Sunshine on a Rainy Day
Another summer has faded into the memory once again, teasing us with a last few days of autumn sunshine as if to cloud our memories from the months of torrential rain that have characterised this particular summer. Back in childhood days you knew the long days of the summer holidays were soon to be curtailed with purchases of new school uniforms laid out like a looming threat to oh so temporary freedoms that you hoped would last forever and a gradual closing in of summer nights; fights with parents ensued to prolong the call indoors as street lights flickered into life far too early. The Boogie Man would soon be out patrolling the streets and it was time to come indoors.
Mornings became a little chillier and the grass stayed wet with dew well up until lunchtime, ensuring the grass stains from the last summer games left an indelible memory of summer; school would not be ‘out forever’ again for sometime. And so we woke on some depressing September morn and made that reluctant trudge back towards the gaping mouth of the school gates. Fast forward into adult life and the days of the end of summer are now signalled by many more equally depressing and recurring factors than the onset of school. It seems there is predictability to the changing of the seasons and nowhere more in evidence that on our television screens.
Another Saturday Night
With the first booming sound-bites announcing the onset of winter like the DFS sale does that of Christmas, we know that the awful X Factor has returned, starting ever earlier this year; thousands of hopefuls sharing not a shred of talent, originality or hope but willing to boost Mr Cowell’s bank balance in exchange for being publicly humiliated. In a virtual return of fire, the BBC announced the line up for Strictly Come Dancing letting it be known in the media that this year – like last year – the show will be “sexed up”. Someone, somewhere at the BBC seems to have missed the point that Strictly’s appeal is very much as a family show and not even Mr Cowell could sex up Brucie, Len and two camp, middle-aged pantomime queens.
Of course, the ubiquitous Ant & Dec are back again and soon we will have the annual call to the jungle; surely there cannot be many more C-list celebrities we have never heard of, willing to choke on insects for their fifteen minutes of fame and a centre spread in OK! magazine? We also have the return of wall to wall football, a game tailor made to fill a media world with more channels than worthwhile content to broadcast. One might ask when football actually ended as there seems an almost year round assault on the senses from its legion of pundits. These people really do seem to believe that football is “more important than life or death” as Bill Shankly once said. Once again six foot plus athletes will start toppling over on our screens as if Brucie were asking them to attempt the Argentinian Tango.
Clocks
Gloomy and wet as it has been most of us would still prefer the longer summer days but with the nights closing in we will soon be plunged back behind closed doors and drawn curtains with the turning back of the clocks. Inevitably, news editors will be dusting off the stories around changing the hours of summertime and politicians and commentators will argue the pros and cons to avoid at least talking about the economy; yet nothing will actually change, which seems bizarre in that the benefits are so worthy of consideration and the debate so frequent. Of course there would be winners and losers but without actually trying to sample the impact the debate is rendered pointless.
Those unfortunate enough to have to cope with the daily commute to work will have revelled in the absence of competition from the school run. Once again, this is another feature of daily life that needs addressing simply because the potential gains are so obvious to so many. Could schools start earlier and finish the core curriculum earlier? Could kids rediscover the real purpose of having two legs and walk to school? Could the extra time in the early afternoon capitalise on the nations apparent new found love for sport – let’s see how long this lasts – there have to be worthy considerations here? Let us open the debate because the status quo of early morning gridlocked roads makes little sense and there must be a better way.
Better Days?
A recent survey found that an alarming percentage of kids living within a modest distance of school still get driven there each day. I once took a bus to Leeds from Bradford and was amazed that this tiny bus took almost every detour possible seemingly to ensure that nobody actually had to walk more than a hundred yards to board it. If a short walk to a bus stop each day improved people’s activity levels think of the benefits in terms of health, speeding up bus journeys and reducing emissions. Simple ideas are often the hardest to implement.
My point is that there are so many things we can take from the summer months – rain or shine – to make life just that bit more bearable in the months to come. The changing of the seasons is a marvellous time of year but maybe we should try to stay outdoors that bit longer and, possibly, a bold experiment with the clocks may help us do so? The one bit of positive news is that the early viewing figures for X Factor are well down. Is it too much to hope for a swift end as one bright bit of light on the horizon?
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