The days after Christmas

Hey there, how are you?  Fine I hope. :-)

Anyway, here we are on Friday the 27th of December 2013.  In five days time it will be a whole other year, and time for many to make changes (resolutions), which in a way is a bit like this wish fulfillment idea at first supported and followed in the UK by people such as ex-DJ, TV presenter and producer Noel Edmunds.

Oops, I left this and forgot to get back to it.  Again!!!  I'll take a look again soon - promise!

Hmm...  Now it is Sunday the 29th of December.

Yesterday (Saturday) we decided to make it our Christmas.  We were going to have a dinner and everything (obviously without meat in there), but eventually went with a buffet style instead in front of the telly.

Among the things we watched, we watched three different variations of the short story by Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol.  Yes, a short story!  Not a novel!  Oh, on Wikipedia it calls it a Novella.  Oh well.

We will be watching more when we have time together again possibly after dinner tomorrow night when we are going out - the first time we will have been out for dinner since Little Frankies (which is just Trafalgar Square in London) back in November 2007 I think it was.  Yes, a long time.  What can I say - it's expensive.  The reason we're doing it now, and people might be irritated by this, but previous years I have spent money I've been given for my birthday in November and Christmas on the odd bill.  Now I know it should be to buy myself something, but times are hard and I feel bad if I owe something but instead bought a CD or something.  This year I have just though sod it and have booked a table at Rushton's here in Newark and do you know what?  We're going to bloody love it as well!  Sod the bills, sod the debts, I'm bloody sick of worrying about them and not taking my girl out because of it.  We're going to enjoy a dinner out together and to hell with it all!  We're nearly there with catching up with it all, despite my employers thinking that it is okay to drop my hours to only just enough to pay the rent.  We deserve a little reward and something good after the crap thrown at us!

Anyway, after that I hope that I can find the Patrick Stewart starring version of A Christmas Carol because yesterday it was the Albert Finney version, the Disney version with Jim Carrey et al, and the Blackadder version.  What can I say, I love the story.  Perhaps one day someone might make a film out of one of Dicken's other Christmas stories such as The Cricket On The Hearth or The Chimes?  Yes, he wrote more than one Christmas story.  Perhaps acquainting yourself with these might be an idea for what is left of this festive season or perhaps next time?  They are all quite quick reads, and I am almost certain that most people that read this blog are people that read.  His short stories aren't quite so extensively full shall we say as the novels (they're shorter and get the story told quicker).

I am someone that loves the whole atmosphere of Christmas when it's there, and we had it yesterday, which was great.  Next time we might even share it on the day itself.  Who knows?

So with that I think that I will leave this blog post and wish you a continued happy festive season.  For those who don't do Christmas, I apologise for this, but I enjoy it and love the whole music, media, and all of that.  The other day I sent a tweet to the wonderful songwriter Mike Batt explaining that I heard Wombling Merry Christmas on the radio and knew that it was Christmas.  There are certain things that do that to me - haha, I thought that I'd finished there but obviously my odd brain wasn't ready to stop.

Yes, there are certain things that give me that feeling.  Songs such as that one, A Spaceman Came Travelling by Chris De Burgh, I Believe In Father Christmas by Greg Lake, Stop The Cavalry by Jona Lewie, both Thank God It's Christmas and Winter's Tale by Queen, A Winter's Tale by David Essex (written by Mike Batt and Tim Rice), 2000 Miles by The Pretenders, the whole of Phil Spector's Christmas album, and of course Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.  There are other songs and artists of course - Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett (a great Christmas album by him), and now I will add the great A Very She & Him Christmas album by She & Him because it is a fantastic album after I bought it this year!

The same obviously goes for films as well, because there are certain films that I can't go through Christmas without seeing.  Unfortunately I fell asleep during Elf, so I think that we will have to watch that one again to make up for it.  The same goes for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation!

Okay, that is it then. The end of this blog post, but I suspect that I will be posting up again very soon.  Also, it is less than five weeks until FAWM (February Album Writing Month), where the idea is to write at least 14 songs in the 28 days of February.  Last year I did that amount in the first few days.  Let's see what happens this time.

Take care, see you soon.  Thank you for reading.

December 29 2013 (43 years, 1 month, and 3 days old - what I'm going to do with this blog when I reach 50 is anyone's guess).