Not long till you're in the shortest day

Tomorrow, the sun will clock in late, leave early, and pretty much WFH. Yes, it's winter solstice, when the sun makes its shortest, lowest arc across a sky near you. Pessimists call it the longest night. We prefer to the positive spin of calling it the shortest day. So, don't treat this Sunday as normal sabbath, but a day to seize absurd opportunities that only a truncated solar schedule can provide. Tomorrow, you can claim you didn't finish your weekend chores - because the bloody day itself didn't finish. Then, for those of you who do have time and energy for a love life, nothing says, 'I love you' like whispering, 'Darling, our time together is literally shorter today.' It's the perfect excuse to skip awkward dinners and head straight to, well, dessert.

With fewer hours of sunlight, you can also compress your mistakes into a smaller window. Forget to pay bills? Well, there wasn't enough day to do it. Skipped weekend shopping? Dangerous bar-hoppers emerged before you could take the car out. The shortest day is basically a cosmic witness protection programme for the incompetent. So, tomorrow, revel in the briefest of days. Treat it like a flash sale: blink and it's gone. But, oh, the bargains you can snatch before night swallows it whole. For our readers south of the equator for whom tomorrow will be the longest day, our commiserations.