Those letters

I AM not usually required to work on Saturdays, however, on 26/9 I had to fill in for a colleague.

This meant I would start at 9.30am and it was highly likely that I would work the entire day.

Luckily for me I was done by 1.30pm. While gladly making my way home I had mentally put together the order of tasks I was going to do as soon as I got home.

While on my way home I saw a sign pointing me to a coffee shop that had quite recently opened.

I decided to up my energy levels for the task that awaited me at home.

I pulled up to the shop, ordered a cappuccino with a slice of a truly delightful carrot cake and a brownie. I thought that would have been the best part of my working Saturday.

It was not.

Alone in that coffee shop I pulled The Fiji Times from the counter.

May I say, Arvind Mani (FT 26/9) although seated alone I chuckled as I read your letter.

I absolutely love how you inject humour with a hint of sarcasm and spoonfuls of seasoning to your letters. I would now like to know more about poology, botany and chemistry. Please keep having a “couple” glasses of wine before you write.

On the subject of letters; this forum is made up of contributors from all walks of life giving other readers a piece of their mind.

But what is a letter? Well, simply stated it is something written and sent.

Therefore, being that this column is made up of “Letters to the Editor” it may be just two words or one sentence. Mohammed Imraz Janif (FT 26/9).

Those two words and one sentence letters were sufficient to get the message behind the letters.

Thank you Mohammed. I am now setting time aside to watch Pursuit of Happyness next Saturday (FT 27/9). So, to all the contributors of this column please continue writing with your own unique sense and style of writing.

That’s what makes you, you. And you are amazing!

Anyway, what was supposed to have been a half hour stop at the coffee shop turned to an hour.

Thereafter two friends walked in and just like that, the tasks I was mentally putting together on my way home had to be postponed to the following day.

That coffee shop with a copy of FT might just become a Saturday thing now.

Well, after I complete my Saturday tasks of course. V. DIROIROI

Nadi

Listening to people

THE prime minister says he likes to be on the ground and listen to the people and do what they tell him.

I would request the PM to listen also to the Opposition members.

They get dejected every time when their suggestions are ignored. SUKHA SINGH Labasa

Torocake Vou

YOUR feature in the FT 30/09 by Ana Madigibuli of the epic launch of the Torocake Vou by the Lovoni villagers in 1969 was very interesting.

Just three years later, Robert Langdon in the August edition of Pacific Islands Monthly was to write “his boat in fact, was moored in the Bureta river just outside the village.

“It was an Ovalaun version of the African Queen –– a long narrow, decrepit flat bottomed, unseaworthy looking craft with the name, Torocake Vou (The new era) inscribed in fading paint and much unconscious irony on its side.” TERRY HULME Eastwood, Australia

An extra hour?

REFERRING to Peter’s letter, he suggests that with daylight saving time (DST), we get an extra hour, like it was miraculously given, by the tooth fairy, for free?

Nothing need be sacrificed? Many of us do not get sufficient sleep as it is, and this is compounded with DST.

We are required to wake up in the morning according to the time on the clock, however, invariably, in the evenings, we go to sleep according to the angle of the sun –– an hour later, when it is cooler –– an hour less sleep, every day, as a result of DST.

Lack of sleep is a serious health issue, exacerbated by DST in Fiji, effecting most of us, and in particular, taxi and bus drivers.

DST is appropriate for places closer to the poles, such as New Zealand or Melbourne, and if I lived there I would support DST.

But Fiji is close to the equator which means that the variation in daylight between summer and winter is much less than New Zealand and Melbourne, and, in summer in Fiji, it is really hot. In January, I do not want to celebrate the day, I prefer to celebrate the cooler night.

As Peter pointed out, a winter sunrise is about 6am, the same as DST summer sunrise.

He acknowledges the difference is less.

But in NZ with the one hour change on a DST morning, there are still hours of daylight before 6am. Furthermore, it is generally agreed that one’s day would be more productive if your exercise routine is done in the morning, rather than in the afternoon.

Training in the morning, when it is cool, which is possible in summer without DST, seems to be a better idea. I am reasonably confident that the majority of us would prefer no DST, if only it were put to a vote. One thing DST in Fiji is good for is more grogging.

I don’t think the animals Peter mentioned, could care less.

M. HILL

Lautoka