Here we are again, approaching Christmas and the excesses of the season, in my ninth seasonal greeting.

I feel like I’ve done it all before. And I if this particularly manic holiday season has anything in common with those in the late 1920s. A kind of eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die scenario.

A bit Déjà Vécu, which as I recently found out is French for (more or less) “I’ve already experienced this.”

In my younger days, we’d get to this part of the year, and we’d already be sunburnt and longing for a spot of rain. But this year, we’ve had more rain than any other year, and are longing for a spot of summer!

Floods are affecting half the country, and we’re experiencing plagues of mosquitos.

We’re heading into our largest, and least reported, wave of Covid hospitalisations, and no mask mandates, social distances or lockdowns.

Food, electricity and gas prices are sky rocketing along with mortgage rates.

Dictators are running rampant, democratic rights being undermined, and personal freedoms eroded.

It’s pretty dire in some parts of the world right now.

It feels apocalyptic – not exactly floods, fires and pestilence, but two out of three…

I’m back to feeling as though I need to install a bunker so I can retreat to it and come out again when this is all over.

Hopefully, you aren’t feeling the same.

In the meantime, I’ll take a few weeks off while I try to relocate my sense of humour!

So Happy Holidays 2022. I hope you have a great Christmas and New Year, and I’ll be back on January 9 2023.

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This photo of festive greenery is by Davies Designs Studio via Unsplash.

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