‘Scilly Automatic still makes me laugh.’

Shipping forecast: The poetry of North Utsire | Elisabeth Mahoney | Comment is free | The Guardian.

British nightowls are quite familiar with the dulcet tones of the shipping forecast (broadcast nightly at 12.45).  I listened to it last night because I was awake uselessly until past 2am. I have often wished that it came on an hour earlier, because then it might ease me off to sleep at a more normal hour. For a few years, I absolutely could not sleep until I had heard it.  My morning lark previous husband gritted his teeth and bore my nightly snicker at ‘Scilly Automatic’, but we were both obsessed with it, with geography and with weather forecasting. Now I have to listen with headphones if I want to hear it at all. It’s worth the effort.  It’s my lighthouse in the night, a secular Hail Mary to finally lay the day to rest.