Minimal

Christmas without the decorations, that is. This year, I didn’t put out the tree. Nor did I put up any tinsel. In fact, the only way you could tell it was Christmas in my flat was from the cards on my bookshelf. And you know what? I only realised on Boxing Day that I’d not done anything special. And it felt good. Very good.

Instead of following social convention, I’d just done what felt natural instead of making some pointless, hypocritical gesture. Sure, I had my cards out, but that was exactly what mattered to me — my friends and family. It turns out that’s all I need to enjoy the holiday. :)

Have a good night tonight, people. See you next year.

Is it just me, or has Bo Selecta run its course? With the exception of the Michael Jackson and Craig David characters, I’m utterly sick of Avid Merrion. How his last two Christmas singles have even charted is itself beyond comprehension, but perhaps more baffling is Channel 4’s willingness to continue with the crap he now churns out for TV. What I saw of The Bear’s Christmas Tail was simply awful (darling).

Avid Merrion: the stale turkey sandwich of Christmas 2004. Here’s hoping for a Merrion-free 2005.

Looking back through old posts when writing the last entry, I noticed I set myself a number of targets for 2004. Let’s see how I got on:

Proper walks involving proper hills: failed.

The most I did was a short but demanding walk in the barren hills to the north of Damascus. And Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh (big deal!).

Score or set up 5 good goals: failed.

I got one decent goal that I can remember. Maybe there were more, but I doubt it.

Ride bike more than twice: achieved!

I rode it at least 3 times. ;) And it now resides in the flat, so no excuses for 2005. Except for the ridiculously skinny tyres and unstable riding position, which make wet weather trips too dangerous.

Keep in touch with old friends: achieved!

Well, I met up with Mad. And Ruby. And visited Pete in Syria. Satisfactory, but still a lot of unticked boxes.

More trackdays: achieved!

I got two in, compared to the one I managed in 2003. Not a great improvement, but once the required budget for brakes became fully apparent, the purse strings tightened. :-/

Third round of Michelin Renault scholarship: achieved!

Admittedly, I totally blew it when it came to the crunch, but I got to the 3rd round, at least.

As Meatloaf says, 4 out of 6 ain’t bad. Well, he would’ve done if he hadn’t simplified his fractions.

I think this might be the first year I’ll have worked every non-holiday day over Christmas and already I’m questioning the wisdom of it. The office is dead. Knackers.

This time last year, I was already on holiday and crossing my fingers for Beagle 2 (not that it did much good). This year, however, I’ve clearly been enjoying myself too much. By the start of December, I’d already overspent my 25 days of holiday per year. Berlin, the Edinburgh Fringe, the Middle East and a couple of trackdays saw to that quite nicely. Not a bad year, I guess. Nothing beats the trackdays, though. :)

Judges’ verdict on terror laws provokes constitutional crisis [Guardian]
I’m not normally one to get all uptight about civil liberties, but this is one ruling that I’m really pleased about. Lord Nicholls offered a nice soundbite to sum it up:

“Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law.”

It’s just a shame it took us three years to come to the conclusion.

...my advice is to make it Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut.

Or the Scissor Sisters’ self-titled debut. Dammit. If you buy only two albums this Christmas, make them Franz Ferdinand’s and the Scissor Sisters’ self-titled debuts.

And “Cast of Thousands” by Elbow. Bah! If you only buy three albums this Christmas, get yourself etc. etc. ad infinitum.

Is it just me, or has there been a lot of good music this year? Maybe not so much in the singles chart, but there’s some bloody good stuff out there on the long players.

And my recommendation to avoid? Snow Patrol. Totally overrated, IMHO. Samey, samey, same. Anyone else got recommendations that I really should be considering, both good and bad?

Played footy for the first time in ages tonight and scored possibly the most satisfying goal I’ve ever scored. Granted, there was a sizeable element of luck involved (my right foot defies even quantum theory) and it was via route-one football (cheers, Chris!), but it didn’t stop me getting my cheapies... and continuing to do so 3½ hours later. :)

France shows off tallest bridge [BBC News]
I love a good bit of civil engineering and this Norman Foster-designed bridge looks pretty awesome. I especially like the photo in the BBC article, showing the bridge standing proud above the cloud level, its feet surrounded in mist. Fantastic.

The only downside of such magnificient bridges tends to be that you rarely get a sense of their grandeur or loftiness when you’re driving over them. For one thing, your eyes are on the road (I hope) and for another, there are usually safety barriers to the side that obscure your view regardless.

Of course, what you really need is a chase helicopter... transmitting a live feed to your windscreen’s HUD... while the car’s auto-pilot takes care of the steering. Ah well, I can dream. :)

Apologies for the dearth of posts recently. I think I must be enjoying my work too much to spend lunchtimes writing nonsense — something that should please at least one reader. :)

Until normal service is resumed, here’s a recent picture from toothpastefordinner.com that made me chuckle:

Adios!