Consider the smallgoods factory floor. Lines of stainless steel machinery, steam and frosty chillers compete along kilometres of conveyor belts. Here human endeavours are breathtaking. We overcome tedium, endure cold and noisy conditions. We work for the company of the invisible pig.

In December time tumbles downhill, like a rushing creek, towards Christmas, whereupon it slows and spreads wide like a meandering river flowing towards the silt-depositing delta of January. That’s when the detritus of the hectic preceding year finally settles, where a new year starts to be built on rich alluvial sediments. This brief and tumultuous annual cycle is a speck in geological time.