Christmas Eve

Bloody Hell it's Christmas Eve!
I'm sitting in my mother in law's conservatory sipping strong coffee.
I'm also wearing my Walking Dead Christmas Jumper bought for me by my sister!
A thoughtful gift I thought!
We start the slog of family visits later today, which I prepared for nicely by sleeping 10 hours on a blow up matress on the floor of the dining room. I tell you this to add a little colour into the proceedings for getting up seems to be somewhat of an interesting spectacle for me as I have to roll onto the floor like a hippo sliding off a mud bank!
Have a relaxed, peaceful and good natured day, you' all!
Hey ho! Ho! Ho! 

Christmas Greetings

Bootham Park Hospital york

I received a Christmas email today.
It's EXACTLY what I wanted to hear in a Christmas greeting.
It was from an old friend from my York days
She told me ,
That 30 years ago we shared a Christmas day
Which featured 2 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of cheap champagne, 1 large chicken, shop bought roast potatoes, a mentally unstable friend who showed up and flashed us both her rather untidy fanny after drinking most of a bottle of brandy and a Christmas pudding which was dropped onto the floor, scraped up and eaten with forks as we had run out of spoons!

I bought her a hardback version of To Kill A Mockingbird  and she bought me a leather bound diary and an ink pen to die for.......and last night after an email flurry, we have organised to meet up in Chester 26 years after we last met!
Happy Christmas .......that's what The Yuletide is all about..........touching base!

Shame

Winnie has gone to her babysitters for five days,
She's been there before so sauntered into the house like Mae West at a cocktail party!
I got this facebook comment about her on facebook later

• 

  19:34

  Greta Hartley-johnston

  She's been bathed (well showered) is settling in nicely. Steve has been feeding her biscuits !!!! Spolit x
• 

  21:26

  John Gray

  Omg was she smelly?

  
  

  
  

  
  

  There was then silence! Oh the shame

Busy

Gift to animal helper ..........tick

Hamper to Greta for babysitting Winnie .........tick

Hanper to sister for babysitting George.........tick

Gift to auntie Judy and Auntie Glad.......tick

Last minute gfts for great nephew .....tick

Deliver Late Christmas Cards .......tick

Off out to get the Prof's sticking fillers

Hey ho

A Review of Rogue One by Our Nephew Leo Burton aged 14

Our nephew has just sent me a review to share......enjoy!

" Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars story by Leo Burton

I decided to watch this movie because I love Star Wars films, and it stars Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin who I love as characters and, last but not least, because of the amazing trailers . I did a review of  Rogue One  because a lot of people would want to see the film. 

Rogue One is an individual film although it is  the long awaited story in between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and  Episode IV: A New Hope. 

The main actors and actresses in Rogue One are Felicity Jones ( Jyn Erso ), Diego Luna (Captain Cassian Andor), Ben Mendelsohn ( Director Orson Krenic ) and Alan Tudyk (K2-SO ). 

The storyline of Rogue One is that the rebels are stealing the secret plans for the empire's secret weapon called the death star, that Jyn Erso’s father ,called Galen Erso ,helped build. 

One of the best things in the film was the plot because they kept to the storyline very well, and the acting because all of the characters were acted very well, and I don't think they could have changed anything about the acting. 

On the other hand  this film had too much killing and violence and  I would have also liked to have seen more Vader in the film like we saw Grand Moff Tarkin. 

I would recommend this film to teenagers, adults, people who like action films and people who like Star Wars films because, without doubt, this film was my favorite film in the series. 

I would give this film 9.5/10 because I don’t think there was enough of the Vader touch, and there was too much killing and violence in the film for it to get a 10.  "

What Fresh Hell Is This?

Yesterday afternoon the foreman plumber called in by chance to see how his heating system has bedded down. He checked this and that and tweaked the other and also kissed Winnie on the forehead  as she stood straining with lips pursed,  on the armchair as he passed.
He was chatting about us having solar panels installed when Mrs Frazer knocked on the kitchen window waving a handful of Christmas cards, so asked if he could use the loo as I went to answer the door.
I forgot to warn him of Mary's obsession with the toilet bowl.

Now I am the one that has fostered this latest Welsh terrier bad habit , for because of her need to follow me everywhere, I have allowed her to accompany me into the loo when I go so she can indulge herself in a very happy 20 seconds post ablution, moment of watching the water ( and detritus) swirling down the bowl!

Mrs Frazer was hanging around in order to work out who my other visitor was when the plumber returned with Mary in tow.
I think she had literally caught him by surprise, for before he said his goodbyes , he whispered conspiratorially
" I've just peed on your dog's head" 

The Bishop's Wife

If you want an hour and a half of pure old fashioned Christmas Bliss

go to the BBC iPlayer, like I did when I was cooking supper.

There I found a classic 1940s propaganda movie

titled The Bishop's Wife, which I watched as I was mixing a tuna bake.

It's a lovely movie which has affable angel Cary Grant gate crashing the slightly sad home of overworked Bishop 

(David Niven) and his tired wife ( Loretta Young) in order to teach them what the important things in life are.

Of course all this is done over a Hollywood kind of Christmas, with 1940s studio snow,

Cute old duffers, singing choirboys, and miracles that warm the cockles of 

of the Scrooge-iest of viewers! 

Loved it

Growing Up

Did you experience one single moment in your life when you suddenly knew you had grown up?

It sounds an odd but, I think, interesting question, sparked by a recent moment at work when I tried to prepare a family for the potential loss of a loved one.
The family filled the interview room. Wife, two sets of children of various ages, sisters and brothers and a set of close friends.
I explained what procedures were about to happen. I answered questions that they had and made sure I was guarded and clear about expectations, the consultant had made a short time before.
One daughter, who was around fourteen suddenly understood the messages she was being given and after carefully paraphrasing what I had said calmly and with care, she gently reflected the seriousness of the situation to her mother who could not quite grasp the truth.
At that one moment the girl matured in the eyes of all in that room.

My moment was during my grandfather's funeral.
My grandmother was distraught and almost off her legs at the cemetery, so was supported by my mother and uncle at the graveside. and as the large gaggle of grandchildren crowed together behind I noticed my uncle's second wife, who was only a young woman herself, standing alone to one side. She was sobbing quietly.
I was a somewhat gauche eighteen year old, but I walked over and hugged her at the graveside and by doing so grew a little older .
Growing Up, is about empathy me thinks .

What was your growing Up moment?