Summer has gone

It certainly doesn't feel like it when you are outside but the truth is that summer has finished. That is official.

The first signs you get of this are the empty roads. Then you notice there is space to park your car near to the beach. The beach itself is devoid of all those sun umbrellas; you can actually see the sand again and the apartments are all closed up until next season.

In a sense this is a welcome relief that we look forward to. However, one of the spaghetti floats that we bought earlier in the year has split. I suspect a bit of rough handling on the part of our visitors (please don't tell them I said that)! No problem, whilst we are out at the Habanaras, we'll call in to Carrefour and get a replacement. The weather is still good so they are bound to still have them on display.

When we called there yesterday, not only were the floats missing but all the other articles that spell summer had gone. The swimming costumes, the masks and snorkels, the sun loungers - all put away for another year. Damn it, even the barbecues had been packed away. Don't Carrefour realise that in Spain barbecuing is an all year round way of cooking.

So what has taken the place of all this summer paraphernalia? I'll tell you; winter coats, fleeces, sweaters and such like. These are all reminders that winter is round the corner and that soon we will be complaining that it is cold - hace frio instead of hace calor.

Well thank you very much Mr Carrefour, we don't need to be reminded of this. We are still enjoying the warm sunshine. The last thing we want to think about is what we might need to wear in December and January. In our dreams it will still be mild enough to get away with spring type clothes.

The good thing is that at least we don't, as yet, have all the trappings of Christmas on display like you have in the UK shops. That used to really p*** us off when we lived there.

The only thing worse than the early reminder of Christmas, was breaking up for summer holiday from school and immediately finding "back to school" displays in M&S. It might have pleased those parents who were not looking forward to having their offspring at home for five weeks but it did nothing for we teachers who wanted to forget about the classroom for awhile.

So Mr Carrefour, can we have summer back for just a little bit longer please. November is soon enough to start thinking of the onset of winter.