Whatever happened to deferred gratification?
Before answering that, let me just say that it has been abolished. Nowadays we all do everything a little bit before we say we're going to do it.
On Broughton Road, they started celebrating Trafalgar Day (the 21st of October) on the 18th. Perhaps we should be grateful, as only a few years ago a lack of nautically trained locals meant the traditional running-up of Nelson's flag signal was in serious danger of being dropped.
Meanwhile, on Bellevue Place, the profusion of rowan berries proved no deterrent this weekend for an early appearance of Granny Thomson's Halloween spiders, mummy, ghosties ...
bristling familiar ...
and the terrifying zombie-Franken-witch.
Out-earlying them all, John Lewis hung up (or rather draped down) their Christmas lights last Wednesday, a full six weeks before the beginning of Advent.
It's all too much, much too early. We shall return to this vexing topic in next month's special Easter edition.