Siesta and GMT

[olive]

Surprised there hasn't been a post on this subject. It is all over the uk papers and Washington post. Cannot post the links but elpais in English has several articles and references.

Rajoy is suggesting changes to working day to finish earlier, shorter middle of day break and adopting the correct time zone.

Sometimes I find the siesta infuriating but have empathy for those in Andalucia that have one. I of course just have a power nap! No siesta may suit those living and working in cooler parts of the country. Farming friends just doze off under a tree.

Adopting GMT is a no brainer to me. The sooner the better.

What do you think?

[country boy]

Personally I think siesta is crazy, but it's not my country, so it's not for me to comment apart from my own feelings.
Hope they do do away with it however but don't expect they will

[TorreDelAguila]

Siesta and working very late (retail, businesses...) has always seemed to me not to be good for family life. Maybe an up-side?
Small kids eating late, getting up for school early...
Many businesses slowly giving it up anyway.
But not my country, either - a decision absolutely for the Spanish.

[katy]

Not many seem to have it now except in small places where people are inclined to work locally. My friend used to travel to work in Malaga from La Cala and had to just hang around for two hours as no chance of getting back. Even builders on the coast only take an hour lunch. Another I knew used to have a 20 min drive home so she had only time for a quick shop and a sandwich before going back. Plus the cost of two journeys each day.

I would have hated it as if I ever take a nap in the afternoon I feel groggy the rest of the day.

[Wicksey]

I'm quite happy with the way things are at the moment - I think it's what makes Spain Spanish, if you know what I mean. Just about all of our local town shops and poligono units close up for the afternoon.

The siesta thing is something that I am used to and as the big shops stay open all afternoon it really doesn't bother me at all. I don't have a siesta sleep and the food shops (and roads) are so nice and quite mid-afternoon, I would hate it if it was busy all the time as that's my quiet time for doing the food shop. I also like the fact that the towns come alive in the evenings with everything open. On visits to the UK everything seems so dead after 5:30pm when most of the High Street stores shut (I am talking about small towns in the sticks, not London or big shopping malls).

I guess a shorter afternoon break would make it difficult for people to do whatever they do in the afternoon. Schools around here seem to finish between 2 and 3:30pm so that works well if the parents work in morning and are there for picking up the kids, having lunch etc. When we lived in France, lunch was sacrosanct and I could never imagine them giving up their long lunch break (although it did start at 12 and finish around 3 .... I never got used to that early lunch!). I think that lunch is still an important meal for the Spanish so they'd always want a good few hours off in the afternoon.

[katy]

We still take a late lunch in UK. Find it strange when I see people in restaurants at 12pm. Same in USA. and Germany. my Spanish neighbour finished work 3pm for the day as he worked in public sector but his wife had to go back until 9pm. I was amazed that they ate around 10.30 pm and were in bed by 11.30pm. Not very good for digestion!

[Wicksey]

Like you Katy we like a late lunch, but we cannot eat late in the evening as I get indigestion

Re the GMT thing, we would hate that as it would mean it gets dark earlier in the winter. Even on the shortest day the sun doesn't set until 6pm and it is still light until almost 6:30pm. As we are SAD sufferers, the longer daylight hours are something we really appreciate here. We don't need to get up early (and as bad sleepers we are not usually up early), so the current sunrise/sunset times are perfect for us.

[Lavanda]

Rajoy is fiddling while Rome burns.

[Lyric]

I would quite like the Siesta dumped/shortened but feel it's too ingrained in the way of life.
While GMT is geographically correct, I have to agree with Mrs W dark nights in winter - no.

[Enrique]

Hi,
"Rajoy is fiddling while Rome burns."
Why would he care about Rome.........Madrid is his problem...........

I like the lighter Winter evenings......gives me more time to get the Olives in when I'm over for my Winter break........

[Wicksey]

While GMT is geographically correct, I have to agree with Mrs W dark nights in winter - no.

Looking at a time zone map, it is only Portugal and the Canaries that is on GMT, the rest of western Europe is on the GMT+1 timing, so I would have thought it would have been better to remain on that and be in line with the majority of Europe.

[Lavanda]

I think Switzerland keeps GMT as well.

[peteroldracer]

I think Switzerland keeps GMT as well.

Where do folk get these ridiculour ideas from?! A very quick check on a 'world clock' on the web would have shown this not to be true, thus saving the poster's time and effort as well as those like me who prefer sensible statementd.

[Lavanda]

Apologies Peter. I almost never Google anything because I am allergic to Google. They don't pay taxes.

[katy]

I would like to go over to Spanish time...and June weather

Peter doesn't realise that we women keep things in our head. We only Google to prove someone wrong

[Lavanda]

[ebbnflow]

While GMT is geographically correct, I have to agree with Mrs W dark nights in winter - no.

Looking at a time zone map, it is only Portugal and the Canaries that is on GMT, the rest of western Europe is on the GMT+1 timing, so I would have thought it would have been better to remain on that and be in line with the majority of Europe.

It depends on the type of time zone map you look at. "Standard Time" i.e. following the lines of longtitude has GMT passing through eastern Spain and GMT-1 passing through Ireland and Portugal. The one you checked may have been for actual adopted timezones.

As for siestas, the obolition or reduction of these is a step to aid european trade. Offices in most of europe are working while Spain's snooze, thus reducing the working day for international trade by a considerable degree.

For myself I don't mind either way on both issues, just go with the flow.

[Flexo]

The siesta is probably a nice idea in the summer if people actually go to sleep. Since the advent of the airconditioner, I have noticed that most spaniards go to the pub instead and some does not always come back to work after that.

A siesta in the winter is completely idiotic in my opinion. People close the stores at 13-14.00 when it is as lightest and warmest, go away and then come back to work at 17-18.00 when it is dark and cold and you just want to go to sleep.

[Wicksey]

It depends on the type of time zone map you look at. "Standard Time" i.e. following the lines of longtitude has GMT passing through eastern Spain and GMT-1 passing through Ireland and Portugal. The one you checked may have been for actual adopted timezones.

It is the actual adopted time I'm looking at as the lines of latitude obviously don't influence the times used by those countries, which was my point!

A siesta in the winter is completely idiotic in my opinion. People close the stores at 13-14.00 when it is as lightest and warmest, go away and then come back to work at 17-18.00 when it is dark and cold and you just want to go to sleep.

you must go to bed early Flexo It's not usually dark here until about 6:30pm on the shortest day (and not always too cold), but I can cope with that compared to about 4pm on a winter's day in England .... now that does make me want to go to bed early.

[Flexo]

Point being the darkness and chill temperatures makes me want to cuddle down to preserve temperature and it certainly doesn't improve my working skills. It would be more intelligent to work and be outdoors during the most luminous hours of the day in the winter and sleep while it is cold and dark. Specificially as most spanish homes and offices have insufficient isolation and many have insufficient heating. If it is too much trouble to change habits between summer and winter then maybe changing the time zone to reflect reality would be a good start.