Get it up

I admit I like to get it up as early as I can! It might need dusting down after spending so long in the cupboard, but I say get it up and put it near a window if you can.

Yes the tree is going up tonight! I love advent, the shops have been telling us since Harvest that Christmas was coming and I'm already tired of buying Christmas biscuits to save for the big day and then scoffing them early, but the tree is something else. The tree is one of the biggies of Christmas.

I remember being allowed to 'do' the tree when I was little and that was the most special things ever, my older sister didn't get a look in! And for me it still holds that magic, but I like to do it by myself, with no one else telling me I've missed a bit... there's time for that at the end, when I will lie on the floor, sofa, table, to check that I haven't got too much of the same colour together or there's a big blank space.

I say take your time over the tree, mine is not real, as it wouldn't last the almost two months it is up. Twelfth night...I laugh in the face of Twelth night ha ha ha...if the tree's still up on Valentine's Day that's good enough for me.

So put on the Christmas music, have a little drink or two, although don't over do the Bailey's or you'll have a tree looking like a dogs' dinner. And as you unwrap each decoration remember where they came from and what they mean to you. I've collected decorations over the years and it's a bit like going through a photograph album with the old,oohhhh I remember buying this at......

So there you go, relax, take your time, and get it up early.......

P.S. Tinsel is so 80s...and is best worn round the head when you are drunk and not put on a tree.

Advent - Something big is coming this way!

DON"T PANIC!!!!!

Christmas is just around the corner and unless you've written all your cards, purchased the entire food section of Waitrose and spent £500 or above on everyone you know then you have failed. It's all over, your Christmas will be rubbish.

Deep breath. Today is Advent Sunday and a time when Christian should be slowing down, that's slowing down and preparing for the coming of Christ. Imagine that slowing down!!!!

Christmas Cards

Where I used to live, for eight years, I received a Christmas card each year to the people who lived in the house before the people I purchased the house from!

So if you haven't spoken or visited some people on your Christmas card list during 2009, should you really be sending them a card. If you wouldn't ring them for a chat, why send a card?Cull the list and reduce the burden! You might get fewer cards next year, but at least the ones you get will be from your friends, and fewer cards means less cardboard... so you could be saving the planet at the same time

more Christmas thoughts soon.

Rights and Responsibilities

I've got a part-time job writing out MPs' expenses; it was either that or working on the next Harry Potter. I'm kidding of course, but as unemployment rises and the number of people facing redundancy increases is it really fair that MPs are claiming for their food, beds, bed linen and even dog food. It's in the rules they scream, but is it really in the spirit of those rules?
Are these people not elected by us to attempt to make the country a better place.
Keith Vaz has a second home in Westminster and a family home in Stanmore, some 12 miles away, I would willingly give up my seat on the tube for him and save the tax payer quite a few pennies.

Can't we get rid of them all and turn the House of Commons into a youth centre, whilst most of us cry over Secret Millionaire and the generosity not just of the millionaires, but of those 'ordinary' people who give time and money to those less fortunate, it's a sad country when those elected to help us cost us more than they shuld. What are they doing with their salaries????

What do you call 50 Mps at the bottom of the sea?
A really good start!

Lost Connection

On Wednesday my phone died. This maybe due to the fact that I was using in the bath whilst wet shaving, and I may possibly have washed it, mixing up my left and right hands. It's a wonder I didn't shave my ear off.

Now I've never been tied to my phone and if you send me a text I tend to treat it a bit like a letter and I'll reply eventually, but suddenly with no phone all of my friends disappear, becasue it's also my address book. I didn't even know my home phone number!!!

Now the phone is back and those lovely people at Orange have sent me a new one, but all the number I saved to the phone and not the sim have gone!!

So when I get a text I usually have to say and you are???????

So save you numbers to the sim and try not to save with your phone and you'll be fine.

I've done my back in.

I only bent down to pick up a pair of pant (my own, on my own floor) and the pain went through me like butter through a knife. I can't even stand u long enough to iron a shirt, and am still sitting in my dressing gown at a little after two in the afternoon. 

But it's good to take a step back from the world every now and then. 

I have sent various emails to workmates and I've even put the washing machine on, although carrying one item at a time to it was arduous. I seem to have lost what little strength I have in my arms; at this rate I'll not be able to open the Baileys!

It's a beautiful day and i've got all the windows open and the breeze is blowing through, remember still in dressing gown.

I might shuffle to the kitchen to make a cup of tea in a moment or I might just sit some more. In this age of laptops with wireless and 24 hours TV we can miss just sitting about and doing nothing, but I heartily recommend it, and suggest you try it before you body says, "Here mate we're stopping now, cos you keep rushing about and we've had enough."

he he turned out nice again innit

All Change

It seems like it's al change at the moment for many of my friends. Some have fallen out of love and found new love; one has come into money and have been jetting off round the world and still more have changed careers and moved into one of the 33 boroughs that we call London.

Change can be a bit scary for some people, you think that you are on solid ground when you suddenly notice that the sands have been shifting and you're a bit further down the beach or in fact closer to the see. You can, of course, try to fight this movement or try and recapture your misspent youth, and with the latter you are certainly well catered for.

Facebook's series of top 5 best records, movies, toys from your youth etc; all help you remember this and as my school friends turn 40, I could spent more time with them than I ever did when when we went to Coppice High School; it wasn't a performing arts school in our day.

I've done some big changes over the last few years, and some have been good and some not so, but I'm sure the wind that the brought them didn't mean me any harm. So if some frigger has moved your cheese, then pop down the shops and get  some more!

Popping into the Bank

Today, thousands of protestors have decended on London, and converged on the bank of England. You have have heard that some have already managed to get on the roof of RBS, and you'll hear lots in the press and on the news about this as the day wears on.

Many bars and shops are boarded up and there are thousands of police here, but what was it like to be there.

Well, my workmate and I popped up to have a look, along with the press and lots of tourists.

For those of you that have ever been to an outdoor concert or to Pride it was rather like that. There was a brass band and music and the sunshine was glorious and if we'd been in Hyde Park I'd have taken out a picnic.

We'd walked through lines of policeman and women on our way in and after ten minutes of so we decided to come away, only to find our path back to work barred.
Each policeman we asked gave us the same advice to keep going left and we had done half a circuit of this cordoned off area, before a more senior police officer told us that we couldn't get out and to watch out for a funnel of people leaving that would let us know which exit had opened, we took this on board, chilled and stood around. However, not everyone was getting this advice and other people around us were becoming stressed and annoyed as they couldn't get back to the office, or to St Paul, depending on whether they were a worker or tourist.

It is strangely very frightening when you are told you can't go where you want to or that you are surrounded by a circle of police officers. Some of you may know that I lived with a policeman for many years and have a lot of respect for the profession, but on all the Pride marches and Section 28 demos I have been on I've never been trapped.

I know the police have a heard job and are trying to control a situation, but if anything is ever going to make me 'kick off' it is the feeling that I am being caged in.

So I hope that the protests pass off peacefully and I hope that those who need to listen do, but it is worth remembering that in many countries of the world you still do not have the right to protest and can be imprisoned for your beliefs, that God or goodness or common sense that it doesn't happen here....very often