Surviving autumn

I don’t have to write what autumn actually means. We just have to look out the window. Morning – fog, midday – rain, afternoon – darkness. Unfortunately this is the reality and we have to survive it. I want to share with you a few of my tips for fighting autumn depression. Do they work? The decision is yours. The first way I call ‘Bear Way’. You take four months holidays, move the fridge to the bedroom and go to sleep. This idea it’s really simple, but in reality it’s the worst. I can’t sleep for that long. The longest I have ever slept is fifteen hours. Unfortunately, not everyone shares the bear’s sleeping pattern. Way number two. You clean your little house and invite your friends. After two hours listening to how someone else is better off than you, way number one looks more attractive.  The third way is as old as the world. Relax in the bath with a book. The problem is that it has to be a really good book and unfortunately in Roscommon, we don’t have a Polish library. My own bookcase includes a few crime thrillers and after reading these I’m afraid to open the fridge in case there are human body parts in there. Time for number four. Full power internet. It doesn’t matter what website you open, everywhere it’s post-election mania. Poland after voting (also before) it’s like a country full of broken promises. It’s a really good time for songwriters. I remember a song by Kazika ‘Walesa give me back my 100 million zloty’. So, you can see how humans, instead of fighting with depression, just go into a deeper depression. The fifth way brings you to Poland. This way it’s the best, the old Polish family can fix your mood, say ‘don’t worry, everything will be ok’. The last time I called my sister, she told me that her five-year-old son was watching the movie ET last Sunday and when his grandmother called him and asked if he could visit her, he answered, ‘yes grandmother, but I have to finish watching the movie about the goat from space.’ I was laughing hard, but I was missing him, which didn’t make me feel any better. Oi, even my writing is really depressing. It’s good that I’m just writing once a week because this could finish very badly. To counterbalance this, I have to say that autumn is just a few months and it’s really close to Christmas and let’s face it, it’s really unnatural to be sad at Christmas.