Time shifted to winter

It's getting colder and the days becoming shorter day by day. When I got up at 6:00, it was still dark. At 4:30 pm the sun was about to set.
Last Monday, when I called the Zurich office at 5:00 pm, nobody answered the phone. I thought it strange and thought first that it was their bank holiday or something. I asked one of the guys around me.
"Is it a holiday in Switzerland today?"
"I don't think so. Why?"
"I called the office but no one answered."
"Now? I guess nobody has come to the office yet."
"I think they usually come by this time."
"Oh, toshi-san, it's winter time now out there."
I talked to a guy in the Swiss office at around 5:00 in the middle of October. So the time must have shifted somewhere between then and now. Daylight saving time is really troublesome. In the US, they switch from the summer time to winter time on a different day from Europe and it varies from one State to another.
Anyways if I want to talk with people in Zurich over the phone, I have to stay at the clients office until 6:00 pm. It is not such a big problem but it sometimes delays my departure for home, leading to a late dinner. Though it used to be an everyday affair to have dinner alone late at night when I was working with Toshiba research and development center, it is not my style any more after I became a freelance.
It is how we get used to an easier life. The opposite is not easy though.