Hi Folks,

I have been struggling to come up with a topic to write about this week.  There has been no shortage of stuff in the news. Trouble is, most of it is bad and I am sorry, it’s far too close to Christmas to dwell on all the bad stuff.

The Lottery Winner

There was one good news story I saw. A bloke from Englandshire won as astronomically large sum  of cash on the Eurolottery. £105 Million.  Thats an eye watering amount. I watched the guy and his wife being interviewed on TV.

Poor bloke looked stunned and who wouldn’t be.  He seemed to be a nice guy and he admitted, he thought this was way too much money for one person. He promised he would use it do good in and around his community.  And of course look after his family.  I bet they have one hell of a Christmas.

It’s certainly a life changing sum and I can’t imagine what it must feel like to suddenly be that fabulously wealthy.  A self employed builder, on learning he had won, he went back to painting a ceiling he was working on. That made me smile.  I hope he and his family use the money well and have an amazing life.

The Election

Elsewhere in the UK news, it has been, predictably, mainly focused on the upcoming General Election.  It’ll all be over this time next week and I for one can’t wait. I have watched the various manifesto launches, watched the televised debates and read the on line commentary on social media.

My old favourite Twitter has almost gone into meltdown. Twitterings of claims and counter claims, conspiracy theories and good old fashioned, mindless partisanship.  It seems there is no place in modern politics for reasoned debate. It’s all about popularist freebe giveaways and sensationalist headlines.

I really can’t be bothered with it or with the people who want to become out elected leaders. Frankly I have little regard or trust for any of them.  We will know this time next week if the UK will be renamed either the Socialist Eutopia of Corbynia or Great Brexitania.  Neither are particularly attractive, but I fear one will be a great deal worse than the other.  You can figure out which yourselves, but as a hint, I don’t want to go through 2 more referendum next year. It would be awful and more division is not what the country needs at this time, in my opinion.

Des Gilets Jaune

Over the channel, it seems France isn’t faring a great deal better with strikes and demonstrations in Paris and across the country.  The Yellow Vest rioting has been going on for a long time now.  Last year, some friends from Wales decided to have a romantic weekend in Paris just before Christmas. Not big news fiends, they were unaware of the Yellow Vest demonstrations.  Hence their romantic weekend included being teargassed and chased down the Champs Elysee by riot police.  Romantic, not really, but certainly memorable. And 12 months later, it’s still going on.

And the Trump

For a spot of lite relief, we have the antics of Trump and the ongoing impeachment proceedings against him. He doesn’t seem particularly bothered by it all. He seemed to be far more upset by the Canadian Prime Minister gossiping about him in a NATO reception at Buckingham Palace. Sticks and Stones, Mr Trump.

The It Men

Elsewhere it seems the Mr Men books have fallen foul of the ongoing #me-too campaign. It seems the books are now considered sexist and out of date.  Mr Happy, Little Miss Scatterbrain, Mr Strong, and all the rest. It is suggested they are now derogatory to women.  I mean for goodness sakes?  Who are these people? I guess in future, if we are going to be politically correct and non offensive, we’ll have  Miss Undecided,  Mr Non Binary and Little Miss Mr.   Definitely one to be filed in the the “You Couldn’t Make this Stuff Up” Category.

But, I don’t want to talk about all this rubbish anymore.  I want to talk about Christmas.

Christmas 2019

I had been expected to fly home to Scotland next week, arriving on Friday 13th.  But no more. I’m now going home on Sunday.  This makes me very happy. But I am not so happy about the reason.  Sadly, Wifey is incapacitated.  She has, we think, a torn rotator cuff, meaning she cannot more or use her left arm and is in a lot of pain.  Hence I am going home to  look after Her and Small.

I have to say I wasn’t overly impressed by her initial reaction on getting the fantastic news I was going to come and look after her. I think her first response was, “Really? God help us”.   Not the response I was expecting. Must be the pain affecting her.

The Christmas Decorations

We’ll be off to hospital on Monday and hopefully she will be sorted before Christmas Day.  It also means, I can get Christmas going early in Craigellachie.  Whilst she recuperates, I can crack on with getting the Christmas decorations out of the attic and transform the house into Santas grotto.  I do love Christmas. We always buy our trees from ScottishChristmasTrees.com. They aren’t due to arrive until next weekend, but I can get a head start with the rest of the decorations.  And Wifey can’t complain as she will be feet up with a nice cup of coffee and some stollen cake. Probably.

Christmas Treats

Good job, I am going home early. I did bring some Christmas treats out here with me. These were to be kept until December and to help the time pass until I was on the plane to home.  Mince Pies, Stollen Cake slices, Christmas Percy Pigs and some Stilton and Port.  The mince pies and port didn’t make it through November. The Percy Pigs barely made it out of October. My last stollen slice was wolfed down today. So all in all, the timing is quite good. Just shame about the cause.  Oh as for the stilton, it escaped. It jumped  out of the fridge one day when I wasn’t paying attention. I think it’s living underneath the fridge and I am blaming it for taking my missing socks. You just can’t trust a stilton.

I have had a little token Christmas tree up in my apartment in Iraq since the start of December.  Its a bit of a sad affair, but it’s better than nothing and has allowed me to get into the seasonal spirit.  I shall have to pack it all away tomorrow before I head off home.

Christmas Chores

Wifey being incapacitated also means I will get to drive the Tesla.  I will be on the school run with Small until the end of term, so can have a jolly good play, putting the car trough its paces. Watch this space for my impressions in a week or so.

I will doubtless be expanding on the Christmas preparations and social events in the next few weeks, leading up to the Big Day. We have our annual mulled wine and mince pie party coming up. There is our shooting party down in Stirling. All of the offspring will be arriving home in the next week or so.  Lots going on and a few chores to complete. I have to finish off my log chopping. I’ve been putting this off for ever. then there will be  the usual cardboard mountain from all of the Amazon packaging I shall have to deal with. Finally, there is the one chore I am dreading the most. Wrapping.

Christmas Wrapping

With Wifey incapacitated, I will have to undertake the bulk of the Christmas present wrapping myself.  I hate wrapping presents, mainly because I am so bad at it.   I made a feeble attempt to justify not wrapping anything due to it being environmentally damaging. No one bought into that excuse I am afraid.  On that topic, I read that Christmas jumpers are also destroying the world as are Christmas cards.

What a joyless bunch we are becoming.  I shall be wearing my tacky Christmas jumpers with pride. I have already bought my soppy Christmas cards and stocked up, reluctantly, it has to be said, with Christmas paper and sticky tape. Some things just have to be done.

And on that note, I wish you all a Happy Pre-Christmas and speak again soon. In the meantime, as it is the season for Christmas miracles, I am going to pop out for a Lottery ticket once I get back. Well you never know.

Graham Wannabe, 6th December 2019.