What! Christmas time already! What happened to 2012? Only a few minutes ago I was strolling around the Excel in my Games Makes uniform enjoying the sunshine. Now winter has come early, frosts, sleet, rain and more to come; weather we normally get in January and February. So Christmas again, if we get there and the world doesn’t end on 21st December. No, it won’t but it makes a good story and gets believers panicking. This year we are doing Secret Santa which I’ve never experienced before, but it seems a lot cheaper and you don’t buy loads of toot that the recipients don’t really need or want. I like that idea, and I’m not being tight, Christmas to me has always been overblown out of all proportion to its origin. Why oh why do parents still spend hundreds of pounds on big-ticket items for their little darlings? Isn’t that what birthdays are for? In our family my girls got low-key presents for Christmas and major items on their birthdays, which are both luckily in the middle of the year. I like the idea of getting the family together and having a shindig, even though we do this at other times of the year as well. This year has more poignancy since our number two daughter is off overseas for two years with her husband so we may not see them for some time. But back to my original thread, I know that Christmas will essentially never change, wassailing will happen, presents will be bought, crap Christmas records will be issued, charity will be shoved in your face (think of all those starting millions while you are enjoying yourself), debt will increase, so will suicides. Yes, Christmas means lots of things to all manner of people, but not necessarily anything remotely religious. Merry Christmas anyway.

This is the Christmas jigsaw we bought years ago and kept assembled. I framed it to put it up every year

Interesting article by Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail the other day, in which he suggested that the influx of immigrants into this country in the 2000’s was due to Blair’s government allowing it because it increased their chances of winning elections; twenty Labour seats were dependent on mainly Asian immigrants voting for them. Interesting that he focussed on Asian immigration, when, but I don’t know the figures, there were probably as many coming in from Eastern Europe. Did Labour depend on the Poles and Ukrainians for these seats as well? The jury is probably still out, but with this countries population now at 62 million, it makes you wonder how and where all these extra people came from, and that is just the legal immigrants. How many were illegal I wonder? You could probably add another million on top of that. Still it’s an interesting hypothesis, and I’m not surprised if Blair made it his aim to keep Labour in power in this manner, even though it eventually failed, but that’s more due to Brown taking over than immigrants falling out of favour with the party. Now that UKIP is catching up, the traditional fight between the two big guns may be split by them, so they may not get it all their own way next time; could be interesting in 2015.

Ultimately the sad story of the nurse who committed suicide is a sign of the times; where some people might find pranks like that good for cheap laughs, there are those amongst us who have much higher standards and are willing to pay the ultimate price rather than bear the guilt that they may have upset someone. The perpetrators of the prank call would never in a million years expected or wanted the final outcome, so there must a measure of sympathy for them as well. Will this mean the end of this sort of prank? As we used to say in the military on the radio network: Wait – out.

I’m having another tooth out today, the third is as many years. I have looked after my teeth, flossed like mad, brushed twice a day etc, but still they fall apart. I wouldn’t mind so much but the one it bites down on was capped at great expense 6 months ago, and after today it will have nothing to react against. An insert to replace the removed tooth could cost £2000, so I will see if I can cope without it for a while before I make a decision on whether to get a new car or new tooth. Ce la Vie

Well if we are spared as my old chief used to say, I’ll see you in 2013, as usual we’ve got nothing planned for this New Year’s eve, may stay in again and watch Jools Holland. Good night and good luck.