The milkman deserves his Christmas break too, I suppose, and at least it's chilly enough for it all to keep reasonably fresh until our next delivery date comes around.
So with my morning cuppa safely brewed, and my blood pressure managed for another day, I switched on the television to discover that the rest of the country is still also being battered by howling gales and driving rain, just in case I'd failed to hear it outside my own windows and decided that it was localised, aimed purely at me and I'd simply have to take it personally.
Anyway, all things considered, I was rather grateful that I didn't actually have to go anywhere today, and my sympathies were very much with anyone who did have to travel in such grim conditions.
The news also announced the posthumous pardon for Alan Turing which was enough of a story to haul me up the stairs and back to the keyboard, about which there'll be more later, but Christmas Eve is not the place for such a rant, so I'll spare you that one for a day or two at least.
Having composed a blog posting or two, I electronically meandered across into TwitWorld and posted a pithy phrase or two, one of which was actually retweeted by the mighty @Aggerscricket, of TMS fame, which did rather make my day.
Little old me, retweeted by Aggers... Who'd have thought it possible...?
It's another flippin' Christmas miracle!
And so daylight began to break and another Christmas Eve hove into existence. Breakfast came and went along with the rest of a programme about dance bands which we'd started watching on the previous evening and thought we'd watch the rest of. In the middle of this, and as sure as eggs is eggs, my "missing" Amazon package was delivered alongside the "Special Delivery" of its replacement which meant an hour or so of wrestling with the computer in order to print out a label to send one of them back, and the prospect of making a trip to a "Collect+" station at some point and working out the complexities and anxieties associated with this brand new (to me anyway) phenomenon. I had wanted to just pop it into a post box but, it seems, that's no longer an option. This all meant that I got a short dose of the pre-Christmas "angries" although, because the beloved was downstairs watching "Fred Claus" for only the third time this Christmas, she remained oblivious to this unseemly display.
The joys of online shopping, eh...?
After lunch and a brief telephone call to my sister, the afternoon was given over to the movies. Firstly a segment of "Cash of the Titans" ("Prince and heir to the Kingdom of Argos" - so very festive...) and the sublime, funny and smart "Guys and Dolls" (which I'd never seen before... although I did buy the soundtrack as a Christmas present one year...) and so the afternoon disappeared quite serenely.
And it wasn't without its small victories, too, as I managed to get the Beloved to watch the last half hour of "It's A Wonderful Life" before she went upstairs to have her shower. There was, to keep the universe in balance, a small defeat, too, as the "really far too late" dig through the chaos in search of a holly cutter with which to decorate the cake did not turn up the missing implement which, I have no doubt, will turn up again in July, be set aside so that I know exactly where it is, and be missing again come next Christmas.
Ah well, it's the little victories that we ought to dwell upon, I suppose, and, as we settle down to an evening of light salad in anticipation of heavier duty meals tomorrow, and pop "The Blue Carbuncle" into the shiny disc player, perhaps it really is time to sign off and head off into my own festive celebrations and wish you all the complements of the season and the very best of Christmases that you could wish for.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the picture of the tree, incidentally, is the of one which resided in the hallway of the family home I grew up in during the Christmas festivities of 1975. I thought it might lend a minor "festive" touch to this evening's blog posting, and so it has.
Happy Christmas.
So with my morning cuppa safely brewed, and my blood pressure managed for another day, I switched on the television to discover that the rest of the country is still also being battered by howling gales and driving rain, just in case I'd failed to hear it outside my own windows and decided that it was localised, aimed purely at me and I'd simply have to take it personally.
Anyway, all things considered, I was rather grateful that I didn't actually have to go anywhere today, and my sympathies were very much with anyone who did have to travel in such grim conditions.
The news also announced the posthumous pardon for Alan Turing which was enough of a story to haul me up the stairs and back to the keyboard, about which there'll be more later, but Christmas Eve is not the place for such a rant, so I'll spare you that one for a day or two at least.
Having composed a blog posting or two, I electronically meandered across into TwitWorld and posted a pithy phrase or two, one of which was actually retweeted by the mighty @Aggerscricket, of TMS fame, which did rather make my day.
Little old me, retweeted by Aggers... Who'd have thought it possible...?
It's another flippin' Christmas miracle!
And so daylight began to break and another Christmas Eve hove into existence. Breakfast came and went along with the rest of a programme about dance bands which we'd started watching on the previous evening and thought we'd watch the rest of. In the middle of this, and as sure as eggs is eggs, my "missing" Amazon package was delivered alongside the "Special Delivery" of its replacement which meant an hour or so of wrestling with the computer in order to print out a label to send one of them back, and the prospect of making a trip to a "Collect+" station at some point and working out the complexities and anxieties associated with this brand new (to me anyway) phenomenon. I had wanted to just pop it into a post box but, it seems, that's no longer an option. This all meant that I got a short dose of the pre-Christmas "angries" although, because the beloved was downstairs watching "Fred Claus" for only the third time this Christmas, she remained oblivious to this unseemly display.
The joys of online shopping, eh...?
After lunch and a brief telephone call to my sister, the afternoon was given over to the movies. Firstly a segment of "Cash of the Titans" ("Prince and heir to the Kingdom of Argos" - so very festive...) and the sublime, funny and smart "Guys and Dolls" (which I'd never seen before... although I did buy the soundtrack as a Christmas present one year...) and so the afternoon disappeared quite serenely.
And it wasn't without its small victories, too, as I managed to get the Beloved to watch the last half hour of "It's A Wonderful Life" before she went upstairs to have her shower. There was, to keep the universe in balance, a small defeat, too, as the "really far too late" dig through the chaos in search of a holly cutter with which to decorate the cake did not turn up the missing implement which, I have no doubt, will turn up again in July, be set aside so that I know exactly where it is, and be missing again come next Christmas.
Ah well, it's the little victories that we ought to dwell upon, I suppose, and, as we settle down to an evening of light salad in anticipation of heavier duty meals tomorrow, and pop "The Blue Carbuncle" into the shiny disc player, perhaps it really is time to sign off and head off into my own festive celebrations and wish you all the complements of the season and the very best of Christmases that you could wish for.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, the picture of the tree, incidentally, is the of one which resided in the hallway of the family home I grew up in during the Christmas festivities of 1975. I thought it might lend a minor "festive" touch to this evening's blog posting, and so it has.
Happy Christmas.
And there was me thinking you were imbibing of the Christmas spirit. Happy Christmas my friend.
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