Mid-October! Eep! It starts in November here, but what really gets me is the fake snow and the tinkly sugary Northern Hemisphere sings like 'Jingle Bells' and 'White Christmas's. Some places do very cool decorations like Santa in speedos and the reindeer in sunnies though.

It's a very fraught time of year here too: the holidays in both senses (factories and some offices close for their summer break just before Christmas), final exams for schools and unis, lots of things all at once. We go away later (February or March) but lots of people leave on Boxing Day so they're planning for that too. And then we have an interminable grey winter with nothing to brighten it--at least nothing national.

I like the lazy summer days afterwards. Mind you, this time it might be an enforced laziness this time; I'm between contracts.