The hammering noise from outside my window here in Eyre Square caught me by surprise; the Christmas Market starts tomorrow, the earliest it has ever been, and a reminder once again of how the year has been concertina-ed into what feels like six months.
The festive season is still about six weeks away, so the head of me will have been well jingle-belled by the time real Christmas arrives. To be honest, all our heads have been done in by the interminable US election which came to a conclusion yesterday with a result that in all truth should not have been that surprising.
Different standards apply to elections in different parts of the world; in the US, the tolerance for candidate behaviour has a much lower bar; things that might dismiss in other jurisdictions are valedictory there. In the country of Kronkite, there is still credence given to a man off the telly who tells you what you want to hear. The power of selling.
I've always been fascinated by the way other people do things. As a kid at home, in the depths of darkest night, I'd run the dial up and own the Pye radio on the farthest reaches of Long Wave to listen to stations from across the globe. At the time, it was the most immediate way of finding out what people were saying and thinking on the far side of the world. Of course, what I was listening to on the Voice of America, the Christian Science Monitor, Radio Albania and Radio Moscow was pure propaganda, but at least it was fascinating. A voice talking to me.
For the last year or so, I'd frustrate myself by seeking political opinions from right across the political spectrum in the US. Tuning into podcasts, certain TV stations, scanning radio channels, reading newspaper articles. I spent some time in the US last month, and was utterly convinced that it was going to take a much stronger candidate than Harris to defeat a candidate like Trump. When you can speak without consequences, there is so much more latititude in your political message.
Probably by this weekend, we will be fully into our own election campaign here. Like a new series of a soap opera, we have many new characters to choose from. Our own political dramas will arise over the coming weeks...(events, dear boy, events ).
So far I have not seen any inkling that the election is going to energise us. It is a time of the year when people are focused on Christmas, on bills. After six months of a global political drama, our own election feels like playing a minor match after the All-Ireland Final.
However, it too will chart its own journey. Let the jousting begin.
