August

Apart from being the month when horses in the southern hemisphere have a birthday arrangement, meaning regardless of the actual date on which they were born they all turn a year older on the first day of the month, August is the month which  trails along after July and takes up the calendar space before September.

It’s a winter month and has very little to recommend it unless you are a keen skier and like to make the most of any snow that has fallen on your favourite skiing mountain.  The AFL football season is drawing to a close and football fans are either buoyed up for finals hopes on their team’s recent form or they are attempting to resign themselves to yet another year of Not Making the Top Eight.

 On my August horizon is the prospect of the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), which means poring over the paper program and deciding which films will make it onto my See This list.  I have already made my decisions and a handful of choices are waiting in the wings; those which fit into a short time frame at the very beginning of the Festival. I made these decisions a couple of weeks ago when my August plans revolved around a hospital stay early in the month. 

Nothing, it seems, is set in stone.  Last week I picked up some cold germs and although I have recovered from the worst of the cold I have been forced to face up to the idea the surgery might have to be postponed.  An August health hazard, the prime season for the ‘flu and common colds.

Sigh and groan.

 I wait to hear what happens next.

I am not happy.