Month: December 2019

Still the night

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Everything is ready for Christmas, finally! I am with my family and we have all just eaten a mountain of my sister-in-law Steff’s Christmas Eve lasagne. Driving is done, presents are under the tree, out of office email is on (after finishing one last bit of work for a client this afternoon).

Geth and I also visited Kieran and Lisa and their (very energetic) little girls this evening to exchange Christmas presents. We are now the owners of some extremely comfy cushions that will be going on our upstairs sofa once I’ve got it all tidied up. Sorting out the upstairs of the house is a very important job for 2020 (more on that later this week).

I hope everyone has a peaceful day tomorrow and that it will make all the Christmas rush worthwhile 🙂

Moose or reindeer?
Not an OOTD: nobody’s quite sure if this tealight holder features moose or reindeer. It’s nice either way!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Amy Soonyoung – ‘Christmas Time Is Here’
Ariana Grande – ‘Santa Tell Me’
Robbie Williams – ‘Happy Birthday Jesus Christ’
Traditional – ‘Still The Night’

Last-minute preparations

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Geth and I have had a fairly hectic day getting lots of final things sorted before Christmas. We got the car prepped for the Christmas drive, posted a couple of last-minute cards, and braved the supermarket for some supplies. I then spent the afternoon doing a short bit of day job work (hopefully that’s the last thing that will come in!) and baking a pie to share with the family on Christmas Day.

Christmas TV and films watched tonight have included Trev and Simon’s Swing Your Xmas Pants, A Child’s Christmases In Wales, Father Christmas (my childhood favourite) and Santa Claus The Movie (Geth’s childhood favourite). I was meant to be going out to a gig tonight, but I’ve decided to skip it as I’m really tired and I need to drive tomorrow. Anyway, I am enjoying the Christmas films.

Just the Christmas Eve jobs to do and then the celebrations can begin! I’m so looking forward to seeing my family 🙂

Geth at Christmas
Not an OOTD: Geth with his favourite Christmas film plus the Toblerone his mum gave him for Christmas.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Blackbear – ‘Hot Girl Bummer’
Ed Sheeran and Stormzy – ‘Take Me Back To London’
Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’
Slade – ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’
Travis Scott – ‘Highest In The Room’

Decade-plus time warp

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A day of getting on with admin and writing jobs today – I’m trying to get everything finished before Christmas. One last day to get stuff sorted tomorrow!

Geth and I are now watching Britain’s Got The Pop Factor (the Peter Kay talent show parody from 2008). It’s become a bit of a Christmas tradition for us (and I can’t believe we first saw it eleven years old now, although of course the jokes have aged a bit).

Christmas compilation CD
Not an OOTD: I vowed not to buy any more music CDs and was in the process of getting rid of them all. Then I got a car with a CD player… Doing a lot of driving this Christmas so have picked up a couple of extra compilations!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Carl Doy – ‘As Time Goes By’
Duran Duran – ‘Falling Down’
Alexander Brandon – ‘Diamondus’

Permission to fly

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I was a bit nervous about going to parkrun this morning due to the enforced four-week mini winter running slump that resulted from my cold. However, I felt fine once I was out there, and my time wasn’t that different to what I was doing before… and I was able to make the most of that glorious downhill sprint during the last kilometre of Jesmond Dene parkrun. It felt so good being able to run that fast again, even just for a bit!

I’ve spent the rest of the day relaxing with videogames, which is Christmas in a nutshell. Geth and I have been reminiscing about Christmas 2010, which was the year that we ended up with some unexpected time to ourselves the week before Christmas due to our flight to Wales being cancelled and so I spent the whole week playing Super Paper Mario on the Wii!

A few bits of admin to take care of tomorrow morning, but hopefully I will be back on my 3DS by mid-afternoon.

Jesmond Dene
Not an OOTD: Jesmond Dene is beautiful, even in the winter.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Scandroid – ‘The Force Theme’
Spandau Ballet – ‘Gold’
Coldplay – ‘Christmas Lights’

The quiet inter-Christmas

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Geth and I have established a new pattern from last year onwards where we do pre-Christmas with Geth’s family around the time of Geth’s mum’s birthday, which is mid-December. This is a bit of a win-win, as it (a) means we get to celebrate Anne’s birthday with her and (b) gives us roughly a week to have our own bit of Christmas – just the two of us with our sofa and our videogames – before we join my family for Christmas itself.

Today has been a Christmas holiday kind of day. Geth has been off work for a week already and my work has thankfully been quiet this week as well (although you can never rule out a last-minute urgent client deadline on Christmas Eve, so I’m not declaring myself officially on holiday until 5pm on Tuesday!). I went and had my hair cut this morning, and since then have been relaxing with my 3DS on headphones while Geth has been playing the Switch on the main TV. I love Christmas.

Back to parkrun tomorrow morning… finally! My cold is properly gone now so I am all set.

Radiant Historia Perfect Chronology on 3DS
Not an OOTD: I’ve been playing the demo of Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. This is a really enjoyable game and I may end up getting the full version seeing as how it’s currently on offer in the Nintendo eShop.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Perry Como – ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’
The Communards – ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’

In town for the day

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Geth and I have been out and about all day. We headed to Slimming World weigh-in first of all to assess the damage from the last few weeks (mine wasn’t as bad as I’d expected – still need to be careful during Christmas though).

Next up was some last-minute Christmas shopping in town. I think that really is the Christmas shopping finished now! I certainly don’t want to have to go back into the centre of town again – it was far too busy for comfort today.

After that, we went to see the new Star Wars film, The Rise Of Skywalker. I really, really enjoyed it (despite a few annoying plot points) and will be posting a proper review in the next few days. We then headed to Pizza Hut for a debrief!

Back home now. I’m having my hair done tomorrow, but otherwise I’ll be staying inside in the warmth.

Star Wars 2020 calendar
Not an OOTD: Geth found this fantastic Star Wars calendar for next year!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bing Crosby – ‘Silver Bells’
Elton John – ‘Step Into Christmas’
Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’
Tony Deans – ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
The Cardigans – ‘Lovefool’
Carl Doy – ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army’

Phone Box Thursday: A971, Tresta

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Another Shetland phone box for you today. This one was found by Mum and Dad while out exploring the mainland.

Red phone box
Red phone box, A971, Tresta, 7th August 2019.

(Coordinates 60°24’26.2″N, 1°34’62.3″W.)

This is another one where the ‘Telephone’ sign has been strangely blurred out by Google Street View – I’m guessing their software is misidentifying it as a car licence plate.

The box is surviving well, if a little patchy and overgrown!

Avoiding the ice rink

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It’s been a fairly relaxed day, which has meant I’ve been able to get on with things in the house. I did head out to the shops to pick up some more Christmas supplies, but it’s absolutely freezing out there so I’ve stayed in otherwise!

Geth is watching all the Star Wars films in preparation for seeing the new one tomorrow, so that’s been good background noise today.

The Bingi Burra Stone
Not an OOTD: Dad is installing various old systems on computers at the moment, so I’ve dug out my copy of The Bingi Burra Stone to take with me when I visit for Christmas. Grandad had this game in the mid-’90s but I’ve not been able to get it to work on any emulators or old Windows installs on modern machines. Maybe this time we’ll get lucky!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – ‘The Edge Of America’
Wham! – ‘Wham! Rap (Enjoy What You Do)’
The Champs – ‘Tequila’
The Boomtown Rats – ‘I Don’t Like Mondays’
Tim Minchin – ‘White Wine In The Sun’
And One – ‘Panzermensch’

All weathers

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Geth and I are back in Newcastle after a few days in Lancashire with the in-laws. The drive back was fairly ‘interesting’ – ice, fog, snow and low sunlight all featured en route! Got to love winter driving.

Since we got back I’ve been wrapping presents. I love the paper we’ve bought this year, but there’s been some fairly big gifts to wrap and so I’ve already run out of it! Will be going out to pick up some more tomorrow.

Might see about getting some more winter supplies for the car while I’m out there…

Presents under the Christmas tree
Not an OOTD: so many glittery stars! Will try and find some equally pretty paper tomorrow.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Tim Minchin – ‘White Wine In The Sun’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Perry Como – ‘It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas’

Christmas shopping done!… nearly

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Geth and I went to finish off our Christmas shopping today. We are now about 97% done! Just a few more things to pick up over the next week.

We did also end up getting a couple of things for ourselves that just so happened to be in the shops in bargainous form. I was planning to get a new handbag in January but I spotted a very well-discounted one today, which came home with me! We also have a doormat for the back door, as Geth has been wanting one for a while.

A few days of Star Wars films (and lost of present-wrapping) await.

Jane Shilton handbag
Not an OOTD: this is going to be my regular day handbag for the foreseeable future!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Judy Garland – ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’
Taylor Swift – ‘Lover’
Basshunter – ‘All I Ever Wanted’
Queen – ‘Killer Queen’
Carl Doy – ‘The Way We Were’
Laura Branigan – ‘Gloria’
Cast of Mamma Mia! – ‘Honey Honey’
Elvis Costello – ‘Oliver’s Army’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

Cast of Hairspray – ‘You Can’t Stop The Beat’