Bah Humbug!

That Scrooge was a quitter, giving in at the last moment like that! I had a whole school career littered with teachers telling me to follow through with stuff, get a backbone, pull your socks up etc and then they make you read about one of literary history's most famous quitters!I guess there is a message in there from Charles Dickens (We were born in the same city you know)and I dare say Victorian life was a good deal shorter and more uncomfortable than 21st century England, but I don't see it. Nothing unusual there I guess, Shakespeare goes over my head quite a lot too ( over rated iambic clap trap beloved of theatre luvvies and English teachers with no life experience).

Can you tell it is Christmas? I am a good deal more grumpy than usual for a start. I did promise myself I wouldn't become a grumpy old man but things are not looking good from where I am sitting.

In the run up to the Big Day, myself and my colleagues have been exchanging tips and stories about our own Christmas experiences. I was surprised by a couple of people who exchange greetings cards with their Spouse's. I was mildly incredulous. Made more so by their insistence of being in receipt of a suitably apt and opulent one from their other halves.

My take on Christmas cards is that I don't have one. I can see they are a nice social convention as a way of exchanging Christmas cheer with people who you don't consider close or important enough to actually spend sometime with, but to give a card to someone you already share a house with..... oh wait! I've just got it. that is exactly what their partners are!

Tomorrow is a big day for me. With 3 shopping days to go until Xmas I am about to start my present shopping. Nothing like leaving it until the last minute. Unlike my decorations which are staying firmly in their boxes under my bed. Well having spent the first 10 months of 2010 still hanging up(including tree and lights) my son took it all down. Might just as well have left it up for this year as well.

I was on tenterhooks all day today. I did not know if my coal supplier would deliver today. IT was to be his last day before Xmas and was only going out if enough orders came through. I ordered twice my usual load in the hope of enticing him out for my cash. It seemed to work however as the coal was there and i was left with a feeling of "I might have been played" into ordering more coal than usual. But still, I will use it and it will be used up for heating my house so no loss there.

At the risk of Blaspheming i saw a trailer for a Nativity show that highlighted one of my problems with the whole thing. I don't think Joseph's reaction to the news of his wife's impending pregnancy was ever explained to me. In my upbringing it was all brushed over. Joseph was pretty pissed in the trailer which I reckon was a pretty fair reaction really. Man returns home from work to find his wife is pregnant and that an Angel did it. Nice try Luv but it won't wash with me. I would demand a paternity test, now that would give some interesting answers!

Don't think Santa will be coming down my chimney this year. He had better no, my smokeless coal gives off a fearful heat and his very rotund behind would get a little singed.

I've got a dead stoat in my garden. I can't find it right now. My neighbour came across the carcass when chopping down some bushes for me, it then snowed heavily and covered what should be a fairly well preserved object what with all the freezing temperatures we are having. Watch this space.

OK i have grumbled enough so there is nothing left but to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year