So long, summer!

Summer is now officially over and who laments its passing? Some may rhapsodise about the period between June and September, but for many of us, it is a hiatus and trial, the period of the year we most dread. It’s the bill for autumn and winter, the season we’d live better without.  

I cannot understand why so many people like summer. It unites some truly awful things: nocturnally whining mosquitoes, hot, sleepless nights, oozing sweat, high blood pressure, and above all, bright, unforgiving light, so you feel you’re constantly being observed in some bizarre lab experiment by hostile scientists. The pavements of cities seem to fizz and reek, your feet balloon in work shoes, the underground turns into a cattle truck and no amount of ‘refreshing drinks’ (soft drinks are like alcohol – one invariably leads to another) ever seems enough.