Britta's Letters from her life divided between city-life in German's capital Berlin and life in a Bavarian village

Sunday 29 March 2015

Ss-ss--Summertime Blues...

©Brigitta Huegel

Dear You, 

AGAIN!!! It happened AGAIN! I didn't grasp it - the change to summertime! Though I had your interesting English mnemonic  - "spring" and "fall" in mind.
Yesterday I even got a bit angry thinking (in advance) of it; being an early riser I thought: "Then it will be even earlier when I wake up". To my surprise it wasn't. Hahaha.
My little error in reasoning is why I didn't warn Husband, who had booked a berth in a sleeping car to go to Munich in the night from Saturday to Sunday. (He left from Hildesheim, I was sitting in my haziness in Berlin). But - being a man - it was all clear to him and he left in due time, without any channelling by me :-)
This morning (almost in a hurry - because it was - surprise! - one hour later than expected - but then: it was Sunday) I thought of former times, very far back, once upon a time, when due to the change to summertime I arrived to leave at Heidelberg station in wrong time. Errrgg sorry, shamefully I have to correct: "Twice upon a time..." And did I learn from it? Oh no, not I...
It is the same as with directions, but there I am not alone: my friend Anne - and many women I know - each time walk to the left when we stand in front of a station and our map pretends to direct us to the right. (I even invented a map for women - I mean: if I hold the man-made map upside down, it works... But then came Google-map, so I am still not rich).
Oh - Yes: I am able to learn very complicated words in Italian, as "frigorifero" or "abbassamento in chiave" (sometimes I even suspect that this 'abbassamento in chiave' might be the reason why I can't grasp the right direction) - but maybe, I think, the very reason for my summertime-change-blackout is that I am just utterly unconvinced that summertime change is necessary or helpful... and then I get stubborn... which is so utterly idiotic...(come to think of it: as is that change to summertime).
Alas! you know me, dear friend: I always make the best of it...
So I congratulate myself on being ...
... timeless...

(Though utterly punctual, I have to add - when I have adjusted my watch...)


11 comments:

  1. I think that the left side of your brain must be more dominant Britta than the right. Now have I got that correct or not?
    By adding an extra word perhaps it would help -
    i.e. Spring forwards - Fall backwards.

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    1. Dear Rosemary, thank you! If it were so simple - :-).
      Recent psycological and medical studies showed, that the dychotomy between left- and right brainers is a myth. "The pop psychology notion of a left brain and a right brain doesn’t capture their intimate working relationship. The left hemisphere specializes in picking out the sounds that form words and working out the syntax of the words, for example, but it does not have a monopoly on language processing. The right hemisphere is actually more sensitive to the emotional features of language, tuning in to the slow rhythms of speech that carry intonation and stress."
      Well - and added: I am a person using both hands equally a "both hander" (my father and our son are absolute pure left-handers) - and tests told me often that my brain works as highly creative as highly analytical. But evidently NOT when summertime change is concerned. And: I added "forward" to spring - but jumped right back :-)

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  2. I have nothing helpful to add, being very resentful of this arbitrary time change. We went forward a month ago and it was hard! I'd come to enjoy the sunrise earlier and earlier and was at once plunged back into darkness for no good reason.

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    1. Dear Pondside, you speak out of my heart! "plunged into darkness for no good reason" - that is what I feel -- might be that I work with re- or suppression, who knows - sort of rebellion (which does not serve me anyway, my brain knows it).

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  3. Since childhood I have said that if some people want to get up an hour earlier let them. Leave me alone! But no... they must share their foibles with everyone else. So we all have to endure the dreaded daylight saving time. Just when we get used to it they go and decide to sleep an hour later so we go back to standard time. Make up your mind!

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    1. Dear Emma, I love that : "share their foibles with everyone"! Yes, they do - though it is proven now (well: statistics) that at least the German citizens don't want it, and economy doesn't see sense in it either. And as you say: when finally the circadian rhythm has get used to it: they change it again...

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  4. We once took a vacation on Crete during the week when Greece changed to daylight savings time. We had no idea, the whole of the time. At our last hotel, which had specified mealtimes, we didn't realize we were an hour late for every meal and couldn't understand why the restaurant was almost empty. On the last day, we went to ask if we could have a late checkout and were advised it was already well past time. (They were very nice about it.) Shocked, we told them what we thought the time was, and were finally disabused. We very nearly missed our plane!

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    1. Dear Susan, now that is a story! Imagine to almost miss the aeroplane...But not to feel the time change shows that your vacation must have been a wonderful one: without stress by deadlines, no diktat of the watch...
      I will go to Crete (for the first time in my life) end of May.

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  5. Dear Brigitta, I can never remember if it is spring back --as if from a threat-- and fall forward --less injurious than falling backwards-- or the other way around. As Shakespeare asked: Is it nobler in the mind to be clueless in California or timeless in Berlin? Delightful post!

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    1. Dear Geo., thank you! Good to find a brother in arms (and many sisters, when I look at the comments above) After posting I already felt quite silly - but than I thought: I am, so what - I love lightness - The importance of Being Earnest can wait.

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    2. Dear Geo., thank you! Good to find a brother in arms (and many sisters, when I look at the comments above) After posting I already felt quite silly - but than I thought: I am, so what - I love lightness - The importance of Being Earnest can wait.

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