End of Year

I was planning to write more (or at least a bit) between Christmas and new year but illness kicked in.

Elsewhere publications are compiling their best of list, usually a top ten or top 8 if you are trying far hard to be too hipsterish/ cool for school by reviewing comic books for Vice. I haven't read/ seen an extensive range of new releases to give a authoritative list though like always there's good, there's bad and one by one every shoegaze band from the 80's/90's will reform.

No More Sleeps

Have a great time, to those feeling lonely or isolated remember you never are, people are here to see you through.

Last Friday

The last Friday before Christmas apparently has been dubbed black / frantic/ mad/ black eye Friday (depending on which publications you look at) when the bars are packed with parties / post work meet ups and is more than a little busy for the emergency services. A quick news search reveals some sites declared last Friday black/ mad/ black eye Friday as well meaning they get to run the same piece twice so festive trebles all round!  Most years I tend to avoid such parties, being slightly introverted and sharing nothing with my colleagues other than a confined space for part of the week.

I also enjoy having to order without having to deploy my sharp elbows and having chairs and tables available surrounded by people I enjoy being round and can hear talking. In other words I'm going out during January-land.

Face Masks

Sales of facial beauty masks have been booming in recent years. Whether peel off or the more recent Asian inspired sheet masks, they can come with eye-watering prices but there are cheap alternatives or incredibly simple to make your own. The good thing about the latter is that its easy to adjust to your own needs and cut out what you're allergic to. Most of the recipes mention avocado, other fruits and cupboard staples so you've also got a delicious snack after you've ripped it off you're face.

Biscuits

In a sign that Partridge wannabes have taken over television commissioning, Channel 5 screened a show entitled Britain's Favourite Biscuit and in a further sign that democracy doesn't work the winner was the chocolate digestive and people voted for Jaffa Cakes despite the name giving a clue as to why it should be disqualified. As any right thinking person knows (ie me) the correct top three is chocolate hobnobs, plain hobnobs and jammy dodgers, with honourable mentions for the chocolate finger, Club biscuit and party rings.

Underplayed Christmas Songs

So everyone's making their sleigh list and most will contain the same 30 - 40 songs, while nearly all are perfectly well crafted pieces of popular music (I'd suggest Merry Christmas (War is Over) is by a very wide margin not one of Lennon's best) hearing them several times a day makes them lose their lustre.

Some like Ann Charleston & Ian Smith's (AKA Madge and Harold Old Fashioned Christmas are not very good while Jim Davidson's cover of White Christmas will be exercised because of MASSIVE RACISM, (if you haven't heard it, yes he does the voice). Here's some alternatives I like.

Erasure.  She Wont Be Home



The Carpenters – Merry Christmas Darling,



Mel & Kim – Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

When it gets shown on TV these days there's a clunky edit, can you guess where?

 Frank Sidebottom - Oh Blimey it's Christmas

Earworms

Been trying to think of something to write about but all that's in my head at the moment is Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly coincidently there was a documentary repeated on Radio 4 Extra  this week about earworms, what makes a earworm and the power on of such tunes on our psyche.

It was also school nativity time and my niece had nabbed a speaking part causing a small amount of pride from her parents, being a C of E school it was strictly traditional unlike the one I took part in where our teacher cast me as a spider (non speaking, of course).

Snow Ho Ho

Snow doesn't fall that often where I live, by the time it finishes depositing on the nearby hills and downs there's none left, Sunday was different. For children it meant making use of the surrounding hills to go sledging, one or two had a properly designed sledge but everyone else used what they could find, in many cases this was the lid of a recycling bin but also involved anything else they could get their hands on as long as it could go down the hill at breakneck speeds. For others it involved complaining that the council should miraculously clear the roads with snow ploughs that wouldn't be used most years and only a day or two the years it does. We made a snowman, chucked snowballs and lost feeling in our toes that has only just returned.

Over and Over

This is Blart playing the same few mor songs over and over... and over.

I once had a summer factory job in the 90s which had its predecessor station on constantly and had a similarly tiny play-list which barely changed over the weeks. It's constant diet of Simply Red, Boyzone and U2 became torture by the end of it.

One Brussels Sprout

Brussels sprouts are much maligned and target for the easy joke and blamed for the outbreak of farting after the Christmas meal. The chemical that creates the gas is supposedly a deterrent to stop an assortment of pests from killing them. Although its sister veggies like cabbage and broccoli also have the same effect and they always escape blame.  There also blamed for the way they're cooked as if its still before the 90's and everything has to have the life boiled out of them, there are many ways to cook them, go on have a search, I'll wait.

Hate Mobs

Following up from the last post which mentioned bullying comes the sad but depressingly familiar tale of a online anti trans hate mob sparked by parts of the UK media acting as enablers for usual transphobic hate mob towards a young trans woman. What's even more depressing is the ferocity in this example which would test those with the best coping mechanisms let alone a teenager.

Anti Bullying Policies and the Church of England

You would think that releasing a document which essentially says "bullying is bad" at the start of anti-bullying week would be deeply uncontroversial and applauded by everyone.

How wrong would you be.

It brought out comments from those who would rather pick on a child than allow the merest hint of anything trans. In the past I have mentioned it is the wrong thing to do not just for trans children but for all children.

A young child doesn't see that baggage that comes with clothes, just something to dress up in. I think there's something instinctive when a child sees a pair of high heal shoes that they'll inevitably try them on and the correct response from any patent or minder would be to make sure they don't topple over when they're clip clopping about and the same applies to adults. The wrong thing to do would be as one commenter wrote to start shouting at them, they're at the wonderful stage where they're exploring and testing and will mostly go on to become cis gendered older kids without some hateful bigot intervening. 

So It Goes

It is the last month of 2017 and so time for another blogmas in which my publishing schedule ramps up and away from my usual occasional slapdash approach. 

Christmas decorations have finally been put up, lights have been untangled and tested. All the usual traditions. I've been given a poinsettia plant, given our reverse talent with such plants over the years the fact it isn't dead yet is remarkable.

Gift Sets

Visiting a charity shop I was struck by the amount of gift sets in the shop and this was just November. I'm presuming they've been given and put away the recipient having no interest lavender soaps, bath salts and other smellies until it eventually gets dumped off on a charity shops doorstep.

Oink

If there ever is a ultimate life goal it's to find someone who will look at you the way my toddler nephew looks at someone in a Peppa Pig costume.

It's currently his favourite thing as it was one of my nieces until it became "babyish" though there's no way she's going to part with any of her many dvds or toys yet.

Blogmas 2017

IT'S BLOGMAAASSSSS!!!!!!

Thanks Noddy. Yes it's that time of the year to spoil you with content galore from now till Christmas.