The title of this post pretty much sums up how I am feeling at the moment. I am conscious that it is less than two weeks until the clocks go back and that the summer is officially over-although having said that, the act of scraping off ice from my car’s windscreen last Friday made me realise winter was on the way.

It is not the cold frosty mornings I don’t like, in fact I like snuggling up inside my thick winter jackets and scarfs and drinking lots of hot chocolate, it is much more about the length of the day that I find so depressing. I really hate going to work in the dark and returning in the dark. It feels as if I live a half life for 5 days of the week, and only fully engage with living at the weekend. When the days are longer I can engage with the outside world both before and after work, instead of emerging from my house and driving to work in the pitch dark, only to return home in the pitch dark. I don’t think I suffer from SAD-seasonally adjusted depression-as I don’t so much feel depressed, just somehow cheated of living each day to the full. Many of my friends like this time of the year, as they say they spend more time with their family, and also that they look forward to Christmas, a festival I really don’t like as I feel it is devoid of any of its real meaning, and usually serves to only make the captains of industry richer, and the humble consumer poorer. (More about that nearer the time!)

So how do I survive this dark and gloomy time of the year? I use it to read lots of the books I should have read during the summer, but was too busy, as well as catching up on lots of box sets or films that I have been recommended. It’s not the same as really engaging with life, but it’s the next best thing! Top of my list to read is ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ by Gabriel García Marquez, my TV series is ‘The Night Of’ starring the wonderful Michael K. Williams, and my top film is ‘Inception’ starring Leonardo DiCaprio. That should keep me going for the first week…