Merry Crimbo!!

Well, I've spent the day cooking two quiches and a gammon joint, and preparing stuffing balls, pigs in blankets, and a trifle. The duck is now finally stuffed.

It was good fun, as I was listening to the TV, which mainly seems to consist of compilation shows about people's favourite Christmas films, or Christmas moments, or Christmas records, or TV moments that might have been on at Christmas at some point, or favourite Christmas shark attaks which still manage to give a warm seasonal glow. Which leads me to the following questions:

Am I the only person to think that ET was a bit overrated?

If I get to be a C list celebrity, can I go on one of these shows and say that my favourite Crimbo viewing is the moment in Texas Chainsaw Massacre when Leatherface comes onto the porch, wielding his weapon? Oh please....

Have a great Christmas, everybody!!

Oh No!

I've just lost a f*cking erudite, witty post, and I can't be bothered to repeat it. B*gger.

Zombie fun

I don't usually blog this late, but The Scotsman is on a night out involving Jongleurs in Clapham and more beers than George Best could shake a small clay model of Oliver Reed at, and I'm at home, so I just watched Shaun Of The Dead. Great stuff, and if you were under the impression that the rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody in Wayne's World was the funniest film clip with a Queen track, you've seen nothing yet!!

New blogs

I've just updated my sidebar to include a few new blogs, and I've deleted a couple which had come to an end. I'm off to get a couple of Crimbo presents for The Scotsman, which means that I wil hopefully have finished all my Christmas shopping by today! Actually, it's only because I went down to see my family a couple of weeks back, and decided to take my pressies; at least it got it out of the way.

This means that I will be negotiating the commercial chaos that is Kingston for the last time, I've got the tree and fairy lights up, got vases full of holly and ivy around the place, and best of all, Sainsburys delivered our shopping last night, including the duck!!

At least it's an improvement on last year when Tesco delivered 5 days before Christmas and there were some missing items because some were out of stock. And what was out of stock? Most of the wine we ordered and the duck. Not tins of beans, or vegetables, just the things that were pretty much essential for the big day. It took a few phone calls before we managed to ensure that we weren't sitting around the table with flutes of diet coke and Findus crispy pancakes with all the trimmings.

Here's hoping I can relax tonight, knowing I'm finished.

And she posts...

Not posted for a bit, but then I've been busy with work related stuff, and going out for lots of scrumptious Crimbo food, not to mention going down to Cornwall for a bit to see the family.

I'm also trying to get some proper writing done; I want to finish a short story a month for the next year, and I've got a great idea for one at the moment. So, some highs and lows from the past two weeks:

Lows:

Not being able to buy brandy butter at any shop in Ham, so having to go to M and S in Kingston on a Saturday afternoon.

The blind driver on the 371 bus route. If there are 7 people at a bus stop, all waving frantically, and your bus is half empty, then, unless you're Keanu Reeves in the film Speed, you stop. And I saw you, mate, and you're not Keanu Reeves. In fact, in terms of attractiveness, you're way behind Vic Reeves. And Jim Reeves, and he's been dead several years.

South West Trains deciding that the second Sunday before Crimbo was a good time to suspend all services between Clapham and Waterloo for the day. Not inconvenient at all then.

The weather deciding to be icy just when I've bought myself a pair of dainty little black ballet pump style shoes.

Highs:

Having to go to M and S in Kingston on a Saturday afternoon to get brandy butter, being in a really bad mood, and then being served by a nice chap who, I think from his appearance and accent, is African in origin, and telling him that he had a really lovely name (they have name badges). He was called Peace.

Eventually getting to our friend's house despite the vagaries of South West Trains, and being served Crimbo dinner with sprouts au gratin. The only time in my life when I've voluntarily had a second helping of sprouts.

The weather might be cold, but hey, I could be Ditch Monkey.

I don't belieeeeve it!

Apparently, on November 25th, the buskers on London Underground were paid to play Johnny Cash songs. This information is via a member of a writing group I belong to. Did anybody notice this? I thought that buskers were an anarchic bunch, free to do whatever they wanted, outside the constraints of society, as long as they didn't do anything illegal.

And now I find that they're paid according to the artist. They'll be singing the jingles to the Microsoft and Sega ads next.