Still here!

This is a service for my northern hemisphere readers, a post from the future for their reassurance: 21 December has already dawned here in New Zealand, warm and bright and calm and ordinary. On my constitutional this morning a pair of tui rustled over my head, a kingfisher squawked at me, a sheep baaed somewhere, a friendly cat ran out to greet me and then thought better of it, and a huge dog walked past focused totally on the grumblings in his stomach that even I could hear.

The pohutukawa's in full bloom, people's gardens (including mine) are neat and bright with colour, the sky, in between heat showers, is blue and honestly, everything's right with the world. It's the last day of work for most, everything feels relaxed and laid-back (I'm not speaking here of the malls) and ahead lie Christmas, holidays, summer, the beach and boats.

I bet they're feeling silly now, all those people sucked into believing that daft Mayan claptrap about today being the en