Note from Athlone: Daylight Saving Effects

View at Shannon River, Athlone. Currently the wheather in Athlone is getting better, the temperature is between 8-12 Centigrade compared to last 2 week between -2 to 5 Centigrade.

But, it is quite a raining here.. almost every day.

Last Sunday, 26-March-2006, at 1.00 am GMT, the Daylight Saving Time (DST) for summer has take into effect. The clock has been adjusted one hour forward.

In Europe, the DST for summer will be adjusted every last Sunday in March. And it will be re-adjusted back to minus one hour on last Sunday in October, for winter. While in US, the summer DST will be adjusted every first Sunday in April, at 2.00 am. And will be re-adjusted at 2.00 am last Sunday of October. Unlike Europe where it will be adjsuted across the union at GMT 1.00 am, in US it will be adjusted accordingly by each zone time.

This makes me wondering, what is DST? Why they implements DST? What is the effect of DST? Do they caused a havoc when DST firstly applied? Well, it might... especially for those who are not aware of it, when it is taking an effect..

Last year, when I was in Gothenburg, I got an invitation from a local friend to have lunch with her family on Sunday. To go there, I need to take a bus, which only have 2 or 3 trips a.. and the one I need to catch is departing at 11.30 am. Unfortunately, that Sunday was the last Sunday of March 2004. Being first time in DST time zone, and so naive about it, I'm not aware that the clock has been adjusted by plus one hour.. and I missed the bus.

This year, being a little bit DST aware, it still give me impact... On Monday after the DST applied, I waking up at 7.45 am, compared to usual 6.45 am. Meaning, I will lost one hour of sleep if I want to go sleep at my usual biological time, or will lost my breakfast time if I want to get the same amount of sleep.. as what happened on Monday...