Christmas in Australia coincides with summer and the longest school holiday of the year.  (School runs from February through to mid-December.)  By now the roads are starting to clear for the drive to work but at lunch and dinner taxis are impossible to find.  Revelers choke the streets and flow out of the pubs.  It must be the silly season.

Don’t try to get a meeting in China during Chinese New Year.  Don’t try to get important work done in France in August.  Never schedule a meeting in America for the day after Thanksgiving.  And don’t try to get important work done in Australia between 15 December and 15 January. 

When I first moved to Australia in 1990 you could fire a cannon in an office after Christmas and not hit a soul.  Today it’s a little more reasonable - our links to the global economy make it mandatory to have some staff around.  Yet anyone with kids and a little bit of holiday time owing is off like a shot. 

Today is our staff Christmas party - so we’ll be off filling the pubs later.  Enjoy your holiday season - and be silly!