Got any time to spare? I thought I had on Sunday morning.

I was up earlier than usual, ready to make the most of the fine weather. Breakfast was eaten, lunch prepared, all the papers read - and it wasn't even ten o'clock.

Then my aunt rang. "Everything's happening at once isn't it?" she said.

"It's Easter, the Queen Mum has died and the clocks went forward an hour last night."

"Pardon?" I said.

"Oh, haven't you heard?" she replied. "The Queen Mum died in her sleep yesterday afternoon."

"I know," I said. "But what's all this about the clocks going forward? Summer Time doesn't officially start till next Sunday, it says so on my calendar."

"Really?" said my aunt. "My calendar says Summer Time starts on March 31. One of us must be right."

And one of us must be wrong, I thought, and it definitely isn't me. You don't forget something like that do you? If you did, your entire life would be thrown out of sync.

You'd miss dates with friends and appointments with the dentist; the last train home to Brighton would leave while you were dawdling in the station buffet and the sports coverage would have just finished when you switched on the TV.

See, there's a bright spot in every situation.

"What time do you make it then?" I asked my aunt. She told me it was just after eleven o'clock.

So I went to check my calendar. In the space for March 31 were the words 'Easter Day'. That was all. I flipped into April and there, beneath a picture of some puppies disporting themselves in a dog basket, was the date, April 7, and alongside it the words 'Daylight Saving Time Begins'.

Ha! I thought. I knew I was right. But just to make doubly sure I rang BT's Speaking Clock. I was told the time was five minutes past eleven, precisely.

In under 15 minutes I seemed to have lost an hour. By now I was beginning to feel unnerved. Had I somehow strayed into a time warp? Was I in 2002 or had I been catapulted into 2003?

Then I remembered a small, but important detail about the calendar. It had been sent to me from America - and American Summer Time starts a week later than in the UK.

I looked in my diary, my UK diary. According to this, UK Summer Time began on March 31, but following this piece of information were the words 'To Be Confirmed'.

It didn't say by whom it would be confirmed, or when or how.

Perhaps, I thought, there'll be something about this on the radio. The radio . . . ah, yes, that reminded me.

I went into the back garden where The Mother was happily executing some weeds.

"I'm afraid you're late for The Archers," I said.

She looked at her watch. "I've only missed 15 minutes," she said. "It's almost a quarter past ten. My watch is always correct."

"Not this time," I said and told her what had happened. She was mortified.

"But that means I was still in bed at nine this morning - and I never stay in bed after eight o'clock," she said. Well, she has now.

Incidentally, for those who like to plan ahead, UK Summer Time and American Daylight Saving Time both end on October 27 this year.

Well, at least the American version does. In this country, according to my diary, that date is yet to be confirmed.

Now, if you'll excuse me there's something else I should really check. Is Christmas Day still on for December 25 . . . ?