I started Christmas Day with a coffee and Ricky Gervais:
Which restored a refreshing perspective on life.
Merry Christmas!
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We forgot to leave out sherry and mince pies for Santa as well as carrots for the reindeer, but he still came!
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A nice quiet post Christmas trawl through an on-line seed catalogue , looking for things that serve a function, runner beans that are ornamental , or yellow chillies and yellow sweet peppers that combine to make a yellow chilli jam.
Climbing tomatoes (because at last I have a green house and supports for these )
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Spent the week before Christmas on duty in work. A heady mix of people with financial and health issues for which we have depressingly few solutions nowadays. Very stressful, plus I’d a tribunal to do in the midst of that. Then the living room flooded and I spent more time with my insurer than I would desire. Several holes in the ceiling allied to multiple water tracks haven’t made our living room a great place to be. Finished off by waking up on Christmas day to neither heating nor hot water. Having several health issues in the household holds no sway when there are simply more problems than engineers.
Have spent the last 24 hours discovering how many thin layers and strip washes we can get away with.
Engineer just been. Gas valve on the boiler has gone so no gas getting in. He’d no replacement as the boiler is 22 years old. Coming back tomorrow morning with a replacement but wants to try and just replace the solenoid else he’ll have to break into the supply and we could then be looking at brittle washers breaking with slim likelihood of replacements being available.
Happy days.
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Mike if your home is uninhabitable ask the insurers for alternative accommodation
It sounds seriously dreadful and I sincerely wish you all the very best
Ian
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Pirate Ship constructed - Damn sight easier than last year’s hungover Paw Patrol Lookout Tower and Fire Station. Not sure how long it will survive 3yo grandson’s not so gentle handling tho.
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I was asked to buy my 13 year old granddaughter a double vinyl for Christmas. My immediate reaction was “What? Vinyl? Hasn’t she heard of streaming?!!”
Anyway of course I bought it, as grandads do. It was The Open Door by Evanescence, a double LP. I had never heard of it. When it arrived, out of curiosity, I had a listen on Qobuz (as my vinyl playing equipment is in the loft somewhere). It was just terrible. Not really music at all, to my mind.
Anyway yesterday she opened the present and immediately went into raptures. She loved the album cover, told me that it was designed by the singer and the raptures continued. So I asked her why the vinyl and not streaming. She said vinyl sounded better than streaming and she liked to look at the artwork in the cover and read the notes about the music etc.
I was very surprised! I thought she sounded a lot like quite a few older men I know, and not like any other 13 year old girl I have come across. I wish she had different taste in music, but maybe that will mature further with age.
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My daughters were here for Xmas……they decided some good old Qobuz xmas playlist of songs like shakin stevens, slade etc rather than their music or mine. After a few tracks, they decided on bluetooth from their phone, sounded worse but they were happy.
Sounds like you have something to nurture there.
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Just back from seeing ‘A Christmas Carol’ at the Old Vic in Waterloo with Christopher Eccleston as Scrooge. Absolutely brilliant production and CE made an excellent Scrooge. The show is performed in the round and from the moment you walk in there are people in Victorian dress handing out mince pies - really well done. This is the seventh year (I think) that the Old Vic have put it on - thoroughly recommended
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I saw Patrick Stewart’s one man Christmas Carol ( again I think at The Old Vic) ruined for me by two Trekkies behind talking about a new Trichorder in the coming series of TNG during the interval
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How are things now?
Best wishes
Ian
I’ m trying to work out what it is about ?
Best wishes
Ian
Interesting and disquieting… Who’s the guy?
I’ve booked a PET-PSMA scan for January 30. I called one of the three Hs in Milan that do it and I was lucky to find that someone had canceled an appointment.
The oncologist said it will be decisive to plan a therapy, but I’ve been told that about the biopsy after the MRI, then about the abdomen CAT, the scintigraphy, the histologic test of the stuff removed…
I guess that after this I’ll be assured that only the autopsy will be decisive! 
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