Community living

Phew! Normal service has been resumed. No more panto; no more guest editors forcing Evan, Jim, Ed and Sarah into embarrassingly coy interviews with Karl Lagerfeld et al.; no more year-end reviews of the year behind and portentous glimpses of the year ahead. I don’t know why every year we have to go through this rigmarole. Does anyone really want, or dare, to look back even for a moment? As for the future, for once I’m really intrigued and even excited by what lies ahead. No one can say where this economic downturn might lead, or how long it will last. All the experts are just as baffled as us ordinary mortals. I used to worry that I could never understand what the financial experts were saying; now I know I needn’t have bothered. Natural forces have reasserted themselves. The world is full of mystery. One thing, though, is for sure: we’re all in for hard times.