Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas


Nativity
Originally uploaded by ambroseneville.
Merry Christmas to anyone and everyone who may be reading my blog.

If I may posit that we all lend our thoughts to those in distant places on this planet whose lives are threatened, and if you pray, even as a once-a-year Christian, think of those in jeopardy.

I hope that you have a safe, and most of all, happy, season.

Friday, December 24, 2004

The possibilities are endless, so the cliche runs

I had an idea a few weeks ago that it'd be an interesting social experiment to spend a week approaching people that I've never met, and acting like we're really old friends. It relates somewhat to a book I read sometime ago, that suggests that people will generally relate to you as you relate to them. This could be used to explain the idea of Christmas 'spirit', or Christmas 'cheer'. Once an idea like this is established, it seems that it's contagious, but it relies on the agency of goodwill among at least a proportion of the population to keep it going year-on-year. In today's climate of mutual suspicion, don't forget the value of going out of your way to be pleasant, as the knock-on effects may be substantial.

Christmas shopping: the beginning

Okay, so it's Christmas Eve, and I've not yet bought any Christmas presents, apart from Naomi's, and we've already had our Christmas a bit early.

The news has been full of doom-and-gloom warnings from retailers for the past couple of days. I like the idea of the retailers across the country being made nervous by the uncertainty that's been generated by shoppers realising you don't have to go shopping on the high street, except maybe for last-minute items you can't buy via mail order or from ebay. I'm no anti-capitalist, but I do like the idea of people generating their own market price (as with ebay) rather than being stuck with what the high street cartels are willing to offer you. That said, it's now so late, I'm going to have to use high street shops myself.

Yesterday afternoon, I was out and about in Cardiff city centre, and decided to get a coffee to try and clear my light-headedness from the couple of pints I'd had. Walking into Starbucks, with James H and Dom, we queued up for a bit, then I announced to the barista [how annoying is that title] that I would like "a grande latte, to go away". I seemed to have created a new, confusing terminology for ordering a hot drink, fusing the English form, to take away, with the American one, to go. And in so doing, it sounded like I really didn't want the drink I'd just ordered.

Friday, December 17, 2004

Christmas is cancelled

I was reading a comment in the free Metro paper this morning by Krishnan Guru-Murphy who was saying how poor the Christmas build-up has been this year, referring to things like the shoddy state of the Oxford St Christmas lights. I also heard from Luigi that they cancelled the Christmas parade and Santa's grotto in Uxbridge (this time because it was deemed offensive to other religions - a parade and grotto to the year's big push on unnecessary consumer spending hardly strikes me as Christo-centric anyway). I write this not as a the voice of the Daily Mail, but in confusion at the illogic of the situation: there's something a bit mad in the liberal self-loathing of the Christian festive tradition in this country, to the extent that people shy away from referring to Christmas (at least in the sector I work in), but harp on and on about festivals of other religions that occur at this time. One rule for you, one rule for me.

An aside:Krishnan Guru-Murphy can be used to illustrate the truly horrific value of third rate celebrities at the webpage below. Why on earth would anyone want to look at a car crash on the interweb, and several photos, at that? There's something wrong with the way culture is going.

http://www.mynottinghill.co.uk/nottinghilltv/photogallery/krishcrash.htm

The cunning plan (pt II)

Regular readers may recall a little customs-dodging concept "a friend of mine" came up with recently, involving a dummy guitar that would be left in a certain foreign land, this New Year. The strength of the pound against the dollar is at an all-time high. The pieces of the jigsaw are starting to fall into place (Moriarty-style evil laugh), as "a friend of mine" has now purchased a severed guitar body, minus the neck and all the electrics. This will be the perfect dummy. Mwhahahahahaha.

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Merlin

This lunch time I ate at MacDonalds (<- have you ever noticed how "i ate" sounds really American compared to "I have eaten"?) and was served by someone called Merlin. It pleased me to meet someone with a wierd name, myself being someone who has a reasonably wierd name.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Epiphany


Epiphany
Originally uploaded by ambroseneville.
Yesterday evening I found myself walking down a hill in a suburb of South London - a slightly Dickensian scene, and certainly not the sort of place where you'd expect to have many feelings other than a certain suspicion that you might be mugged. I was carrying with me a bag full of letters that I'd stupidly agreed to deliver; this was to-all-intents-and-purposes a pretty pointless exercise that I'd been lumbered with, and yet, in these miserable surroundings, I had a sudden realisation that I was really happy. There was probably some sort of electrochemical alignment that occurred to produce this feeling of elation, and I'm pretty sure the dual-keyboard song by The Gloria Record that I was listening to had something to do with it, but it was one of those fleeting moments I think I'll always remember. Looking up into the air, I saw the flashing lights of one plane, high up, and then I spotted another, much closer, close enough that I could see its undercarriage lit up with an orange glow against the velvety midnight blue of the sky. In that moment I felt like I suddenly understood the vastness of the world, but my insignificance was mixed with a kind of contentment. It was that rarest thing: recognition of being happy, and being in love, when you are, not after the fact.