Christmas Countdown

To those of us who get paid our meagre salary monthly, it is 6 more pay days to Christmas which may seem a strange thought when the sun is beaming down and the smell of barbeque's and after-sun fill the air. The last thing many people want to think about while gingerly moving about due to sun-burn is turkey and tinsel but in some parts of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa they have been holding Christmas in July events to get that wintry feeling which we in the Northern Hemisphere have when it comes time to open our presents and stuff our faces with Quality Street. To confuse things slightly, some of the Christmas in August events were moved to July and this year were held in April which proves that Australians should not be left in charge of booking your camping trip, your two weeks in Exmoor in mid-summer will see you trying to light your barbecue on a rainswept day in January. Anyone with any sense of organisation will have already made a start on buying presents and saving with the supermarkets to spread the cost of the festive period by most of us will do the usual and panic around the 10th December and promise to be better organised next year as we stand in a long queue in Marks and Spencer's holding a pair of socks and a sorry looking box of mince pies. As we walk around in shorts and flip-flops, our thoughts will not be turning to reindeer wrapping paper, snow globes and laughing Santa teapots unless you are Australian celebrating Christmas in August in which case Merry Christmas and i hope you don't get eaten by a crocodile on the way home from the Office Party.