That’s that then, everybody back on their heads(*). I returned to a remarkably quiet inbox considering so many of our customers are overseas and don’t “do” Christmas (certainly not the way the UK seems to). It may help that lots of them are also in retail / banking / freight so have had some real work to do rather than just bothering me with obscure requests.

That’s just as well as I am always miserable at this time of year & could do without work hassles as well. I’ve been giving some thought to why I get so down at New Year and have a new theory. The old ones about too many sprouts (I avoided them all), disappointing presents (I had brilliant gifts from everyone (not “everyone” in the whole world, just from everyone who buys me presents)) and hung over late nights (moderation was my key word) don’t seem to fit.

I think I’m just not suited to looking forward - or back! You are supposed to live in the moment so that’s not all bad, but it is a problem. My logical mind doesn’t cope with emotion too well, the actual experience is OK but predicting & remembering I can’t seem to manage. Talk about holidays I don’t wallow in happy memories of the past or pleasant day dreams of the future I worry about journeys, packing, what I can’t take I might need, whether the kids will need entertaining and how I can do it… I am by nature a problem solver (which is good) but it does mean I’m always looking for problems and possible solutions. I didn’t take a driving test theory exam but I bet I’d be brilliant at hazard perception.

This is good for software development, because (in software) everything that can go wrong will go wrong, it just makes me a bit sad in real life

Maybe I’ll do some googling for “happiness” - certainly this chap is quite interesting on the subject…

http://www.embody.co.uk/brucestanley/

(* If you don’t follow the reference just google for: jokes “everybody back on their heads