I am not sure if this will upload, so it will be interesting to see what happens when I hit the 'publish' button.
Apart from that December followed its usual path of entertaining the grandchildren, over-eating, but strangely not over-imbibing. Not sure why this should be. Certainly I have been to too many school carol services. They have all been very entertaining, and the performances have been much better than anything we used to achieve when we were at school. And the Dulwich College School play was really excellent. They took on 'Amadeus' which I last say in New York with David Suchet playing the lead. The DC version was, I have to say, just as good. They really do have a talented bunch there.
Then to the Roxy at Brixton. Not what it used to be - neither Brixton nor the Roxy. It used to be a flea pit of a cinema, but now it is a bar with a couple of small auditoria. And they were showing a feed direct from the London stage of the Nutcracker. Now I would never have believed that I would go to Brixton to watch ballet, but it was brilliant! The cinema had 52 reclining arm chairs, and while it had the usual popcorn for the kids, it was possible to take a glass of decent wine in from the wine bar downstairs. How the world has changed. Even Brixton, which used to be a West Indian enclave, has now changed and been gentrified. Difficult to but ackee and salt-fish there now, but classy French cheese is freely available in the market and the shopping arcade at gentrified prices.
Not all cheerful, though - two funerals of people that we have known for many years, although in both cases the actual memorial services were quite cheerful celebrations of lives that had been lived to the full. We came away from both of them feeling that we were glad to have attended, which is not always the sentiments that you get after a funeral.
We were delighted to see David Wheaton on his annual visit in December. We met at Heathrow, and had an excellent dinner and managed to drive there and back round the M25 with the minimum of hold-ups. He was full of info about the goings-on in Cayman, which I would still like tor return to, but Long-haul has its problems now. We hope more people will get in touch when they are visiting.
Bought a new car,, too. A VW Tiguan, which is a small 4 x 4, or a large crossover, as you will. Managed to scrape it against a brick wall within a fortnight, which was very annoying. Modern cars are packed with unnecessary electronic gizzmos, including electric handbrakes, cameras back and front to 'help' with parking, a sat nav which cannot tell the driver when a speed camera is being approached, and any number of other electronic aids. All stuff that is there to go wrong and be expensively repaired. Watch this space!
Finally, we had an interesting Christmas Day. As Leon and Co were in the Far East, and Neil's wife was on duty, as a nurse, on Christmas Eve, we had Christmas Day at home. So we went out for an Indian Christmas Lunch, and very nice it was too. Caught up with the family later in the week, though, and did all the things that we were expected to do but a couple of days later than usual, including turkey, crackers and decent wine.
Looking forward now to the New year. Trip to Jersey coming up in January, and Cyprus in February. Must get some sun somehow.
We wish a Happy New Year to all our readers. To help, try the following:
If you've ever worked for a boss
who reacts before getting the facts and thinking things through,
you will love this!
Arcelor-Mittal Steel, feeling it
was time for a shakeup, hired a new CEO. The new boss was determined
to rid the company of all slackers.
On a tour of the facilities, the
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workers and he wanted to let them know that he meant business. He
asked the guy, "How much money do you make a week?"
A little surprised, the young man
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Feeling pretty good about himself
the CEO looked around the room and asked, "Does anyone want to
tell me what that goof-ball did here?"
From across the room a voice
said, "Pizza delivery guy from Domino's."
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Paddy texts his
wife...
“Mary, I’m just
having one more pint with the lads.
If I’m not back in
20 minutes, read this message again.”
