Today, as part of the Twelve Days of Christmas festivities, we commemorate St. Thomas Becket. This is worth a moment or two of reflection.
Right, that’s over for another year. Up and at it by around eight ey em. Some of you will say eight? Eight? Tref, that is the middle of the morning. Others will rub their bleary eyes, look at the clock and say it’s only eight, turn over and go back to sleep.
Got some breakfast items to cook. One last remaining sausage from the Christmas stash, a bit of mashed potato to fry. Bit of bacon. Stuff like that. Figured I’d sit at the table for a while before embarking on the project. Another cup of tea is in the making.
Busyish morning ahead. Got to check THG’s car before our John drives it to London for a few days and then have to nick it to nip to Waitrose for a few basic supplies before he goes. Beer, crisps, stuff like that. All in aid of the aforementioned commemoration.
My own wheels are unusable at the moment since the man from the AA diagnosed an air pressure fault. It is drivable in restricted power mode. I’m taking it in first thing tomorrow in advance of picking up a courtesy car from Enterprise Rent a Car to head to the Wirral.
The milkman, btw, came at three twenty ey em with a double delivery as Monday is a bank holiday.
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Our decs are mostly coming down today. The tree can stay as it is until the new year.
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Ambitions for 2024.
The birth of a new year. It’s a couple of days away yet, 2024. It is unlikely that I will be awake at the birth. Will be there, I assume. Just asleep.
2024 already has a lot going for it. Hannah and I are off to South Africa for a couple of weeks at the end of January on a dad and daughter trip and THG and I are off to France in the summer. A few days in Paris for the Olympics and then a few days in Normandy. Nothing planned beyond that although I have been thinking about an Antipodean adventure the following year.
I’d like to think I’ll be cutting down on the travel although I’ll believe it when I see it. Part of me wants to go off on long adventures, three months maybs, but these extended trips really do take their toll on the body. At least if the six weeks in France for the Rugby World Cup are anything to go by. Also we live in a nice place and there is no urgent need to go away.
Oh, I forgot there is The Hay Literary Festival to look forward to and we have tix for Nile Rodgers and Sting sometime in the summer in Sherwood Pines. Taking one of our campervans. And we are going to see Pink Martini in Southend. No doubt I’ve forgotten some stuff. I will have written it down.
Then there’s the cricket at Trent Bridge. Windies. I joined Notts CCC for the 2024 season. If anyone fancies going along for a county game lemme know. All my test tix are taken soz.
I stopped making new year’s resolutions yonks ago. The same things appeared every year: lose weight, get fit, give up the booze and the one night stands etc etc.
It feels as if the shed could do with a bit of a tidying up. Maps need to come down and put in my map box for easy access and reference. The map box is an ELEY small arms ammunition box I picked up at an antique warehouse in Stamford. I have quite a few posters ready to replace the maps on the wall. Need to be careful with the maps. They are stuck on with blu tack and although they weren’t expensive, I think I paid two pounds fifty each in a vintage shop in Southport, maybe a bit more, they are nineteen forties National Geographic maps and deserve looking after, a bit of respect.
In particular the shed is littered with old laptops the Davies men retrieve from the attic when they are all home for use in playing games. Pain in the neck really. It’s the only time they are used. I suspect they are mostly perfectly good machines but they are all windows based and I am not. Don’t play games meself. Dunno where people find the time.
I guess I like to do other things with my own time. Ritin n stuff. Hence all the posting. I’m just trying it out on y’all before it hits the West End stage, whatever ‘it’ is.
Other than the aforementioned I think I’m just going to take 2024 as it comes.