20:46:59

At least that was the time according to my phone, and if you are an iPhone owner, too, you'd have probably agreed.

I can remember when I first had a home PC in 1995 and I discovered that it was possible to sync one's computer's clock with an external reference out on the Web. That was when you were connected, of course; it's easy to forget those pre-broadband days when you were only online if you'd fired up your modem.

Before then, one might check one's watch or a clock against the 'pips' on the radio or even ring up the talking clock (the number was 1-2-3, wasn't it?). But really, time was more personal; your watch had your version of the time. Now it's a bit more absolute*.

*A physicist would (and should) take some exception to this but you know what I mean.

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Reading: 'Touching The Void' by Joe Simpson