Problem with applescript dates from Numbers

Question

Can anyone explain this to me please?
tell application "Numbers" to tell table 1 of sheet 1 of front document
          set value of cell ("C2") to "=NOW()"
          set nowDate to (value of cell "D2")
  log nowDate
end tell
results in 
26 Mar, 2013 5:10 PM
appearing in cell C2, but the log tells me
(*date Wednesday, 27 March 2013 6:10:14 AM*)
I realise that the date formats will differ - and  one of Yvan Koenigs's useful postings explains that when we extract a date from a Numbers table we get a UTC date time value. He also showed how to get rid of  that problem with the formula :
="" & ref_to_date_time_cell
But the UTC time when I obtained the above result  was 4:10 am on 26th March,  not 6:10 am on 27th March.  Why is this?
Incidentally, is there a better way of putting the current date into an applescript variable?

Answer 1

If your local time is 5:10 PM on the 26th when the UTC time is 4:10 AM on the 26th, your local time is apparently 13 hours ahead of UTC. Therefore, if the UTC time were 5:10 PM on the 26th, your local time would be 6:10 AM on the 27th. There is nothing inconsistant here. Numbers' value is a local time, but AppleScript thinks it is UTC and converts it.
In general, the current date command in AppleScript would be the best way to put the current date into an AppleScript variable; no need to involve Numbers:
set nowDate to current date
(See the Miscellaneous Commands section of the Standard Additions dictionary in your AppleScript Editor.)