yes, you get two today as i wasn’t here yesterday! first up…

christmas wreaths. for a loooooooooooong time i wanted a christmas wreath on the front door, but my mum associated wreaths with death and felt it was far too morbid. slowly, she changed her mind, and last year we went to buy our first wreath a couple of days before christmas. but we were thwarted! the shops were close to closing and we took a disastrous wrong turn and although we had a nice long chat, we didn’t get a wreath. so this year i was on wreath alert and yesterday, after comparison browsing to an exhausting degree, i bought what i believe to be the best christmas wreath in at least a five-mile radius. i hung it on the outside of our little porch-y area, and can see it from the kitchen, which makes me very happy. FINALLY a wreath of my own!

the tree

at LAST we put ours up on monday night, and it’s looking gorgeous. proof you don’t need to be real to be beautiful. it’s basically back-breaking work getting it all assembled and lit and tinselled and trimmed and moved into the right position, but OH so worth it.

i wish i could show you pics of the tree and the wreath, but 2007 has been the year of camera malfunctions, so just imagine them, will you?

i know it can be time-consuming signing online petitions and there are so many good causes etc etc blah blah, but here’s just three that are worth taking the time to bother with -

the government is looking into stopping funding courses for part-time students. this affects the OU in particular but may affect other institutions too. as so many people studying part-time are elderly/disabled/long-term sick/single parents and on low incomes, this disgusts me. i myself have taken courses to expand my education or just because i enjoyed a subject. if the government gets its way, only rich people will have that option in future. you can learn more and protest the stupidity here.

http://www.whalesrevenge.com is looking for a million people to sign their anti-whaling petition. enough said.

and amnesty is looking for people to unsubscribe - to say NO to torture. boing boing explains it nicely (no, i haven’t built up the courage to watch that video, yet) and you can unsubscribe here.

one last one (i know this makes it four): ten reasons why extending the pre-charge detention period to 42 days is too much. (and sign here if you agree).

okay, now i’ve thoroughly scared off any right-wingers who may have accidentally called by, i think i’ll go for a lie-down… thanks for listening. i promise there’ll be no more politics until the new year!

christmas films.

from the ‘just a little festive’ to the full-blown ‘redemptive power of xmas’, christmassy films have always been a huge part of my festive celebration. from little women to sleepless in seattle, it’s a wonderful life to elf, miracle on 34th street, the santa clause and many, many, many more, i’ll sit through anything from an art house drama to a schmaltzy shmaltzpile of sentimentality, all in the name of jesus  christmas.

what’s your favourite?

christmas lights.

i put my pink heart-shaped ones up at my bedroom window today.

yay!

i bet you’d all forgotten that i even went to new york back in november, hadn’t you? i said i’d fill you in, and i wasn’t kidding - it just took me a while, that’s all…

this holiday was - well, it was an experience to say the least. it taught me that my expectations were over-inflated, that i can’t do as much as i thought, and that my feet could need serious medical attention! my camera, my feet, my budgeting skills and my mental and physical health all took a bit of a beating and at times it was like my very own out of towners experience… but parts of the holiday i enjoyed immensely, and the sights and sounds of new york city are not easy to forget, so i’ll never be sorry i went. and once i’ve fully recovered, i will try again one day. (i think.)

i was disabused of one notion, though: i always thought it would be so fabulous to live in new york, but now i’m not so sure it would. it’s actually not like it is in the movies or on sex and the city! we saw crappy-looking cramped apartments in chinatown and the reality is you’d be lucky to afford one of those: even an apartment in brooklyn would set you back a pile of cash. and then what would you do - commute in miles of traffic or take the hot and sweaty subway everywhere… glam? - i think not.

anyway, without further rambling, here’s part one of my holiday diary:

monday

had a shower, finished packing, read some of she got up off the couch. realised my new lovely expensive bag that i bought specifically for travel… wasn’t sturdy enough for everything i wanted to take as hand luggage. quickly stuffed it into my suitcase and packed my rucksack for the journey instead.

we weren’t *quite* ready when our taxi arrived early, so rushed around in the pouring rain putting out the bin and dragging our suitcases to the car. overcome with excitement, we played at cockneys all day (no reason). “cor blimey guvnor, luv a duck!”

we got to manchester airport train station around 5.30 and decided to go for a quick recce at terminal 2. but the travelators went on forever so we gave up and went to the hotel, had an early tea, watched the gadget show and dragon’s den then went to bed. 

my mum’s quote of the day/year:

“i just want to see andy sipowitz say, ‘you doucebag!’”

“MUM!”

tuesday

knocked on my mum’s door at 6.45 prompt, suitcase in hand, and found her half-dressed and unmade-up with a towel on her head. “MUM!”

but she was magically ready for the 7am bus, and we were checked in by 8. time for breakfast… but maybe not at those prices. £9 for a full breakfast featuring the most disgusting looking food i’ve ever seen?! i ate half a chocolate chip muffin instead and my mum made me laugh again:

“we’ll be sitting like this on the plane,” she suddenly blurted.

“what, hunched over?”

the flight was uneventful. i read a bit, slept a bit and ate a lot - they were always bringing us refreshments. (woo-hoo!) first, peanuts and drinks, then lunch, a lovely chicken pesto dish. mid-flight we were offered (and accepted) haagen dazs and about an hour before we landed we got pizza. we got into NY an hour early and i had my fingerprints and eye photo taken for the first time - scary…

as requested by my friend helen tm, i thought of her when getting into the yellow cab and heading into a very sunny NYC. we just had time to check in to our hotel, change and grab a slice of pizza before our new york night tour. i headed for the top deck of the double decker bus, but my mum wasn’t too happy.

“what if someone takes pot shots at us?”

“WHO?”

“i don’t know! i’m scared!”

there weren’t many of us on the bus, but our guide was entertaining despite the cold, and we got a good introduction to new york geography which helped us feel slightly less bamboozled.

unfortunately a major theme of the holiday asserted itself at the worst possible time: i had a camera malfunction JUST as i was about to take the most magnificent photo of the most magnificent sight: the brooklyn bridge and manhattan skyline in a clear night sky. i was disappointed to say the least to find my memory card was full. and my mum’s camera, which was brand new, wasn’t working either. argh. at one point, we went past a big white tent saying “mercedes fashion week”, and our guide said “we’ve actually had fashion week, that will be for some movie.” we craned our heads but couldn’t see anyone famous. back at the hotel, i discovered from one of the news entertainment shows that it was indeed for some movie… the sex and the city movie!

that night i slept badly, had a nightmare and woke up screaming.

boy, do i know how to enjoy myself…

TO BE CONTINUED.

dads.

at the carol concert last night (which was FABULOUS, btw), compere ian mcmillan (who was just GREAT) read some of his own poems, one a very moving poem about his dad making it home from the army in time for christmas. i wanted to share it with you but can’t find it online, so i’ll just say that [unless your dad’s some kind of rum character, in which case ignore the following] dads sometimes get a hard time of it. traditionally, they’re not the nurturers, they keep their head down and work too hard and find it difficult to share their feelings and we take them for granted and think they’ll always be around… then we miss them terribly when they’re gone.

my dad hasn’t made it home for christmas for a couple of years now - but next year he will; and i know i’m lucky to be able to say that.

so a big yay! for dads!

carol concerts.

is there anything that can get you in the pre-christmas mood more effectively than a rousing good carol concert? in my opinion, nuh-uh.

that’s why i was so disappointed when we missed last week’s concert after my mum’s car broke down. it’s also why we booked to go to another one, an even BIGGER one, tonight. (and we’re going on the tram, incidentally…)

yay!

i’ve become a big fan recently of the bob and sheri show. normally i don’t like commercial radio, but the difference here is:

it’s released as a podcast, so i can listen when and where i want, and the ads are all removed.

it’s american.

it’s entertaining and intelligent, with a mix of interesting guests. (and the hosts are pretty interesting too - last week sheri shared one of her dad’s festive traditions: shooting the christmas tree. she wasn’t kidding.)

since i’ve been listening i’ve learned why grace slick was so ground-breaking, what a man called warren g. whitelightening did with a krispy kreme donut truck and the BEST things kids have ever inappropriately said. what more could a girl want?

in an effort to buck up and be cheerful and grateful and seasonal and all those other good things that end with ‘l’, i’ve decided on a series of posts, one per day from now until christmas eve. each one will be something i’m enjoying about the pre-xmas season, although the thing i’m enjoying might be christmas-themed… or might not. (’cos i’m sneaky like that). i’m calling it the 12 yay!s of christmas.*

welcome to… 

yay! number #1

i’d forgotten how good the l word is. i’ve finally started watching season 2 (because everything is a ’season’ now, right? we’re all americano) on DVD and i’m so caught up in the drama: tina! bette! shane! new girl carmen! the alice (< < love her)-dana-evil tanya love triangle! annoying whiny jenny! token straight woman kit! i'd missed the girls more than i realised. (please, no-one tell me what happens next!)

the funny thing is how unimaginative amazon is - my new 'recommendations' are suddenly all for lesbionic films and books. not that there's anything wrong with that, but is there really any connection (other than the sexuality of the protagonists) between imagine me & you, tipping the velvet and ellen degeneres’s stand-up? clearly ‘hetero woman watching TV show about lesbians!’ does not compute in amazo-world. but it should. 

*you can never be too cheesy. clearly.