And there it was, a giant poster for the change of season – by the world’s original, oldest and most brilliant artist, with no copywriting required – a simple design using colours alone to hint at what is happening around. We go from long days and social nights and start to feel the bite in the early morning air on our way to gym, or back home when the sun is going down.

Some other immigrants and expats I know struggle with seasons – they may come from places where climate is always functionally the same for those lucky enough to live indoors – one long summer, with year round weaponized sunshine and the fake illusion that there is freedom and safety in patches of much publicized natural beauty.

The trick, I found, is to GO with it. To LIVE the seasons. To feel the cheerfulness when Spring rolls around bringing energy and fresh blooms. To take advantage of very long days and awesome heat without the deathrays in summer. In autumn to reflect, as the maturity of the cycle does. And in winter to reach out to the festivals of light and to enjoy treats around the log fire.

This is the thing to adapting to this climate, as well as living life with whatever dignity fate allows. Not to fight the cycles of nature but to accept them and move with them.

The summer is at an end – the autumn leaves announce themselves like the world’s greatest advertising poster. And winter (perhaps my favourite season, as it matches my cold dead heart) – is just around the corner. And then comes spring again, it rolls around, as fresh whether you are 2 or 97.

The cycles were here before me. They will go on after me. My job is to enjoy as many of them as I can get.