On Sunday morning British summer time ended and the clocks went back one hour. It’s the time of year we look forward to the most, although we’ve been gaining a minute, give or take, a night since the height of summer, to jump to a whole hour of extra time is like magic to Livvy.

I remember back to the hottest week of the year back in July when I got a call from school asking me to pick Livvy up as they were finding it a struggle to keep her cool and safe. The sadness was seeping out of her. A constant look of worry and sadness, waking in the night full of fear. She asked me on that drive home back in July when do the clocks change, counting the months from July to October with her only creating more sadness. Trying to stay upbeat for her knowing it would be here soon.

And here it is! The clocks have changed and its now safe from 5pm, meaning just after tea time Livvy is free and no longer held to ransom by her own body, she can be like everyone else, blending in like any other stranger walking down a moon lit street at a time that is not frowned upon for being 7 years old and not tucked up in bed.

On a Monday night the children have karate lessons which start at 6pm. This week as they came downstairs with their uniform on and belts tightly tied around their waists, I asked them to get shoes and coats on, in the same breath I told Livvy she didn’t need her mask or gloves as it was safe outside.

Livvy stopped in her tracks looked up at me with a big grin on her face, ‘really?’

‘Yes really Livvy, look outside its dark, the clocks have changed so it’s safer much earlier now’

Livvy jumped up in excitement, ‘Eddie I don’t need my mask!’

We picked a friend up who also attends karate on a Monday night, I told the children to wait in the car whilst I went to knock on the door, as soon as Livvy saw us walking back to the car she opened her car door shouting hello. Her voice full of excitement and an air of ‘showing off’ as she could open the car door without her mask on.

As we were leaving karate an hour or so later I couldn’t stop Livvy from talking and jumping around, one parent asked me what I had fed her as she appeared so hyper. Her smile beamed out as she re-enacted a scene from school, which was no more than a teacher walking down the corridor behind two younger children but it came into Livvy’s head at that moment and that is what she acted out to all the parents, as they sat waiting for their own children.

Yesterday morning, the first of November, I woke to the sound of my alarm and a happy Livvy creeping into my bedroom before the sun had risen above the horizon, Livvy was fully dressed in her school uniform announcing that she had fed all the animals and also finished reading her school reading book. She was still on a high and couldn’t do enough to help me in the kitchen as I got school lunches ready. It’s amazing what effect the changing of the clocks can do for the mind of one small girl, it’s her season to show the world who she is, to show the girl that hides behind her mask for the majority of the year. When I dropped her at school her TA asked if she was still in a crazy mood, ‘oh yes’ I replied ‘I think giddy season has started’.