Bob Dylan said ‘The times they are a-changin’ – I know he wasn’t contemplating the weather, but I’m going to go ahead and pretend that’s what he was talking about.
Here, in Central Europe we’ve had a good run this year – right now as I type away from the warmth of an overcrowded coffee shop – it’s a very respectful 11C – for an evening at the ass-end of October, that’s more than fair.
However, it won’t be long before winter comes crashing down in full force and in this part of the world, the change is often sudden and severe. So all of this has me thinking about the things that we all like to do when we start the process of becoming the metaphorical bear turning to his/her cave for that seasonal hibernation.
Our change in focus becomes more introverted – not so much a staring in the mirror, more it becomes about redirecting interest into our homes – our indoor entertainment and activities up until the point that some organised outward exploration trips become necessary when we’re finally suffering from that familiar end of year spell of cabin fever.
So what indoor activities and pastimes have we to look forward to – well I’ll leave the overindulging in food and the rutting to keep the mercury rising up to your good selves.
What I might be able to help with are the things that you may have missed, those that flew under your radar and possibly some of these may just help you when it comes to dare I say it – the big X shopping sprees that we all kid we’re not going to do this year – but where inevitably someone within your inner circle of friends/family doesn’t get the memo and then – before you have time to try and quote the Bible or Tolkien’s ‘Fellowship of the…” – everyone is reversing their idea about a self-imposed shopping embargo and you’re pressed for time before the big 2-5 with a list as long as the terrible Xmas tracks played in shopping malls the world over.
Over the next coming days I’ll be putting out some pointers, reviews and news regarding those ‘cool’ things in the many forms of music, film, games, tech, tools, luxury and events/activities that might plug the gap as we all become a little vitamin D deprived and summer seems like a distant memory… Stay tuned!
