The End Is Nigh

Here's my December column for AVENUE magazine.  Photography this month is by Natasja Schumann.

December 2012 marks the last of the possible predicted dates that I’m aware of for The End Of The World. By the time you read this, in fact – depending on whether or not AVENUE makes it to press on time – the event will be either just a few days away (December 21, I’m led to understand) or happened sometime last week. In the latter case, I will assume your leisurely article reading behaviour to imply that the world did not, in fact, end – hurrah! (Unless, of course, it did end and your radioactive, disease-ridden, post-apocalyptic corpse-in-waiting is spending its last few moments of life reading words laid down in a happier time; in which case, sorry about my attempts at clever sarcasm, I expect I look like a bit of an idiot now).

Advent calendar

Just wanted to share a detail from the advent calendar my mother bought me this year.  It's German and shows a winter village scene.  The calendar doors are the doors and windows to the houses and market stalls; when you open one, you get to see what's going on behind them.  I had one very similar as a boy and it's the only advent calendar from my youth that I remember.  It's so much more imaginative than the open-a-door-in-Santa's-beard-and-get-a-picture-of-a-spring-of-holly type we have in the UK (and don't get me started on the dullness of chocolate advent calendars).

And yes, my mother still buys me advent calendars.  Your point is...?