It’s still the Yuletide season, although we’re now very much into the time-between-the-years when everybody is grazing on snacks and leftovers, has battened down the hatches against the storms, and has completely forgotten what day of the week it is.*
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, Lego.
The year turns, and the seasons change, as has happened many times before. Tomorrow evening, if you’re in Europe, is the winter solstice, and the days start turning back towards spring. Right now, as I write this, the sun is well below the horizon and the moon is a thin misty sliver behind dark and rain-filled clouds.
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Keyword noise: winter, solstice, winter solstice, Yuletide, Christmas, transition, The Mother.
The end of one, and the start of the next
Published at 7:02 am on December 21st, 2021
Filed under: Dear Diary.
It’s that time for the seasons to turn again. Today is the shortest day, and the solstice itself is this afternoon, here. It’s just a little bit after sunset here this year, which is nothing more than coincidence but seems rather apt.
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Keyword noise: winter, solstice, winter solstice, Yuletide, Christmas.
Some assembly required
Published at 10:22 pm on December 23rd, 2020
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Family.
One of the sad things about growing up, at least to my mind, is that when you’re a child the toys you get for Christmas are hopefully the sort of thing that you can open up on Christmas morning and start putting together on the front room carpet. A box of Lego, for example, or Meccano, or the sort of train set that’s amenable to running on the carpet. As you get older, that sort of present becomes rarer and rarer. They don’t necessarily disappear altogether—I remember one Christmas when I was small, when my dad received a sort of complex marble-machine clock that we spent all of Christmas morning and some of the afternoon putting together—but in general such things are relatively rare. Even if I do get some sort of model kit to open, it will no doubt need careful planning and purchasing of extra materials before I can start putting it together; I can’t just open the box and crack on whilst we’re still eating breakfast.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, Lego, toys, The Children.
In which the shocking news is that I have finished a craft project
Published at 9:42 pm on December 18th, 2020
Filed under: Dear Diary, Artistic, Being Crafty.
In which we rewrite a Yuletide classic
Published at 10:32 pm on December 14th, 2020
Filed under: Artistic.
I was inspired by a random comment I read on Twitter to attempt a modern-day update of the classic inter-war Christmas fable The Box Of Delights. This is the result, or at least as much as I have written so far. Great apologies are due to the ghost of John Masefield, I suspect.
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Keyword noise: Not The Box Of Delights, Christmas, Yuletide, fiction, stories.
Or, doing things in your own way
Published at 9:58 pm on December 9th, 2020
Filed under: Dear Diary.
So, we’re coming to the end of a strange and challenging year. And I know it’s been a strange and challenging year, because at the office we’re in the middle of our end-of-year staff reviews and the phrase “this has been a strange and challenging year for all of us” features prominantly when summing up what’s been going on.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, colleagues, work, parties, Christmas parties, socialising, anxiety.
Or, what makes a ghost story frightening
Published at 9:17 pm on December 6th, 2020
Filed under: Artistic.
With winter starting to approach, it’s time to start thinking about traditional Yuletide activities. Putting up the tree, sticking tinsel around the mantlepiece, lighting the candles; and settling down in an armchair to read a scary story.
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Keyword noise: ghosts, Christmas, Yuletide, ghost stories, M R James, The Tractate Middoth, O Whistle And I'll Come To You My Lad, Jonathan Miller, Mark Gatiss, television, BBC.
In which things get into a circular reference
Published at 9:14 am on January 2nd, 2010
Filed under: Artistic, Geekery, Meta.
Things go around in circles. This site has been quiet for a while in the past, more than once, and it will probably happen again in the future at some point. I can’t tell when, but it will probably happen.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, circularity, Douglas Hofstadter, E Shrdlu, The Plain People Of The Internet, Godel Escher Bach, infinite loop, ouroboros, self-reference.
In which we look at the Christmas tree
Published at 9:57 am on January 1st, 2010
Filed under: Photobloggery.
In which I rant about lottery advertising
Published at 10:07 am on December 23rd, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Today, I suppose, I should really go out and start looking for Christmas presents for people. I have no idea, at all, what anybody wants; no idea what anybody needs; and no idea what I’m going to buy. I know what I’m not going to buy, though.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, advertising, Christmas, gambling, gifts, lottery, presents, scratchcard.
In which I consider the seasonal cycle
Published at 9:22 am on December 21st, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary.
The night is drawing in, as I draft this post.* The sky is darkening, and the lamps are lit, to brighten the house and drive back the winter darkness. It’s a time to light candles, and fires, and stare into their hearts. We still have a visceral response to fire, glowing embers and flickering, crackling flames.
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Keyword noise: seasons, solstice, weather, winter, winter solstice, Yuletide.
In which The Mother sends an advent calendar
Published at 8:37 am on December 4th, 2008
Filed under: The Family.
Despite my age, The Mother still makes sure to send me an advent calendar every year. I’m not quite sure why she feels the need. She buys me one, sends it, we remember to open the doors for a few days, then leave it and suddenly remember, around the 20th, that we now have a few weeks worth of chocolate to eat. So far this year we’ve opened it every day, but I’m not really sure how long that’s going to last.
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Keyword noise: Advent, calendar, chocolate, Christmas, Yuletide, The Mother.
Christmas came, and brought the flu. I was in bed most of yesterday, aching, coughing and sleeping.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, David Tennant, Doctor Who, flu, Russell T Davies, sickness, Steven Moffat, television.
In which we feel like cancelling Christmas but bringing back Yule
Published at 11:12 pm on December 20th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
There’s five days to go, and I already feel like I want to cancel Christmas. I haven’t written a single card. I haven’t bought many presents, and I have no idea what The Parents actually want. To be fair, neither do they. I try to go look for something on my lunch break, and everyone else has had the same idea. The roads into town are gridlocked; as soon as I’ve found a parking space, it’s time to head out back to the office again.
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Keyword noise: Christmas, seasons, shopping, solstice, winter, Yuletide.
In which we ponder the potential Christmas Number One
Published at 10:05 pm on December 17th, 2007
Filed under: Media Addict.
Or, time to start planning next Yule
Published at 2:20 pm on December 25th, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary.
The fog is thick all over the country at the moment, but it’s only now it is affecting The South that it makes it into the news. Up here in The Forest we’ve had thick fog all week, but it hasn’t troubled the press at all. I’ve been driving the Town route home rather than the normal Country route,* because a fog-bump at 30mph is a lot safer, to my mind, than one at 70.
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Keyword noise: books, children's books, Epiphany, fantasy, fog, literature, new year, seasons, solstice, Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising, weather, winter solstice, Yuletide.
First Christmas present bought already, but I’m still going to have to devote the weekend to running around the county hoping desperately to find something inspirational. I’m not saying what I’ve already bought. It’s for my dad, and I don’t think he reads this place, but you never know.
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Keyword noise: Anne Atkins, BBC, bedsit, Big Dave, books, Books I Haven't Read, Christianity, Yuletide, Christmas presents, house hunting, House Of Leaves, literature, London, Mark Z Danielewski, presents, radio, reading, religion, shopping, studio flat, Thought For The Day.
In which we ponder Christmas presents
Published at 9:04 am on December 4th, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary.
It’s not quite the Christmas season for a while yet, but it’s getting near the time when I’m starting to think about what presents to buy. And, particularly, what to buy for the parents. I never know. I always try to think of something unusual, different and interesting, and I usually end up buying the same old books and DVDs for them.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, Colleague M, gift ideas, presents.
This Christmas, I have received:
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, criticism, David Tennant, Doctor Who, gifts, giving, presents, Russell T Davies, television, BBC.
Have spent the whole day in a rather tipsy haze. Not just booze, but thick creamy Christmas headache-giving booze. Yum. Now I’m off to bed, and I do hope I’m not going to regret this tipsy haze in the morning.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas.
In which Jesus has gone missing from our lives!
Published at 9:08 pm on December 22nd, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Family.
My mother is rushing around tonight in a bit of a panic. Being a regular churchgoer, and church organiser, Christmas is obviously a busy time of year for her. Tonight, though, the mother and all the other church organisers are all rushing round in a panic, searching all the cupboards at the church, searching each other’s houses and attics, searching and searching and saying to each other: “well, where did you last see them?”
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, church, nativity, nativity scene, The Mother.
In which we start being festive
Published at 12:35 pm on December 21st, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which Yuletide, amazingly, seems to be already coming
Published at 8:54 pm on December 1st, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Old Office.
Something feels wrong – it’s only December 1st and I’m already feeling all seasonal. Not so seasonal that I’ve started wrapping presents or writing cards, but seasonal nevertheless. Colleague M has already started putting up Christmas decorations. Big Dave is telling everyone what he’s getting his dad, and The Manager In Charge Of The Christmas Party is spending most of her waking hours pondering over the party seating plan, shuffling names around a complex spreadsheet with everyone’s food choices listed. I’ve been exchanging emails with all the friends who are coming back here for the holiday, planning trips to the pub; and I’m not even bored of Christmas music yet. This is definitely unusual.
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Keyword noise: Advent, Yuletide, Christmas, Big Dave, Colleague M, colleagues.
In which we ponder a potential office faux pas
Published at 9:49 pm on November 27th, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which it feels like Yuletide for once
Published at 6:25 pm on November 26th, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Yesterday,* we had the first snow of winter. When I left the house in the morning it was cold but dry; ten minutes from the office a few flakes started to appear in the air, and by the time I was inside at my desk everywhere already had a good covering.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, ice, seasons, snow, weather, winter.