6 Days to Boxing Day. Always carry Christmas Lights in your heart.
When are you most happy?
6 Days to Boxing Day. Winter Solstice. The shortest Day. From here,in the Northern Hemisphere the days will start to stretch out. I couldn’t be happier.
And so to U in 26 Days to Boxing Day. As I sit here this morning I am a little flummoxed about which U I should use to natter about. A cheating woman would use Ule but then I would be stuck for Y.
Umbrella. Not exactly a festive word but from the photo above. You can see we needed one last night.
But what is the point if the umbrella obscures the Christmas lights. Better to be damp and enlightened. Or always carry Christmas lights in your heart. Or at the very least, under your umbrella.
A brighter shade of greige.An unexpected hour of Sunshine presented itself in the middle of a very greige day. The dogs and I just walked and walked. Half of the above picture was our slightly wooded walk which I played with to suggest two options with a magical feel. I also warmed up the sun a little in my pictures of the Hamoaze.
No reason to do this at all really, so clearly done for fun.
And so to T for 26 Days to Boxing Day. T is for time travel.
This new Blue Plaque is about 500 yards from my house. If I could time travel and meet him in a cafe. We could talk about his old School. Dulwich College in London which I am very familiar with. I could also of course warn him to be extra cautious on his last fateful expedition to Antarctica.But that could change the world in so many ways. Which is why Time Travel is not advised. Another observation is that Devon and Cornwall have a Polar Society! How niche is that.
10 days to Boxing Day. Most of my life the next day or even the next hour is not quite as I pictured it. This prompt so perfectly fitted my day yesterday I felt compelled to answer.
This shadowy image reflected in a glitterball bauble should not have been standing here. Nana , Nona and our Monday Small Person had planned to be at a festive book reading event. An hour before this we were half an hour early and were enjoying good coffee and weak sunshine. In fact we were one whole week and a half hour early. What to do with that suddenly available two hours of time. The answer was to go Christmas Shopping. Not a concept that a 2 year old fully grasps. She did fine and we were surprisingly effective. We rewarded ourselves for unplanned shopping with unplanned Christmas film watching. Not the day I pictured at all.
And so to Q on the 26 Days to Boxing Day. Q is for Queen.
I am not particularly a Monarchist but I feel the cranky, eccentric, British system of a Royal Family works better than many Democracies with a Presidential figurehead. Our last Monarch was Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign of nearly 71 years was the longest in history. And there is a link to the festive season.
Postboxes , which most of us will use to send Christmas Cards.
British Post boxes are sturdy things and are marked with the reigning Monarchs Cypher at the time they were installed. Post Boxes are very long lasting.
Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years. So these two long lived womens’ Cyphers mark almost 80% of all the post boxes in Britain, six Kings , King Edward II, Edward III George V, George VI, George VII, and Charles III, get the remaining 20%.
King Charles seems to only have 1 post box installed in July 2024.
So for the forseeable future Christmas Cards in Britain will be posted in Queenly Cyphered post boxes. Random fact, unimportant but interesting.
1936- 52 George VI PostboxFestive Topper on a postbox.
I’ve heard many of the things people say about me. Of course I focus on the unkind, inaccurate and cruel because I am, a woman, a people pleaser and a human. The same can be said for the kind and thoughtful comments. I question if they are deserved, maybe those comments are inaccurate too. I realise that these statements make me sound like a swirling ball of angst but in the spirit of the festive season I will share the gift of wisdom my dad gave me a long while ago.
” You don’t have to be the best or the cleverest, but you do have to turn up”
Goodness knows what fire of teenage drama he was trying to quench when he came out with that nugget of sagacity but I have carried it happily as both my top and bottom line of behaviour. Of course I have learned to twist that sentence to both my advantage and disadvantage.
I am hopeless at over-committing and turning up too often. But conversely I have sometimes ‘turned up’ and unexpectedly scooped the prize.
Somehow, and I don’t really know why it has given me a level of immunity to what people say about me. I don’t really have too much expectation in that regard.
“She turned up” will do just fine.
And so onto N in the 26 Days to Boxing Day.
Nativity.
I have no idea why I am such a pedant about Nativity scenes in public spaces but the storyline of a Christian Christmas is that the run up is all about hope and expectation. Until Christmas morning there is no baby in the manger…
On a personal level this pedantry has bitten me on the bum. Imagine a working mother of two,staggering home after a long working day at 11pm on Christmas Eve. Everyone is asleep. One job before morning is to put Jesus in his manger.
Where is Jesus?
Frantic searching of nearby shelves and book cases. No luck.
The next hour is spent crafting a swaddled baby of tiny proportions out of a cotton wool ball, a Qtip or Cotton bud. Finger gauze and nail varnish.
My favourite physical activity is sea swimming. I do it year round and the sea temperature today is 12 degrees.
What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?
I do not consider myself a ‘hardened’ sort of person. 12 degrees is about the mid-point of swimming in Plymouth.
The Bobbers, my swimming group have dipped in water at 7.8 but I don’t think the water has ever gone above 16 degrees in the three years we have been swimming regularly. If I were to ask the internet about swimming in 16 degree water the advice would still be that it is not advised. We do just fine doing something many people would recoil from.
What technology would you be better off without, why?
I have no idea which technology I would be better off without. I believe technology is a scientifically invented force of nature and selecting one type to remove would have unforeseen and unwelcome consequences elsewhere.
I had an online natter with a friend yesterday which shows how technology evolves
I discovered when we moved to our current house that without the communication technology that we were accustomed to, organisational life slowed to a snail’s pace.
A first world problem so easily demonstrated by the fashion pages from the year my house and Polly’s were built. I would have moved house in the 1880’s looking like this.
I could only have written to Polly to commiserate with her new house communication woes. I could perhaps have sent a telegram. I presume her only woe would have been how far the walk was to a post box or post office.
I would have been unlikely to even have a landline.
And Polly would have looked like this in the 1930’s and may have had a landline. She could also have sent a telegram.
How times/technology change.
First World predicaments on the subject of nattering.
P.s Writing this made me look at the house deeds . It is actually 20 years older than we thought.
I know I couldn’t stop at 3 pet peeves and more would seem rather ranty. So I will just offer one peeve. And there is a sting in it for me.
I think this saying would also cover micromanaging which is also unforgivable.
I like to think just a withering look quells any egg sucking educators. But the truth of the matter is that no matter how much I dislike micromanagement and any other unsolicited advice. I actually have no idea how to suck an egg. All eggs in close proximity to me will remain resolutely unsucked.
But try to teach me how to suck eggs and you will be rewarded with at least a withering look. And believe me if my thought bubbles could actually be read you would realise I am not quite the person I present as.
I am firmly a both kind of person in the visual sense, the two combined are very special. I am a gazer at Mountains, I have no need and not the right knees for ‘ conquering’ mountains. Unless they are fairly small versions.
I was in Arcadia, a mountainous region of Greece, recently. A wonderful place to walk and enjoy mountain air and village life. Only days before I was on an unspoilt beach on Spetses Island.
Spetses
Both locations got a full 100% satisfaction grading from me. Both offered huge fresh figs and good coffee. No need to choose one over the other. Both are fabulous especially if figs and coffee are involved.
If you could meet a historical figure, who would it be and why?
I have met so many people in my life, a few who have or will become historical figures.
Just as you should not judge a book by its cover. Historical figures may not be as fascinating as history depicts them. Just like all humans historical figures can be a mixed bag.
Honestly I can’t reliably make a decision. Obviously this is a personal opinion.
Were I to randomly meet a historical figure that would be just fine and rather fascinating. A chance to interact as equals, perhaps on a long train or aircraft journey. Somewhere that we are unable to escape one another until our book or a podcast lets us off the hook.
I suppose what I fear is not only managing my expectations but also the historical figures’ perceptions of me.
Would they give me, a non historical figure, just 30 seconds of small talk and move on when someone of more interest, to them, appears on the horizon.
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