That's Why It's Called The Silly Season

This time of year brings much misery to people like myself and my cat, who despite the weather like to get around wearing a gorgeous furry black coat. Because it's summer, which in Australia is accompanied by Xmas. My opinion of Xmas has never been high (though I get into the sarcastic spirit occasionally) and I'm not a keen fan of summer either. But we often overlook it's good points. Apart from the usual suspects (abundant summer fruits, the ocean), here are some of the less frequently acknowledged benefits of summer:

No need to hunt for the tea cosy as you stand bleary-eyed in your kitchen making a pot of tea in the morning.

It doesn't matter if you don't have time to blow-dry your hair before you leave for work; it will sure as heck be dry by the time you get there.

Friends may say, "Just take some paracetamol and you'll be fine!" if you try to use flu as an excuse for not going out, but no one argues with a bad sunburn.

You can sleep in, hang the washing out at 1pm, and it'll still be dry by dinner time.

Total fire bans are a great excuse to ditch that mosquito-riddled BBQ in favour of a nice restaurant.

No need to jump up and down trying to keep warm at the taxi rank or bus stop after a night out.

Should you get lucky on said night out, you won't be mortified at the clothes-removal stage, when your partner sees that you're wearing a thermal under your outfit.

Winter shoes need to be polished. Summer sandals do not.

Lastly...whilst you may find it hard to sleep at night if it's hot, if like me you have a cat who likes to sleep in your bed, you may find yourself having a better nights sleep when said cat decides it's too hot to sleep with you, and slumbers near the fridge!

And yet...winter is easier to deal with. You can simply put on more clothes to warm up. And heaters are cheaper than air-conditioners. I've never gotten cloud burn or cool rash. As the temperature goes up, IQs go down. There's a reason why few of the nation's noted thinkers hail from Darwin. Queensland has not acquired it's reputation as the state of the sublime and the ridiculous due to it's temperate climate. The things that matter in Australia get done in the south.

Adults get too excited about summer. It's a sort of childhood-hangover from the days when summer meant two months to yourself. But Alice Cooper never recorded Office's Out For Summer. There comes no great day in mid-December when the last bell rings, and you run, whooping with glee, out the door, shredding your files and smashing your laptop (though that was possible in the late 1990s, if you worked a dotcom). And you don't return in February to find you've got a nice new supervisor (better than last year's supervisor, anyway) and you've lucked out with a cubicle that's near your friends.

Nonetheless, I'm going to enjoy my summer holidays. I'd better, as thanks to the Government's IR reforms, it looks like my first proper paid summer holiday could be my last. There is one drawback though...whilst I'm off work I'll have little internet access, so I may have to put The Pod on a summer hiatus. But I don't like this idea. Hunting for a solution...

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