Mahinda’s Little World

It’s gone, that’s where.

Summer this year didn’t really turn up, at least not in this corner of England. I generally regard the time between the May and August bank holidays as summer proper — before, and it’s a bit chilly; after, and it’s September, which is a school month and therefore Not Summer.

As such, my summer usually starts and ends with a bit of a holiday. Either the hockey Isle of Man tour or Hattrick Euro Boozer to start, and all manner of things to mark the end — there’s been the Reading Festival, Notts Uni RamSoc get-togethers, and of course the odd holiday (Sri Lanka for 2005 and 2006, Barbados this year…but more about that later).

One moment, though. When did ’summer’ lose its capital S? Back when I were a lad, I was taught to capitalise the seasons…which nobody seems to do any more. I’ve gone with the flow and made it all lower-case…but I still feel a pang of incorrectness whenever I do.

For the last few years, my summer has been full of tennis sessions in the park, usually Fog Lane. This year, we had one over the Easter weekend, and one a few weeks ago with just Adam and me…and that’s it. Rubbish. I’ve not seen Bethan, a regular partner last year, all summer.

Of course, the weather this year has been pretty atrocious…judging by how the Wednesday hockey sessions have been, it’s not actually been all that rainy, but there haven’t really been any scorching hot spells save a few weeks in early May. Early May doesn’t count.

So now the students are coming back and Manchester’s university corridor is livening up once more. As usual, I’ll miss the quiet once it’s gone, and the last week of September will be warm and sunny. But not summer.

Oh, and I’ve been rubbish on the blog front. I’m trying to rectify that little matter…