Sunday, October 5, 2008

Why I love NOT having daylight savings

Many of you southerners think that we Queenslanders are behind the times because we do not put our clocks an hour forward in the summer months.

For the record, let me say that I love NOT having daylight savings time. Here's why.

  • I love that it's easy to get out of bed in summer. I wake up naturally at 5.15 and have time to do some jobs and hang the washing before I go to the gym at 6am. In winter I need to set my alarm, drag myself out of bed and drive in the dark.
  • I don't like putting the kids to bed while it's still light.
  • DLS time actually makes people stay at work for longer. You don't feel it's as late as it is so you keep on working. This is why governments instituted it in the first place (so I've heard).
  • Queensland is a big state. Up north it is hot. Really hot. People escaping to their air conditioned offices do not want an extra hour of sunlight and extreme heat after work in the afternoon. Much better to finish work at the equivalent of 5pm than 4pm. North Queenslanders look forward to it getting dark. DLS will never be good for them.
BTW. Some people say that Qlders are just worried about their curtains fading. This is not my concern. I have blinds.

Anyone else passionate?

UPDATE: Just re-read this. I sound a bit red-neck. I'm not, really. I'm not anti-south either. I loved living in Sydney. Brisbane is better, though!

5 comments:

  1. Our final daylight saving switch hit on Sunday. So I'm back to getting up in the dark and Talia was not happy going to bed. I'm with you Simone.

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  2. I think I disagree with point three. In summer, people are eager to leave the office at 5pm to enjoy the sunshine! Another lovely thing about it is you can knock off work and go to the beach or the park.

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  3. Working later in the evening is a good thing for me at the moment - trying desperately to finish my PhD thesis! And having less light in the morning is also good, since our bedroom gets full light as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon.

    I'm generally not a huge fan of the beginning of daylight saving, except for coming home in light rather than dark, but I love the end!

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  4. Amen to that!

    It just doesn't work in North Queensland ... school kids walking home in the hottest part of the day (2pm instead of 3pm) ... trying to eat dinner at night while it's still 30 degrees (5pm instead of 6pm).

    B.T.W. Will I create much controversy by asking: Is the average government employee at much risk of accidentally working too long? :P

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  5. As a compromise, it'd be OK with me if we just had it on Fridays.

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