Religion

Not wishing to open up a can of worms, here's a truly excellent piece by Marcus Brigstocke about Religion.

Claus-trophobia

This morning, after opening the presents that Santa brought, we held an impromptu auction - my bro, my Dad & I ended up with several presents intended for one another.

Then there was a large "Rejected" pile in the middle of the room, including all the books Mum bought for my brother (I told you!) and most of the clothes they bought us (I explained years ago that I wasn't going to "grow into" clothes any more but Mum remains optimistic...)

Don't get me wrong, we are grateful. It's just that we accepted years ago that we're rubbish at buying things for each other.

We take a gamble on the presents we choose for one another, and if/when we get it wrong, we take the receipts and go shopping for the stuff we like - almost like a lottery ticket and gift certificate rolled into one.


Here's a song called Christmas In Africa.



Hope you're having fun
(although there's probably a reason you're online at this time...)
-S-

Christmas Bollocks

So, seeing as everyone else is full of Christmas cheer and I'm currently really fed up with pretty much everything apart from Christmas, I was going to go on a major rant about having to work & exams & being single & getting older, etc...

But, rather annoyingly, I just had a bit of a moment and realised that they can all be good things & I shouldn't grumble.


I'm working nights tomorrow - but that means that at least I get to see my family tonight & spend some of Christmas Day with them, and we can still do the presents thing, have a nice lunch together, talk all the way through the Queen's Speech... and by the time we get to that part of the day when everyone's tetchy and overloaded on turkey, I can say "Sorry, gotta go, see you in a few days." (Actually, I might try this next year too, even if I'm not on-call...)

Everyone at work will be in the same situation too - it might even be quite fun.

Exams... well, I gotta do them I s'pose. Anyway, I kinda enjoy being a bit geeky sometimes. And I love teaching, so I might as well make sure I know it all perfectly before trying to pass on the knowledge and hitting a wall.

My plans for where & with whom I was originally going to spend Christmas were very, very different, but sadly that all fell apart a little while ago.
Hey ho... things change all the time. What can you do, eh?

And we're all getting older...
So what? It doesn't mean we have to grow up ;o)


Have a great Christmas you guys.

And if you think you're having a bit of a rubbish time, have a look around and appreciate what you do have. You never know how long you'll have it for.

Right, enough psychobollocks - here's the awesome Xmas song I posted last year.

I love you guys.



Have a good one
-Suman-

(Now get off the Internet and go spread the love!)

Christ! Mass hopping

Xmas shopping, with a hangover, with my mum.
What I thinking...?

I genuinely like several Xmas songs - individually. But hearing them non-stop from October somehow isn't the same.

BTW, did you hear that in "Fairytale of New York" Radio 1 censored the words "slut" & "faggot"- for one day, until the complaints rolled in. And have you noticed that everyone's only playing the original Band Aid (Do they know it's Christmas) rather than the remake from a couple of years ago...?

In one shop yesterday they were playing dance remixes of old Xmas classics. We have a new Number One. I officially hate this style of Xmas music more than any other.


Anyway, I wasn't feeling too clever, and Mum was dragging me round looking for books for my brother.
He's notoriously difficult to buy for, being the intelligent one in the family (ie the one that doesn't work for the NHS).
Mum, on the other hand, tends to choose presents purely based on the colour & design of the cover, rather than, oh I don't know, the author or subject matter.
So as usual, I have to reject a huge number of books she suggests because they are, say, girly romantic novels, or for children. Or are utter bollocks.

After a while, she tells me I'm being "grumpy". And doesn't seem to notice that, the more times she calls me "grumpy", the more grumpy I get.

I got very grumpy.

Eventually, I stopped vetoing books - and now my brother's going to end up with stuff he doesn't want on Xmas morning and somehow I'll be to blame. Sod it, he'll love the present I got him, I spent ages choosing it and it cost a fortune!
Otherwise I'll murder him with it.

Shopping with Mum is usually difficult anyway. She is a more than a wee bit shorter than me (or almost anyone else in the world) but insists on holding my arm, so I have a constant stoop when I'm walking with her. And every now & then she vanishes like a small child; something shiny out of the way having caught her eye, she scurries off. So I end up like a distraught father trying to find a toddler in a crowded shop at Xmas.

Only worse, this toddler has a credit card and no taste.

Then again, shopping on my own is rubbish too sometimes:
- I always seem to look like I work there, whichever shop I'm in.

I don't know if this is a common phenomenon and that maybe everybody gets assumed to be an employee; I haven't conducted any kind of detailed survey yet. But this always happens to me, almost every time I go shopping. It's not the same as asking a passing fellow-shopper for a bit of help. That's fine. I'm usually very nice and will give someone a hand, especially if they're elderly and infirm.
Or if she's my age and attractive.

But I've checked. I'm not wearing a name badge that says "My name is Steve, I am paid to work here. How can I pretend to help you?"

Likewise I'm not wearing anything that could be mistake for uniform in that or any other shop.
(Schoolboy error - if you're Indian and eating in a curry house, don't wear a white shirt or people assume you work there.
I once took an entire table's order (including any bread or naan). Then I sat down and ate my dinner.)

But even if the staff in the shop wear shirts, ties & name badges, and I'm wearing a jumper, scarf & overcoat, people assume I work there. Why is this? Is it my face? Do I look too confident? Too grumpy?


I like to avoid shopping on purpose but buy things by accident. This is why I have racks of t-shirts I almost never wear (this is true sadly, as anyone who's ever visited my flat will testify; they even used to be in colour order, it's a bit OCD really, I probably should throw them all away... but they look so pretty there on their hangers...).
I've been trying for years to persuade any female friend to throw out 2/3 of my wardrobe and then take me shopping but no-one's ever risen to the challenge.

Then again, if you see how some of my friends dress, I look positively normal...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm working over Christmas, but I'm doing nights. That way, I have to work when everyone else in the world is off, but I still get time to argue with my family. Double whammy.

If I don't blog in the next few days, I hope you all have a fantastic winter holiday, spending it how you want, with the people you want to be with.

Take care
- Suman -

Bloody Hell It's Christmas!

Just like that! It suddenly appeared out of nowhere...
No warning, no adverts, nothing... Not even a hint of it on the radio... crikey...

Perhaps I've been at work too much...
Today one of the silver cordless phones at the other end of the desk was ringing...
I walked over and answered the stapler...

Fitness 5:Alive

Bumped into much-aforementioned fit colleague yesterday.

She said she thought that we should go round the park again...

... but this time while I cycled, she would jog!

Fitness 4:Life

Well, I was expecting to write another post a few hours after my cycling spree (down AND uphill) saying that I was totally exhausted. That I'd got cramp in my fingers playing the piano that night, and got pain in muscles that I didn't even know I had.

But that didn't happen. The consequences of my foray into physical exercise are much worse.

I'm hungry.

For various reasons, for the last 3 months or so I've been off my food a bit.
Not starving, just not eating 3 meals a day when I only fancy brunch and a light dinner. I'd got a little bit podgy anyway so it was no bad thing...

But since going cycling (and remember, we're only talking one occasoin) it's like a switch has been turned on. I've been really really hungry.

Physiologically, it's understandable, you use up energy, your body wants to replace it. But, for example, I cooked a pasta dish large enough to last me at least 2 meals, and I ate the whole lot non-stop, standing up in the kitchen without even serving it out of the pan!

I have just been pigging. I even got up during dinner to get a drink and managed to eat several handfuls of peanuts before I'd sat back down again!


So either I have to find a way of limiting this hunger or, heaven forbid, start doing more exercise.


Life is so unfair... *

*irony