Wednesday, December 20, 2006
A brief visit
Been a bit of a long gap again. Work was hell and I reached about 6 inches away from nervous breakdown. But I am now engaged in my 2 week Christmas/New Year holiday (much to the horror of a couple of my customers who have been screaming blue murder about my absence this week- that's the sort of thing that is reallyhelpful for Christmas relaxation), and better still, Son's holiday starts this lunchtime so I have no more long days on my own to fill. Really I ought to be a little better at spending time on my own but, especially when I'm already stressed and a little down, I find it very difficult. I did have a rather pleasant time watching Madagascar yesterday morning, and went for a long walk in the afternoon.
Anyway I have made mince pies and stained-glass-window biscuits, and I'm about to plunge gently into the Christmas crowds of fanatical shoppers for the morning.
Hogfather was rather good. Beloved thought that it would be a perfect style for Northern Lights, but I suspect they will do something rather different for that. Robin Hood was dire this week; Torchwood was QI, my Owen/Guy crossover story is progressing slowly in my head and is at least a good way of getting to sleep, which doesn't say very much for its theatrical merit.
Christmas eve and day with Sister and family. No further plans at the moment. Son has kayak for Christmas (out of "his" own savings (or all the old Child benefit money)- cunning, that). It's a whitewater boat which will also play in surf, so about half the length of mine and turns on a halfpenny, with most of it underwater half the time, and he particularly likes the way that it can churn up the canal water for about 200 yards in about 10 seconds flat (he's going to be unpopular with the fishermen). It's got sufficiently cold for me to be a little unenthusiastic about going out in mine on my own- I tend to think that if I fell in the shock might be a little too much and I might just sink gently to the bottom and stay there.
Right, lets try town. Bank, food, chemists, anywhere else that looks interesting and the queues aren't too long. I heard a R4 programme about taste the other day so now I need to get some food colouring to establish whether Son is in fact a super-taster or just fussy. Not that it will help any; just curious.
Been following the war against the war against the war against Christmas with great amusement. Son and I spend our time out pointing out potential evidence of the war against Christmas. Sadly, the local paper seems to have steered clear this year, after last year's phenomenal "banning Nativity plays" story which managed to establish that every infant school polled in Solihull was in fact putting on a nativity play but stuck gamely to its shocking headline nonetheless. Brief discussion at work Christmas dinner- lady next to me demanded to know why the Jews were trying to muscle in on Christmas- was quite astonished to hear about Hanukah and even more so to find out that those little up and down candles weren't actually Christian symbols. Our office has the same decorations that it's always had, and they still fall down regularly. I feel that SkyOne is sticking it's neck out a little with its Happy Hogswatch slogan, but maybe no-one cares what Sky does.
If anything is going to be banned I feel maybe the Argos advert is a prime candidate.
One of these days I will write a blog entry about scooters in vacation in the fall, or maybe the fall of scooters due to the vacation of their seats, or something of the sort. I always feel slightly guilty that I don't fill in the labels for my posts but "vague chatter" would probably cover all of them without providing much indexing material.
Right. Definitely need to go into town now. I might catch a bus though; it's wet and foggy and my hair is nowhere near dry.
Anyway I have made mince pies and stained-glass-window biscuits, and I'm about to plunge gently into the Christmas crowds of fanatical shoppers for the morning.
Hogfather was rather good. Beloved thought that it would be a perfect style for Northern Lights, but I suspect they will do something rather different for that. Robin Hood was dire this week; Torchwood was QI, my Owen/Guy crossover story is progressing slowly in my head and is at least a good way of getting to sleep, which doesn't say very much for its theatrical merit.
Christmas eve and day with Sister and family. No further plans at the moment. Son has kayak for Christmas (out of "his" own savings (or all the old Child benefit money)- cunning, that). It's a whitewater boat which will also play in surf, so about half the length of mine and turns on a halfpenny, with most of it underwater half the time, and he particularly likes the way that it can churn up the canal water for about 200 yards in about 10 seconds flat (he's going to be unpopular with the fishermen). It's got sufficiently cold for me to be a little unenthusiastic about going out in mine on my own- I tend to think that if I fell in the shock might be a little too much and I might just sink gently to the bottom and stay there.
Right, lets try town. Bank, food, chemists, anywhere else that looks interesting and the queues aren't too long. I heard a R4 programme about taste the other day so now I need to get some food colouring to establish whether Son is in fact a super-taster or just fussy. Not that it will help any; just curious.
Been following the war against the war against the war against Christmas with great amusement. Son and I spend our time out pointing out potential evidence of the war against Christmas. Sadly, the local paper seems to have steered clear this year, after last year's phenomenal "banning Nativity plays" story which managed to establish that every infant school polled in Solihull was in fact putting on a nativity play but stuck gamely to its shocking headline nonetheless. Brief discussion at work Christmas dinner- lady next to me demanded to know why the Jews were trying to muscle in on Christmas- was quite astonished to hear about Hanukah and even more so to find out that those little up and down candles weren't actually Christian symbols. Our office has the same decorations that it's always had, and they still fall down regularly. I feel that SkyOne is sticking it's neck out a little with its Happy Hogswatch slogan, but maybe no-one cares what Sky does.
If anything is going to be banned I feel maybe the Argos advert is a prime candidate.
One of these days I will write a blog entry about scooters in vacation in the fall, or maybe the fall of scooters due to the vacation of their seats, or something of the sort. I always feel slightly guilty that I don't fill in the labels for my posts but "vague chatter" would probably cover all of them without providing much indexing material.
Right. Definitely need to go into town now. I might catch a bus though; it's wet and foggy and my hair is nowhere near dry.
# posted by Louise H @ 9:29 am 
