Back to normal

I've been blogging all winter about the miserable weather. However, there is good news to report. The endless bitter cold has disappeared, and normal weather has taken its place. We're now into a third week of regular dull grey skies and seasonal dampness. It seems to have drizzled on and off for almost two weeks now. However, when the sun returns it brings some wonderful rainbows like the one above. I took this photo last week from my office window.

Given our dismal Summer last year, and the long winter that followed, its little surprise to learn that UK television viewing is at record levels. In 2008, the nation's viewers watched 26 hours and 18 minutes of television. This matched record levels from 2003, and was 48 minutes higher than last year's average.

I can't help but wonder if shorter commutes have boosted viewing hours. Last October, the number of London commuters travelling an hour or more to and from work declined by 100,000 people. Despite the fall, at least 20% of workers still spend more than an hour a day commuting. My door-to-door commute is about 45 minutes each way, so I'm clearly part of the club.

However, my commute pales in comparison to some colleagues. At least two people in my office travel more than 90 minutes, twice a day. Research shows that at least 3% of the workforce spend three hours a day communting. Not surprisingly, UK workers are said to have the second longest daily commute in Europe.

The Daily Mail published a story yesterday about a woman who commutes from the Canary Islands every week. I've also seen stories about daily commuting from France thanks to the Eurostar's high-speed service. I guess I have it easy.