All the blessings of the season to my dear flist. May you be rich with friendship, light and laughter.

( Read more... )

I slept late this morning, not because I was debauched yesterday, for I was not at all, but just because I could. It feels so good to have time off and nothing much to do in it ( Read more... )

For all the curious cultural disconnects that arose when living in Tianjin - for example, having Chinese as a kind of lingua franca between visiting scholars, students, or tourists from Japan, Russia, Algeria and elsewhere - I really didn't expect to hear midnight mass. Sung. In Latin. ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

This is one of my absolute favourite carols, and here's a lovely version of it

Click to view

I can now sit back and look at my (almost) clean house, with tree up, Christmas supplies and pressies bought, a little baking done, and dogs bathed ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Why do we read the things we do at Christmas? For some reason, I often find myself rereading Connie Willis' The Domesdaybook at Christmastime, which, seeing as it's mostly about the bubonic plague, seems like an odd choice. But then, it's not, because it's set at Christmas, and there's a kind of leitmotif of churchbells ringing through it and ( Read more... )