the nights will pull in now, as the winter darkness descends, it’s time to hunker down a bit or as the Scandinavians say Hygge.
If you haven’t come across the word, it’s Norwegian and Danish for a mood of coziness, comfortable conviviality with feelings of wellness and contentment.
That means in my case snuggling down in front of the telly with the fire on and a cheeky glass of red.
It’s also sadly the time of year that accidents increase on our roads and this week Suffolk police launched Operation Dark Nights to do something about it.
Apart from sounding like the title of a Batman movie, it’s designed to make us motorists get our cars ready for winter.
They are particularly keen to make sure ALL our lights are working and it can’t come soon enough. Callers to my BBC Radio Suffolk breakfast show were in full support of the campaign.
No doubt changing a bulb in your car is not as easy as it used to be but it’s not that hard.
Judging by the number of vehicles I see every day you’d think it was impossible.
It’s not like we don’t know they’re out, many vehicles now have warning lights on the dashboard and even if they don’t it’s easy to spot.
Lots of my callers were saying that these cars with a headlamp not working looks like a motorbike and it can’t be easy for drivers to see the road ahead with one out either.
My colleague Luke Deal spent an hour standing by the St Matthews Street roundabout in Ipswich counting the vehicles with lights out.
In one hour between 7.15 am and 8.15 am when it was still dark he spotted 27 vehicles with no lights on, 6 with a front or rear light not working, 10 with front lights only on and 8 cyclists with no lights or reflective clothing.
So if that’s anything to go by I think the police have got a lot of people to catch and have a word with.
The police will also be stopping vehicles and checking tires and if you have a defective one it’ll be points on your license.
I think these days a lot of us just jump into our vehicles and off we go. Cars are certainly more reliable than they used to be but we really should make sure they’re roadworthy.
When I was young my dad would always be checking his tire pressures and depths. The oil level and washer level would be topped up and he’d make me walk around the car to check his lights.
If he was keen he’d adjust the tappets too! He’d also throw a cement bag in the boot to give the car more grip in the snow! With a rear-wheel-drive car, it’s something I still do.
We also needed to be checking our anti-freeze levels as the winter sets in and making sure we got the basics in our boot like a torch, warning triangle, and reflective jacket with high light reflective tape.
Now it seems like a lot of us don’t even know how to lift the bonnet and do the most minor of things.
The police can’t be everywhere and frankly, they have more important things to deal with.
Perhaps with the extra hour, we gain from the changing clocks we could all have a look over our engines tomorrow.
Although you might think a cement bag is a bit too much!