November Spawned a Monster

Today's blog - on the November blues, poppies - the right to wear and not to wear, and springtime down under.

The blog title is of an old song by Morrissey. Now think what you like about old Mozza, genius/ twat, delete as appropriate but he couldn't half come up with some cracking song titles.

Now I can't remember what the song was about, but he could easily have been talking about my mood. What is it about this month and me? Every year it swings round and me and the calendar eye each other warily, knowing the "Bad Month" is looming.

Have you ever stopped to think about how much our lives are governed by the calendar? I am acutely aware of it. The most obvious thing, and over which we have no control is the seasons and the weather, which vary randomly all year along but with a basic premise of Summer = Warmer, Winter = Colder and then the hours of daylight which are a fixed constant from year to year, whatever the weather is doing. I think not a lot of people take a lot of notice of them but I'm pretty aware of them - in fact so aware that I could probably give you the sunset and sunrise times for any date of the year that you asked me. And for various other places in the world too.

NB: After reading that last sentence I can just hear Anne saying "Geek" in my head.

Most people who suffer from SAD will be aware of this, and the lack of daylight in the winter months, which really is poor in conditions like we have at the moment - an unrelenting gloomy sky. Now the hours of daylight and seasons aren't exactly aligned - I won't bore you with the details but it's to do with the slow speed at which the sea heats up and warms down between the seasons. Suffice to say it gets darker before it gets colder, and lighter before it warms up, which is why February is generally lighter than November, but much colder.

That's one half of living by the calendar, the rest is all down to society. And then it varies according to what you are into. But whatever it is, nothing much happens in November.

The "society" people move from one event to another during the summer, it's Ascot, Henley etc, but the "season" as they used to call it is over now.

Sports fans are spoiled for events during the year and live their lives accordingly - Six Nations, Wimbledon, World Cup, Open Golf, Olympics, Cheltenham, Tour De France and more - they all have their place on the calendar, and it's all pretty much done and dusted by this time of year. OK you've got football going on pretty much all year round, but it's nothing special when it's every week, and all the games that decide who wins what come towards the end of the season in the Spring.

Even the good old C of E does very little from trinity in the summer until advent kicks in at the end of November.

Then there are all the other dates on the calendar which define us. Christmas, Pancake Day, Easter, May Bank Holidays, Halloween, Guy Fawkes, we're all aware of them whether we like them or not.

But what is there to do after Guy Fawkes?

Every year the end of October approaches, it gets noticeably darker in the evenings very quickly, and then just as you are starting to notice that you get the added kick in the teeth of the clock change at the end of the month plunging your tea times into darkness. To quote the aforementioned sunset times, in London on October 1st this year the sun set at 6:39pm. By October 31st it was 4:36pm, that's one hell of a change.

But there's Halloween and Firework night to keep the interest going, but after that, a void. The shops may have us believe it's Christmas, but who seriously feels excited about Christmas on a grey day in early November on walking into a shop and hearing Mistletoe and Wine. Now I have no problems with shops putting their Christmas ranges in from September onwards and decorating the shop, they've always done it. Anyone who says it's getting earlier is talking bollocks. But I think at least they should be prevented from playing any music until December 1st.

So the combination of the dark, the lack of interesting things going on and all the rest of the above means that from 5th November onwards every year I find myself plunged into a seasonal depression that lasts until the end of the month. I just can't shake myself out of it. Once December arrives and Christmas really is on the horizon, I quickly recover.

Now many other people I hear bemoan January and February, but I don't mind them at all. Because, we are going in the right direction then. Every day the sun sets a little later and all those little signs of spring e.g. seeing the first snowdrop warm the heart. Eventually it leads on to my favourite time of year, springtime, and May, my favourite month.

One other little thought on November - I am absolutely fed up with reading stories about poppies in the press. People not being allowed to wear them, or being forced to wear them. It's absolutely ridiculous and just sums up one of the major things that is wrong with this country. It's quite simple - if people want to wear poppies to show their respect then they have every right to. Equally people who do not want to wear them should not be bullied into doing so just because they are on TV etc. Let people do what they as individuals want to do and respect their wishes!

One November it was all different. I'm going to get away from it this year I decided! Now I am very impressed by everyone's Halloween efforts in recent years but nothing will match the experience I had on 31st October 2004, when I found myself in Hollywood, where the streets were literally filled with revellers, never seen anything like it. By November 5th I was in Honolulu - no fireworks there but no problem with that, and the rest of the month was spent travelling around in New Zealand and Australia, enjoying sunset times well after 8pm.

Now as I am sure everyone knows, the seasons are reversed down under, so their November is the equivalent of our May. This did lead to some peculiarities, i.e. it was odd seeing "Spring Sale" signs in shop windows alongside the Christmas decorations (which still have snow on them!), but it was just lovely being away from the UK's most dismal month.

Strangely enough, I didn't get depressed that year.

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Jason x x