True testament to our finally nearing the end of a year-long winter, New Zealand "sprang forward" last Sunday: which means we're now one hour further away time-zone-wise - or one hour closer to the actual time wherever you might be. If you're confused, don't worry - I'll provide a handy chart using my step-brother Dan as an example soon.
Not long after we arrived I left my math skills at work one night and somehow decided after putting the kids to bed at 8pm it would be a great time to call my dad. He's an early riser (I am awake at 5:30am this Sunday spring morning, listening to the songbirds and thinking about him) so having deduced it was just after 6am in upstate NY I figured he would just be sitting down to coffee and the paper and perhaps watching the sunrise.
"Hello?" Grandma answered the phone sleepily. No alarm bells for me yet, Grandma sometimes likes to sleep in past my dad's pre-dawn routine, which means she gets up at six or six-thirty and still catches plenty of worms. "Sorry to wake you Grandma," I said (at least I hope I did, due to later horror my memory's a little weak on this point): "Is my dad still there?" It also isn't unusual for my dad to be out the door by 6am if there's a crisis at work or if he's taking the day off to work on a side-project like renovating my grandfather's house, helping us relocate across the world, updating my sister's kitchen - you get the idea. He works a lot.
"Yeah one second hon." Grandma passed the phone to my dad. "Hello?" he answered sleepily.
At this point the alarm bells started to make quite a noise, but unfortunately I didn't heed them and decided to go for the joke. "Hi Dad," I think I said, grinning. "Do you have the day off or something?" On rare occasions (literally only a handful of times that I'm aware of) my dad has been known to "sleep in" to the slovenly hour of 7:30am, after which he probably mowed the lawn, closed the pool, raked the leaves, plowed the driveway and put an addition on someone's house. Before breakfast.
"Jake it's 4am." Grin leaves my face, replaced by look of wide-eyed horror.
So to save anyone else this sort of embarrassment, I've created a handy chart for converting the time of day (which coincidentally actually proves my step-brother Dan lives on New Zealand time):
Not long after we arrived I left my math skills at work one night and somehow decided after putting the kids to bed at 8pm it would be a great time to call my dad. He's an early riser (I am awake at 5:30am this Sunday spring morning, listening to the songbirds and thinking about him) so having deduced it was just after 6am in upstate NY I figured he would just be sitting down to coffee and the paper and perhaps watching the sunrise.
"Hello?" Grandma answered the phone sleepily. No alarm bells for me yet, Grandma sometimes likes to sleep in past my dad's pre-dawn routine, which means she gets up at six or six-thirty and still catches plenty of worms. "Sorry to wake you Grandma," I said (at least I hope I did, due to later horror my memory's a little weak on this point): "Is my dad still there?" It also isn't unusual for my dad to be out the door by 6am if there's a crisis at work or if he's taking the day off to work on a side-project like renovating my grandfather's house, helping us relocate across the world, updating my sister's kitchen - you get the idea. He works a lot.
"Yeah one second hon." Grandma passed the phone to my dad. "Hello?" he answered sleepily.
At this point the alarm bells started to make quite a noise, but unfortunately I didn't heed them and decided to go for the joke. "Hi Dad," I think I said, grinning. "Do you have the day off or something?" On rare occasions (literally only a handful of times that I'm aware of) my dad has been known to "sleep in" to the slovenly hour of 7:30am, after which he probably mowed the lawn, closed the pool, raked the leaves, plowed the driveway and put an addition on someone's house. Before breakfast.
"Jake it's 4am." Grin leaves my face, replaced by look of wide-eyed horror.
So to save anyone else this sort of embarrassment, I've created a handy chart for converting the time of day (which coincidentally actually proves my step-brother Dan lives on New Zealand time):
Of course this all goes out the window in less than a month when the US switches off daylight savings, but until then Happy Sunday everyone!
11pm-7am NZDT (we are sleeping) 6am-2pm EDT (Dan is sleeping) 7am NZDT (we wake up) 2pm EDT (Dan wakes up) 8:30am NZDT (I go to work) 3:30pm EDT (Dan is hungover) 1-3pm NZDT (girls nap, good time to call) 8-10pm EDT (Dan starts drinking) 6:30pm NZDT (I get home from work) 1:30am EDT (Dan is drunk) 8pm NZST (girls go to bed) 3am EDT (Dan is incoherent)
HAHAHA I love it im just trying to get ready for when I move there too