Christmas Day.

I hope you all had a happy Christmas. We continue to have problems; I want to do it on London time, Robyn on Philladelphia time and that just doesn't work out.

Here's a wonderful present I got  from Robyn- a retro box of Liquorice straight out of my childhood;

It's just that I seem to remember you got a lot more for your money when I was young!

We had a great dinner;

And a fine pudding;

And then I turned on my computer late at night and learned that George Michael had died - a great talent, a soulboy all the way down to his whitesox, progressive politics, 'Out and Proud', and a very serious writer even when his songs seemed shallow.

A huge loss made all the more unfair when a ruthless, greedy and talentless waste of space like Mick Jagger lives on.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Christmas day.

Well, I hope you had a nice Christmas - we did although it started off with everything going wrong.

The drain blocked, so on Christmas eve I had to go out in the wet to unblock it. Eeoo!

We are overrun with mice - it happens every so often. Around us it was all once fields although now it's houses. The field mice come in when it gets cold, looking for food.

I hate killing living things (except for one or two former employers - I could make an exception for them) so I use humane mousetraps. They catch the mice without killing them and you release them some way away. We caught loads but it turned out they were the stupid ones. The clever ones bred.

So now all our food is in an old breadbin, in cooking pots with lids and even in the microwave. Anywhere the mice can't get at it.

And (I hate this) I had to put poison down. So far they are still winning.

I boiled my ham;

My vegetarianism is suspended for this Christmas but to pay me back I got a smaller and more expensive ham than I usually get and it didn't turn out so well.

We tried to see the International Space Station which was overhead each day like last year when we saw it on Christmas eve.

Not this time; it was always cloudy or the papers got the times wrong and NASA's site was crashing.

I could go on and on but despite everything Christmas was wonderful.

We had a lovely turkey;

And a light Christmas lunch - this was before the stuffing;

The odd glass of Asti;

And Christmas spent with the most wonderful person in the world;

A Christmas pudding aflame with brandy (or about to be);

It was sad too; Robyn gave me a book made up of some of the photos we took during the last 18 months of adventures.

And she gave me a camera - I never bought a good camera for a number of reasons - I didn't think I'd have time to make use of it for one.

Also I bought second hand cameras in charity shops or pawn shops because whenever there was music I'd be in the front row, where all the action was. There was always a risk that the camera would go flying when I did.

These days I can't take that risk anymore (can't go on breaking vertebrae) so I can use a good camera.

Worst of all whenever a picture didn't come out I could blame the camera - can't do that any more.

And it's really complicated.......my head hurts.

I hope you had the Christmas of your dreams, we did.

Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)

Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com

Christmas day

K

This morning started well – I was up early and started my potatoes off, got everything ready and had breakfast.

Then, planning to put my failed cake in the bin, I decided I might as well cut it open before I chucked it out. It turned out it’s fine on the inside!

 

 

After that good news things could only go well so when I realised I’d forgotten to buy bread sauce I didn’t care. All I had to do was reach for Delia Smith’s ‘Cookery Course’ and so, before I went out I had poked cloves into a halved onion and left it to soak in milk with peppercorns and a bay leaf, ready for my return.

Where was I going to? Well, I need to have a think about whether I should  be blogging this morning – tonight perhaps.

Here’s a clue, it’s what I took with me:

 

 

In the mean time, as I promised there would be ‘drunken blogging’ (I kept my word) here’s my contribution to Christmas Day, a song from the Socialist Songbook:

THE MAN WOT WATERS THE WORKERS BEER

 

Now I'm the man, the very fat man,

Wot waters the workers' beer,

Yes I'm the man, the very fat man,

Wot waters the workers' beer,

And what do I care if it makes them

  ill,

If it makes them terribly queer,

I've a car and a yacht and an

  aeroplane,

And I waters the workers' beer.

 

                      2

 Now when I makes the workers' beer,

I puts in strychinine,

Some methylated spirits and a drop of

  paraffin,

But, since a brew so terribly strong

Might make them terribly queer,

I reaches my hand for the water tap,

And I waters the workers' beer.

 

                         3

Now a drop of good beer is good for a

  man

Who's thirsty and tired and hot,

And I sometimes has a drop for myself

From a very special lot;

But a fat and healthy working class

Is the thing that I most fear,

So I reaches my hand for the water tap

And I waters the workers' beer.

 

 

                        4

Now ladies fair beyond compare,

And be it maid or wife,

O sometimes lend a thought for one

Who leads a wandering life,

The water rates are shockingly high,

And meths is shockingly dear,

And there isn't the profit there used

  to be

In watering the workers' beer.

 

 

L

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)