Autumn has only made a fleeting appearance, before the temperature started tumbling to almost zero a couple of weeks ago and the sun began its hibernation. The end of summer (daylight saving) time last Saturday must be heralding the advent of an early winter. So when I met my friend who's arrived from Hong Kong not so long ago on Saturday, I reminded him to wind back the clock by one hour before going to bed. He was obviously curious about how this time changing scheme works, and he asked whether things like bus time tables would be affected, such that a bus scheduled for 3.30 would depart at 2.30 instead. Of course that wouldn't happen, as I explained to him that time tables would still follow the original published times. Little things like this are all part of the learning curve when settling into a new place. I still remember how I demonstrated to him unlocking the shopping trolley with a one-euro coin and got him to practise a couple of times, when I took him to the superm