1649: joy love and gratitude combine
to hail th’auspicious day
- I've been making Christmas carol and folk playlists, on and off, for at least 15 years, and possibly longer because Spotify won't actually tell me when I added music to the first one I've got here. 2009 at least. It turns out it's quite difficult to find new Christmas songs of the kind I like every year. Anyway: here is this year’s, and here’s the one that’s all my faves from all the ones I’ve ever done.
- Christmas, to me, is the feel of soft cardboard, cardboard that’s not mouldy exactly but has been in the attic for a bit too long. We always used to get the tree down from the attic and decorate when we got home on the last day of school, which was really nice. Since we don’t have school and are going to be quite busy closer to the day itself, our tree is already up! Cards have begun arriving.
- We managed to pick up COVID in Ireland, which took me out for the whole week I had off, and made me miss a whole bunch of stuff I wanted to do with pals. I’m still suffering the post-viral fatigue. I hate COVID so much.
- In fact, the specific order of events were: CM woke me up to tell me she’d tested positive (so I almost certainly did); I rolled over, picked up my tablet, looked at the news and saw the headline “Kamala not to address supporters at election night rally” and thought, in the words of Fat George Lucas: it’s like poetry, it rhymes.
- We got the new Life Is Strange which… I dunno, I kinda feel like they’ve recaptured the old magic of the first one! Subsequent games have been cringe in the wrong way, or too dour and gloomy, but this one has the correct kind of cringe. I don’t think you’d get as much out of it if you and your friends hadn’t already memed the first one into the ground over lockdown but… I and my friends had, so it worked for me.
- Also the new Dragon Age which is quite fun but I have not got that far into.
- We went to a friend’s birthday at Sixes, a bizarre cricket batting cage establishment under the i360 with the least cricket vibes I have ever felt in a place. Utterly baffling.
- Wedding Things continue apace. We have Spoken To Photographers.
- Some good medical things, some bad medical things. Overall positive, I think. A minor operation awaits next week. (It’s not for me but I’m still not looking forward to it.)
- Unexpectedly reorganised various sections of the flat: bathroom, food shelves, spice cupboard. They’re better now, though.
- Went to see my parents for their birthdays, plus brother and dog. Kia’s big sad eyes are visible above, and she has definitely filled out a bit since I last saw her. Also went to see mum’s choir singing at a craft fair at a fancy country house, which was very nice!
- Have been working on a writing project that is not there yet but will hopefully be soon and I am feeling a cautious enthusiasm for.