Not A Fan Of November
This is just a personal opinion, of course, but November is basically a bit pants.
It’s cold, damp, dark and just that bit more miserable in general than the other months; it even starts with a big negative NO!
We come out of October and the fun of Halloween into this wasteland of greyness. The Christmas purists won’t let us brighten it with pre-Christmas cheer, greeting any attempt at joyfulness with a disdainful eye and either the utterly unimaginative meme of Noddy Holder declaring “Not yet” or the semi-eroneous phrase stating there are twelve days of Christmas and none of them are in November. With the latter, I am always tempted to spam the users with their own words if they do anything Christmassy before the day itself!
On a personal level, November holds lousy memories; loved ones have been lost or nearly lost, idols have passed on, and one particularly bad November started a spiral of self-doubt and loathing that took about five years to shake off, and even now the effects can creep up on me unawares. (This happens much less so these days, I hasten to add, but it does still lurk in the darker recesses of my subconscious)
Even bonfire night doesn’t help. Once, this was a time when neighbours came together and shared food, homemade treats and sweets around a bonfire with a few fireworks thrown in. Now it always sounds like a war has broken out on the main night with constant bangs and flashes in the days before and after.
If I can snap out of my November malaise, I may attempt to brighten things up. I want to get the house sorted early and start putting a touch of festive sparkle on things around the house. Anything to banish the November grey.
