Opinion: Looking forward to longer days

The shortest day of the year is over. Photo/File

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to longer days.

I, like most people, have been getting ready in the morning to find it's still dark at 7am.
At 4pm, it's dark again.

It's a classic New Zealand winter.

These shorter days are my biggest pet peeve with our winter.

I despise the cold and the rain but I'll take those three times over than short days without question. Give me the cold days over short ones any day.

Thank goodness for yesterday, Thursday, June 21 - the Winter Solstice!

I'm sure I'm not the only one who is excited WInter Solstice arrived yesterday, which means from today our days will gradually become longer from now on, and bringing more daylight hours with it.

Sure, it's only a few extra minutes by the end of the month, any amount of extra light I get in the day, I'm here for.

Winter isn't my favourite season at the best of times but the worst part for me has to be the fact it is dark the whole time I'm either at home or socialising during the weekdays.

Motivation is low and the fact you both leave home for work in the dark and leave work to go home in the dark can, doesn't make for the brightest of times ... literally.

The last few weeks I've been nothing short of lazy. I stay in bed until the very latest minute possible and then begin the rush to get ready for work - the effort is minimal.

At the end of the day, I leave work and head straight home - unless of course I have somewhere to be - cook dinner and then blob in front of my television snuggled on the couch.

Exercise is pretty much non-existent.

In New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, winter begins on June 1 and ends on August 31.

I'm already counting down the days until summer and dreaming about the sun and surf.