I'm not as old as you think I am

Its New Year 2008, happy new year readers who are listening. Its my birthday the day after tomorrow. But I wont be 33, I'll still be 32. 

On the way across the Atlantic we put the clocks back 4 times - the sun just kept setting later and later*

  What with the early morning Christmas texts from the UK waking the boat up 4 hours early, my immanent birthday and the new year it set me thinking.

  You go on holiday, Gatwick misery, car park nearer Brighton than the air port, no legroom, terrorists, toothpaste banned, jokes by the Now Show etc. Eventually you fly out and change your watch and get sunburned, riped off, hungover, skint etc. Proper holiday. Get on your plane and fly back, change watch back to the time it was before. Nothing lost or gained.

  However, I kind of went west, putting my watch back and back. I might not have sailed all the way round the world, but when I flew home I went west again from Thailand. Not back east. Now I'm a bit confused.

Maybe the international date line takes care of this, I just lost my watch in Pappete (Tahiti), so have no reliable memory of exactly what happened when I crossed it, but if you assume that every day contains one sunrise and one sunset I've missed one. I only get to be 33 on the 4th.

  I'm doing my nut in here just thinking about it, since ultimately except for relativity time its self doesn't change and, trust me on this, sailing boats do not move at relativistic velocities. I will still be 33 on Thursday. However I've still seen one less day than you lot, even if some the days I did see were a bit longer than yours.

Made you think didn't I, and I didn't even get sidereal** on your ass?

Tom

  * observant readers will realize it rose later too, but I'm not to observant at that time.
** Look up the difference between a solar day and a sidereal one some time.