DAYLIGHT SAVING AND THE SHRINE

Today I learnt another thing that the introduction of daylight saving in 1971 has caused problems with. For readers outside Australia, daylight saving was introduced so as to provide an extra hour of sunlight for people to enjoy in the evening. This phenomenon occurs in the summer months, the clocks being shifted back an hour for 5 months of the year, between October to March. It has been blamed by various dim-witted folk over the years as being the cause of their tomatoes ripening too quickly and their curtains fading prematurely. Dairy farmers have also accused this extra hour of confusing the cows…… $ I am back in the big smoke again; Tal and Rennie are staying at their Gran’s for the next week or two and going back to their old school for the first couple of weeks. So while they all went out for the day, I headed into the City to do a few things. It is great doing touristy things in your home town, and having my day-pack from my previous overseas travelling days made me feel more like a tourist than ever. $ After lunch I checked out a few different galleries and found that one of the main items on my fairly incomprehensive agenda, The National Gallery, is closed on Tuesdays, handy that. For some reason the Shrine of Remembrance seemed like the next place to visit, I saw a photo of it recently, can’t remember where, but I do remember thinking at the time that I should try and get along there some time. Quite a few of the books I have read lately concern the wars, so it seemed like the right thing to do. A nice walk through the parklands beside St. Kilda Road found me wandering up the hill towards this impressive stone building, and I followed the signs for the visitor centre, which was quite a surprise in it’s own right, I never imagined the Shrine having a visitor centre. It wasn’t that impressive but a good thing for school kids or such. $ The First World War finished on the 11th of November (the 11th month) and each year at 11am a ray of sunlight passes through a carefully designed hole in the roof (which took 142 pages of calculations) over the word “LOVE” in the centre of a line of a poem inscribed on the stone plaque in the centre of a special room with a vaulted ceiling. The impressive ceiling has some wonderfully carved stone reliefs, of action from the war, originally sculpted in situ over 2 years by a 20 year old sculptor in 1931. You need to crane your neck to look at them; they have been purposely created out of all perspective so they look correct from the ground. $ I got chatting to one of the attendants who was a font of information while not quite as wet. Every half hour there is a simulated ray of sun from a spotlight mounted in the hole through which the sun comes on this special hour. Robert explained that all was going well for forty years until daylight savings was introduced and suddenly the hour for the “LOVE” was pushed forward to 12pm. Moving the orbit of the sun would prove a bit difficult so now they set up mirrors on the roof to achieve the original concept. So all the dignitaries are present for the sham, smoke and mirrors ceremony, while the public are let in for when the real ray of sunshine takes place, after the removal of the mirrors on the roof. One day I will try and make it there for the 12pm start, that is, so long as I have picked all the ripe tomatoes, milked the cows, and shut the curtains.