When you're visiting London it's hard to miss the loud, regular bongs sent out by Big Ben — but as of this week it will remain silent for the next four years while it receives some major renovations.
There are bigger problems in the world than a clock that needs maintenance.
So, when on Monday a politician dabbed away tears during Big Ben's final bongs, I'll admit my first thought was "harden up".
As a few people on social media noted, British MPs making a giant fuss about silencing a bell for a four-year restoration project is like a university student learning to make risotto the evening before a final 5,000-word essay is due.
Surely at this moment in this nation's history they should be focusing on their biggest task for a generation — Brexit.
The controversial $47 million renovation is being done for seemingly sound reasons.
Elizabeth Tower, the building that houses Big Ben, is in need of repair, much like the rest of the Palace of Westminster.
The clock at the top has to be totally dismantled with each cog examined, the glass repaired and the hands refurbished.
Union officials claim if The Great Bell, as Big Ben is officially known, kept ringing throughout the process then workers would be deafened.
"At nearly 120 decibels it's like putting your ear next to a police siren," Hugh Roberston from the Trades Union Congress said.
Although this break will be the longest in Big Ben's 157-year history, it has also fallen silent several times before.
The Great Bell was last stopped in 2007 for maintenance. It was also silenced between 1983 and 1985.
It will still ring on special occasions, like New Year's Eve, and let's face it, how many people in this day and age still need a bell to tell the time?
So, why on earth has there been such a ding-dong debate?
The Daily Mail tabloid newspaper insists it's because health and safety laws have succeeded in silencing Big Ben, when Hitler's air force, the Luftwaffe, failed.
Others claim the bell represents the pulse of a nation and one of the most recognisable icons of a once mighty empire.
It's now falling silent at a time when Britain's voice on the world stage is seemingly becoming less significant.
Rationally, I can think of few reasons to oppose Big Ben's break, but I still find its silence slightly sad.
The clock is only about 100 metres from the ABC's London studios, we walk past it most days and film in front of it most weeks.
When the office was locked down during the Westminster terrorist attack, the bell served as a strangely reassuring reminder the nation had endured so much worse — London has by any measure had a very difficult year.
A symbol of stability and continuity
At a time when there is so much uncertainty and senseless violence in the world, the steady, regular bongs, which are broadcast across the nation on the BBC, are for many a symbol of stability and continuity.
It's easy and frankly justified to poke fun at MPs who gathered "with heads bowed" for a bell that won't chime for a few years.
Big Ben's silence is hardly the disaster some claim but it will still be genuinely missed.
