The clanging chimes of doom
Wednesday 25th December:
A beautiful and suspiciously mild morning. Had a bit of FOMO at missing the Christmas Day parkrun but cheered by pictures of my chums completing theirs around the country. Another enjoyable non-parkrun run. Slightly faster again. Pleased.
Tried not to worry too much about last night's revelation. I had warned Andy via messenger.
WTAF? he replied.
IKR! I concurred.
As if on queue I overheard C listening to a podcast claiming that Keir Starmer would give all the new houses labour is building to immigrants.
The spirit of Christmas was further dampened by news from Kate's that they were both ill and would not be joining us for Christmas dinner after all. Bummeroonie. This left the slightly peculiar guestlist consisting of myself, Mum, her ex husband, and current partner.
Thankfully Paw was on very good form with minimal complaints about English people speaking English or whatever. The present exchange was less spectacular than usual with the reduced contingent but I was pleased, nay relieved, to receive some much needed pants and socks. Funny how what was once a dreaded present as a child is now one of the best. Some dazzling yellow trail shoes from Mum too which I am very keen to try out. The calendar went down well. Also sent a very nice picture of Daisy from her mother which lifted my spirits tremendously.
I had some kind of M&S mushroom pie for dinner while the others had turkey with all the trimmings. It seemed quite a complicated exercise for so few people but was reasonably merry (although I was careful to keep actual booze to a minimum). I ended up having four drinks for the entire day. Almost certainly the least alcoholic Christmas I've had since the 1980s. Definitely the most sober one in Gourdon anyroad. We had some posh crackers but I was the only one who read about my joke and encouraged the others to play the suggested game of "Who am i?" I was Superman. Did a pretty decent job of cleaning up afterwards, although admittedly that mainly consisted of bunging everything in the dishwasher.
Walked Paw down the road to his van and gave him an awkward hug farewell. There was a beautiful bright heavenly body almost alone in the night sky - most likely Venus, or possibly Jupiter - which felt aptly Christmassy.
Managed to persuade the others to dig out the Detectorists Christmas special for evening telly. Such a charming programme I felt it was a safe and suitable note to end on. Bailey's before bed when C started quoting Reform recruitment numbers. Perhaps I've misinterpreted and it's all part of a ruse to expedite the break up of the UK and ensure the return of Scotland to the EU. There is always hope.
Today's expenditure: 0
Alcohol consumption:
1x G&T
1x glass of sparkling wine
1x can of IPA
1x Bailey's