Now we know who turns their lights off early on a weekend
On Saturday morning we learned the nation is divided into two groups of people. Those who are in bed by 11pm on a Friday and those who spend the night browsing social media to check what everyone else is up to.
And on Friday it turned out everyone not already in the Land of Nod was out in the garden trying to work out how to get their phones to take pictures in the dark.
The arrival of the northern lights in the midnight sky caught out everyone who doesn’t watch the television news, read a newspaper or look at the internet.
Once the first photos of the day’s celestial event started to appear it wasn’t long before Facebook turned purple and green with grainy photos as the wide awake half of the world got snapping.
Truth be told, the photos looked a lot more colourful than the heavens did to the naked eye for reasons best known to proper photographers and actual astrophysicists.
But all the same it was definitely an exciting opportunity to finally capture on camera the stunning drama that took place up among the stars and above our heads
Running round the house trying to wake everyone up I was met by the indifference typical of people who are fast asleep.
I messaged one friend to let him know the once-in-a-generation happening was under way outside his back door.
His nonplussed reply revealed he had been outside for a look and was underwhelmed to discover his was the only house in the country not sitting underneath the aurora.
Living just a couple of hundred yards away, I sent him a photo of a blaze of scarlet sitting right on top of his roof.
The following morning, as people woke up to the news they had missed the phenomenon in the firmament, the mood changed on Facebook as the early-to-bed brigade came to terms with missing the chance to tick the solar spectacle off their bucket list.
But just hours before the aurora’s arrival seasoned sky-gazers may have spotted something even rarer with the return of something not seen since the dying days of last summer with the long awaited 2024 debut of that missing meteorological marvel, the sun... only for it to vanish again by Monday.
No matter, I’m sure that we’ll all be treated to a day in mid-september when a brief gap in the clouds suddenly appears and we’ll possibly get a unique opportunity to dash out without or coats and umbrellas.
...Too optimistic?