By: Blonde One

In the normal working life of the Two Blondes we are subjected to continual reminders about time. We have bells to tell us where to be and when, we even have bells to warn us that in 5 minutes another bell will ring. We count our working lives in weeks until the next piece of assessment, the next ‘data drop’ or the next scheme of work.

As a person who loves poetry I have noticed that poets measure time in very creative ways. Denise Levertov says ” a dream ago”, Philip Larkin: “my thirtieth year to heaven”.

I recently spent some time in a bunkhouse with Blonde Two, Little Miss Blonde and 2 other lovely friends. There was much giggling and not much sleeping! We began to talk about the fact that we would have to get up in a few hours and two interesting (to the Two Blondes anyway) ways of recording time were analysed!

The first: When I have to get up early I use the phrase “in the hour of …”. This can be used to create a good exaggerated effect. Instead of saying “I’m getting up at ten to five”, it is much more dramatic to say that “I’m getting up in the hour of 4”. Hopefully, some sympathy will follow!

The second: Instead of being very specific to say things like “twenty five to two” it is much better to say “the two o clock side of half past one”.

Anyway, there are two measurements of time that are consistent and absolute: coffee time and Dartmoor time!