This Time Of Year

I love it! Here in New Zealand the holidays start at Christmas, continue on through Boxing Day with a statutory holiday thrown in if either of those days fall on a Sunday often making for a short week the following week at the end of which the whole process starts again for the New Year celebration.

It's a time to sit back, relax & reflect. Many businesses close between Christmas & New year so the streets are somehow quieter - the pace of everything slowed down. There is no school for weeks. It's summer, it's holiday time & the atmosphere is somehow different even though many things just continue on as normal.

So why then, when I never ever naturally wake at 5.00am - even when I have to, even if a herd of rhinoceros were to stampede through my bedroom yelling out "Shoe Sale 70% off beginning in 1 hour" did I wake just before 5.00am the other morning? I read for a bit, had a wee panic when just before 5.30am there was a nice wobbly jerk & rattle, & upon leaping out of bed ready to take cover it finally occurred to me that the sky was glowing a rather nice shade of pink.

I never said I was alert - just awake. Kinda...sorta.

By the time I threw on some clothes, grabbed some gear & headed in the car to the beach I'd missed the most colourful part of the sunrise.

But still it was nice to catch what I did - & it was so quiet & peaceful.