On Daylight Saving Time

When I was a kid, I didn’t  know what was .

I always see the word daylight saving time printed on my old Casio digital watch. But I have no idea what it was. All I knew was that there would be time differences during the summer and such. Still I didn’t get it.

Then there was Champions League football. I would wake up in the middle of the night just to watch Man United play. I noticed how the kickoff times started to change from 2.45am to 3.45am towards the end of October. Not forgetting also the usual EPL kickoffs time from 7.45pm to 8.45pm.

I started to get a grasp of what is all about.

So, one day I looked up the Internet, asked Google and it replied with a simple phrase about .

Spring forward, fall back.

In simple terms, countries that observe will shift their clocks 1 hour forward during the spring so the sun appears to rise 1 hour later and sets 1 hour later thus making the day longer. And vice versa during the fall.

Therefore, I’m now 7 hours behind Malaysia.

Most of central Europe countries turned their clocks 1 hour backwards after daylight saving time has ended. I remember that will end sometime towards the end of October but I didn’t know it was on October. As far as my memory can recall, it’s on this coming weekend.

And when I checked again on Saturday night only did I realize that I had to turn my clock 1 hour backwards on Sunday 3.00 am to 2.00 am.

It suddenly appeared to me that winter is really coming. The sun used to set about 630pm last week. This week it’s 530pm.

The cloudy and rainy weather didn’t help either.

When I was here in December last year, the sun rose at 8.30am and set at 4.30pm.

Now, I really feel winter is coming real soon…

October 28, 2008 | Filed Under Events, Life, Travels | Leave a Comment 

A Brief History Class - Part 2

I think it was almost 10 minutes that we were chatting at the river banks.

“Did I bore you off? Do you want me to continue?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Because of the Treaty of Versailles, our country was weakened. They took away our lands and military because they were afraid we’ll be more powerful than they are. They didn’t want to lose their powers in Europe to us.”

“So there came . He was a nationalist at that time and he wanted back those lands that were given away by the Treaty or Versailles. So he gathered all his men and said to the Allied Forces; We want our lands back and if you’re not giving them back, we’ll take it!”

“He attacked and invaded Rhineland, Austria, the borders of Czechoslovakia and then Poland.”

Suddenly he stopped and started at me.

“And do you know how started in Europe?”

I shook my head.

“It was the 1st of September of 1939 when attacked Poland. Very soon after that, Poland’s allies declared war on us. Everyone, including the UK, France, Australia, US, New Zealand, Canada and a few more countries.”

“You see, everything they wrote on the papers labeled as the bad guy. In fact, he’s a nationalist and hero in , you know? He’s just taking back what was taken away from us.”

By now, it was coming to 20 minutes that we were chatting.

“Oh, I can see my friend waiting for me opposite the road. I got to go. I hope you’ve learned something and have a wonderful trip back.”

We shook hands and I thanked him for his brief history class.

This was the second time that someone was talking to me about the history of the place since I was here 2 months ago. The first was in Berchtesgaden where a 80+ year old man talked to me how happy he was to be back there since he was there during as an American soldier.

October 22, 2008 | Filed Under Opinions, Travels | 1 Comment 

A Brief History Class - Part I

I was strolling along the banks of river Neckar the other day, taking some photographs of the Old Bridge while waiting for the sun to set.

“Too bad it’s under renovation, huh.”

I thought I heard someone talking to me from behind. So I turned around and there was this middle aged man smiling at me.

“Yeah. I came all way here……and it’s under renovation. What a bad timing..”

And then he pointed towards the castle sitting on top of the hill behind the bridge.

“Have you been up there before? Do you know who destroyed it?”

He was referring to the Heidelberg Castle ( in German), the landmark of . It was first built as a fortress in the 12th century and then upgraded to a palace in the 15th century.

But what remains today is only it’s ruins. It was destroyed by Louis XIV and his French troops in 1689 when the war erupted.

“Do you know what they did to it”

“They stuffed the bottom of the watch tower with black gun powders and blew the hell out of it!”

Then he went on explaining the conflicts and wars between and France up to the first World War.

“Heard of the Treaty of Versailles?”

I shook my head.

It seems that I’m in for a brief European history class.

“There was this leader, you know. Gustav Bauer. I think he must be crazy and went to sign this murderous treaty with the Allied Forces after World War 1″

“Because of this treaty, we have to give back East & West Prussia (today’s Poland) back to Poland, Eupen Malmedy to Belgium (near to where I am), Saarland & Danzig to the League of Nations, Alsace-Lorraine to the Frech and a few more that I couldn’t remember exactly.”

“We had to give back our colonies in Africa, Tanganyika (today’s Tanzania), Namibia, Botswana and Rwanda-Burundi.”

“And the worse thing ever was we accepted full responsibility for causing World War 1 and we have to pay out compensations to other countries for the damages!”

“You see, we were getting stronger and stronger in the early 1900’s and was about to overtake England and France as the main powers in Europe, economically and military strengths. They couldn’t let this happen as it would cause an imbalance of powers in Europe.”

“So, they put restrictions on us. They forced us to reduce our army, they reduce our lands…”

“And we went backwards..”

“Until a nationalist came and woke up the country in 1939…”

To be continued in Part 2.

October 19, 2008 | Filed Under Opinions, Travels | 1 Comment 

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