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Xmas bah humbug!

My wife loves Xmas, and goes all in with effort on all fronts. She gets a real buzz out of it. Sadly, tho, our Xmas period has become tainted with history. We've lost two beloved cats - one on Xmas Eve on year, and another just after New Year. More significantly we've had two instances of cancer in our immediate family that both peaked at the Xmas period. My sister-in-law survived her treatments and is now well. My lovely step-dad didn't.

Xmas affects folk in lots of ways. Some good, some not so good.

I wish anyone who feels in the latter category, for whatever reason, a period of peace and good will.
 
It’s good of the BBC to keep us amused with obvious spoof headlines...

‘Police in Northamptonshire said the emergency sevices evacuated more than 1,000 people from the Billing Aquadrome holiday park on Thursday night and water had reached up to 5ft deep in some places.’

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55445380
 
The little boys got up at 7.20, which was a result. Shortly followed by a blizzard of wrapping paper and much squealing. Daddy got a bottle of Roku Gin from a grown up boy, plus BT earphones for my walks and a nice LFC driver cover.

Breakfast is done, music on and fire set. Now where’s that bottle of Harvey’s
 
Mike Reed said:
Christmas is a day to celebrate a religious event (like Easter)... No, I don't know the sketch you refer to, I'm afraid. I rather like the Chinese year names; I'm a dragon, it seems (which, I'm told, is high up on the list !!!)
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You’re right of course Mike, although given most are not religious and many eschew the commercialism of it all, it does have an underlying season of goodwill (incl tolerance, generosity and charity) about it for many. I’ll say merry Christmas to you anyway sir!

The sketch is a Harry and Paul classic and I found it for you
 
Andrew C! said:
My wife loves Xmas, and goes all in with effort on all fronts. She gets a real buzz out of it. Sadly, tho, our Xmas period has become tainted with history. We've lost two beloved cats - one on Xmas Eve on year, and another just after New Year. More significantly we've had two instances of cancer in our immediate family that both peaked at the Xmas period. My sister-in-law survived her treatments and is now well. My lovely step-dad didn't.

Xmas affects folk in lots of ways. Some good, some not so good.

I wish anyone who feels in the latter category, for whatever reason, a period of peace and good will.
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inevitable though sadly, isn’t it, with each passing year we fill up calendar dates with memories and the older we get the more likely they are associated with loss.
 
christmas_back_home.png
 
Honest answer, I don’t know that your view or mine really matter. Watch the Our Planet series and it’s pretty clear we are a destructive and growing species until our extinction, wealth imbalance, power driven, survival driven and it’s really a question of where every one of us measures on the scale. The pfm mafia are in full flow this morning, I’ll check back in later :)
 
Paul L said:
You’re right of course Mike, although given most are not religious and many eschew the commercialism of it all, it does have an underlying season of goodwill (incl tolerance, generosity and charity) about it for many. I’ll say merry Christmas to you anyway sir!
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To you too and esp. 2021, Paul. Many thanks indeed for the sketch; I hadn't seen or heard of it before and it is very funny indeed. I've only seen Paul Whitehouse in the recent fishing series with Bob Mortimer so didn't realise his earlier prowess. I shall watch it again later!
 
stevec67 said:
The old year ends in darkness, the days contract. The new year follows, it's a period of growth, the days can be seen to be getting longer, the winter will end and the next year s crops start up.
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About my sentiments too, Steve, though the days are not contracting at the year's end; more in stasis, i.m.o. Round about the 10th January, usually heralded by an extraordinarily sunny day, the lengthening days become apparent. At the beginning of 2020, I remember, it took much longer to lighten up in these parts, which, with hindsight, might have been an omen.

Dunno about crops, but January is certainly the time to check and think about replenishing seed stocks; often some bargains out the too!"
 
Mike Reed said:
About my sentiments too, Steve, though the days are not contracting at the year's end; more in stasis, i.m.o. Round about the 10th January, usually heralded by an extraordinarily sunny day, the lengthening days become apparent. At the beginning of 2020, I remember, it took much longer to lighten up in these parts, which, with hindsight, might have been an omen.

Dunno about crops, but January is certainly the time to check and think about replenishing seed stocks; often some bargains out the too!"
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It's a sine wave function so you are right that at the solstice the rate of change is minimal. It is highest around the equinoxes.
 
stevec67 said:
It's a sine wave function so you are right that at the solstice the rate of change is minimal. It is highest around the equinoxes.
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Also because of astrology or Eisenstein or that Tesla car landing on the moon or something, although the days are becoming longer overall the sunrise is still getting later for a few more days.
 
Paul L said:
Honest answer, I don’t know that your view or mine really matter. Watch the Our Planet series and it’s pretty clear we are a destructive and growing species until our extinction, wealth imbalance, power driven, survival driven and it’s really a question of where every one of us measures on the scale. The pfm mafia are in full flow this morning, I’ll check back in later
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I feel this more and more - I won’t see the end game but I’ll have contributed to it, no doubt.
 
This has been the worst Christmas of my life.

Normally Christmas is a very jolly occasion with Mrs Mick and I having a stupendous lunch with one of our 3 sons and then on boxing day we entertain all of the family consuming much food and booze and having a jolly good time.

This year we have agreed no visiting at all because of the virus and Mrs Mick (Sue) is still in hospital recovering from a stroke. I had a couple of slices of toast and pate for lunch swilled down with a cup of coffee and then I visited Sue for the permitted one hour and then back home. The one good bit of news is that Sue is improving quite well and we are hoping for a good recovery but it will take several months. This is the first Christmas that I have switched on the TV and it was total drivel, so it's been a hifi day today. For dinner I had cheese and biscuits with a mince pie and a cup of tea, hardly a gourmets delight but cooking for one is a truly sad affair and eating by oneself is totally miserable. Humans are by nature gregarious and isolation is an unnatural state.

The family organised a zoom type conference which I could not get into so overall it has been pretty dire.

Still not all gloom, Boris has struck a reasonable deal, so when Sue's health is up to it, we can bugger off to Spain in 2021 for 3 months in the warm sun and put the horrible year of 2020 behind us.

To quote Captain Tom - Tomorrow will be a good day.
 
Sounds like it's near enough the first time you've been on your own for a while. The trick is to fill the silence - put the radio on even if you're not really listening to it. Radio 4 is good because it's someone talking at you.

The thing I found with my Mum when she had her stroke was that they didn't try hard enough to find the cause of it. It turned out to be an infection of the lining of the brain.

Because finding the cause means going into other fields that they're not expert in, like cardiology or infectious disease, they seem to concentrate on the recovery and only go looking for the cause if it happens again and again. The trouble is that by that time a lot of damage has been done.

I would badger them about the cause. Did you know that you can ask for a consultation with the bigwigs? I think it's up to once per week but that was pre-covid. They are also supposed to explain it in terms you can understand.

Best wishes and I hope this is only a blip for you.
 
Paul L said:
Mike, this is the long time favourite characters of a mate and mine and for more years than I can count we’ve driven people crazy with 40-45, amazing how many opportunities arise :)

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Excellent! 40 - 45 has been a continual gag for years within our sailing crew. As you say, it’s incredible how many opportunities present themselves!
 
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