Monday 25 August 2008

Summer is officially over

When I was a kid, Summer lasted forever. The Summer holidays were six long, hot weeks (it hardly ever rained during the holidays) of playing cricket and generally trying not to get into trouble with friends. Then, as I got older, the holidays, although longer in time (9 weeks when I was at secondary school) seemed shorter.

Not only that, but when there were events during the holidays, Olympics, World Cup, Commonwealth Games etc, they seemed to last the whole of the holidays, although I know that they only lasted the two weeks that they still do.

I think that the first event that I was aware of was the 1976 Montreal Olympics when I was 9. I vaguely remember the 1972 Olympics, but only the scenes when the Israeli athletes were being killed and the 1974 World Cup Final, but Montreal was the first one that I remember from start to finish.

So why is Summer over? Well, firstly, yesterday was the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Like the opening ceremony, I thought that this was very good. And then they let Britain do their 8 minute spot to promote the 2012 Olympics. I loved the fact that the commentators described it as 'quirky', where as I thought it looked tacky. And then it was on the news today that in amongst the collage during the film was a picture of Myra Hindley. Maybe they could have asked Gary Glitter to join Jimmy Page rather than 'megastar' (wtf!) Leona Lewis.

The British team have done extremely well, and the medal tally was the highest in about 100 years. Well done to all the athletes. Can they repeat this in four years? Who knows. The problem is that in the build up to the next Olympics, plus all the ones for the next 200 years, the press will have a field day referring to these games, as they do with 1966 in the build up to every World Cup. If/when the team don't do as well, they will have a field day slagging them off as they always do.

The second reason that Summer is over is that my kids have gone back to their mother. They were here for nearly three weeks and I think that they've enjoyed themselves, I know that I have. Now it’s back to every other weekend, for a maximum of three days, until the Christmas holidays. One thing that did amuse me was that I had to have some email communication with my ex. I nearly spat coffee on the keyboard at the content. Her email was full of what I call 'therapy speak'.

Now I'd always known that she was not the most stable of people (apparently, that's all my fault), and I also knew, from the kids, that she was undergoing some pretty heavy duty 'therapy' (again, apparently, it’s all my fault), but reading her emails, the only thing missing at the end of each sentence was the phrase 'm'kay' (if you're not sure what I mean, listen to the Counsellor in South Park).

The third reason that Summer is over is that today is a Bank Holiday. It is the last Bank Holiday until Boxing Day, which is the middle of Winter. There was a petition sent to the Government to have the Monday nearest to November 11th made a bank Holiday, but as yet nothing has come of it. I actually think that nothing will as there is nothing that the Government will gain from doing so, and we all know that politicians are purely in it for whatever they can get.

And the last reason that Summer is over is that in two days, Hannah is back at school. Admittedly, she is going back earlier than normal as this is her first day of secondary school, but she's going back having only had five weeks holiday. Mind you, if the Summers now were like they were when I was a kid, she'd be less happy, but with all the rain I think she's looking forward to getting back to school.

So that's it, Autumn's here, and before long it'll be Winter. Better go and dig out my thermals.

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