Daylight Saving

It's that time of the year again (pun not intended) that I love - it is daylight savings time! WOO HOO!


Each October, NSW, the ACT, Victoria, SA, Tasmania and now Western Australia move their clocks and watches forward one hour. It means more daylight at the end of the (normal) working day and it is great for me when working afternoon shifts. However, it isn't too good for me if I am working super duper early mornings as I may have to go to bed while the sun is still up.


Western Australia never used to use Daylight Saving but just after I was over there late last year, the WA Government decided on a 3 year trial of daylight saving which will be followed by a referendum to decide if daylight saving stays.


The only place where daylight saving causes any drama for people living near a state border is the Tweed Heads/Coolangatta/Gold Coast areas where the NSW side of the border is now 1 hour ahead of the Queensland side. It is very easy to cross the border there and unofficially, many businesses remain on Queensland time or if they don't, they adjust their hours. Some businesses change their hours so they open from the normal opening time in NSW to the normal closing time in Queensland.


Luckily for the people of Broken Hill, they observe Central (Adelaide) Standard or Summer time as the case may be in though Broken Hill is in NSW and should be on Eastern Standard or Summer time. Because Broken Hill is closer to Adelaide than Sydney, it has been a longstanding practice for Broken Hill to follow Adelaide time.


Personally I always liked the idea of working a night shift at this end of daylight saving as you lose an hour but would hate to work a night shift at the other end as you have to work an extra hour. Mind you if I am asleep, the reverse is true.


Anyhoo, before I went to bed on Saturday night, I changed my mobile phone clock and my large digital clock in my room. So this morning I had to get up at 8am to get ready to go to Firecom for my monthly shift. The alarm went off on my mobile and I got up and then I looked at my bedroom clock and it said that it was 7am.


I turned on my mobile phone and it said that it was 8am. I thought "that can't be right, I changed both clocks last night so they should be showing the same time." But there was an hour's difference between the two clocks.


So just to be sure, I rang Mr Time and he said after the third stroke, it will be 7 something AM and my Foxtel electronic program guide also said it was 7am so I went back to bed until 8.30am and headed off to Firecom where the time was correct.


It will take a few days to get used to the extra sun at the end of the day but I figure as a shiftworker my body clock is screwed anyway so why would summer time make much difference!