Hi Everyone
Apart from the obviously Christmas celebrations like the Nativity story, the turkey, and the giving of presents, the one thing that most of us have 'enjoyed' every year is the pulling of Christmas crackers. Why we enjoy them every year is one of the mysteries of life as inside is a useless trinket, a paper hat that disintegrates in less than half an hour, and the corniest jokes known to man like - What do you call a dog magician? A Labracadabra. As most Christmas crackers are probably made in China it must be a relief to the Chinese workers that they cannot read the jokes and it would also be a relief to us if we found that the jokes inside our crackers this year were in Chinese. 漢字汉字 Sorry you missed that one, it was a really good joke - I think. Now it is written in our family folk law that the Senior Partner would receive her presents on Christmas morning, carefully just disturbing the outer wrapping in one corner to establish what was inside uttering the words "lovely, thank you" before storing them in a cupboard to give it to some unsuspecting soul next Christmas. It must have been difficult for her to accept that every Christmas she had to buy a new box of the cheapest crackers that she could find, only to find inside a plastic wedding ring and a joke like -What happened to the burglar who robbed an advent calendar factory? He got 25 days. Now not a lot of people know this but the first cracker was made and sold by Tom Smith in 1847. He got the idea from the bonbon sweet that had a twist on either side of the wrapper. It might not be an invention that changed the world but nearly 180 years later you will probably be getting a cracker to pull when eating your Christmas dinner while choking on the latest cringe worthy joke like - What can you call a polar bear who wears ear muffs? Anything you like, he can't hear you.
This week we went to an intergenerational concert. Apart from the fact that it is probably the longest word you have ever seen in this Rubbish, it was a very pleasant occasion. It was held at the local Junior school where our children went ............. years ago. We had not been back to the school for many years but it was a great way of getting into the Christmas spirit with a group of singers mostly approaching middle age singing with seven to nine year old children from the school many of whom had not before sung in public because of the Covid restrictions over the past two years. It brought back memories of when I was in the last year of my Junior school when that year's Christmas show was Rumpelstiltskin - whoever he is. I had to audition for a bit part where I had to go around in a circle dressed in a silly costume while dancing one two three hop. Thankfully I failed the audition and instead was relegated to a hard bench to watch the show with an eagle eyed teacher staring at us to make sure that we did not talk or even look away from the stage, while needing to go to the toilet was a criminal offense.
At some point in your life, you think that you have been unfairly judged and feel the need to have your point heard. This week we have Harry and Megan trying to convince us that they needed to leave the Royal family to live their own life. In doing so they lay much of the blame on the constant media intrusion into their lives. While this may well be true the problem they have is that the more they criticise the media, the more the media kick them for doing it. Perhaps walking away and getting on with your life is the best solution while the media finds someone else to aim their bile at.
Just a Thought:
We have been helping with the Cake
And licking out the pan
And wrapping up our presents
As neatly as we can
We have hung our stockings up
Beside the open fire
And now there's nothing else to do
Except
To
Wait
Brian
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