December will be magic again
We had a bit of an odd Christmas and New Year this year, curiously downbeat at times due to the fact that this was the first real Christmas for J and her family since her dad died. Not that it was awkward or mournful or anything like that, just that there was an awareness whenever the whole family was together that someone was missing.
This was most obvious at Hogmanay when, for the first time since about 1984, we stayed in by ourselves. The two oldest kids were at their auntie's house of the night and the youngest one was in bed by 8pm, what with being three. It was nice to get some time alone to talk (and we had plenty to talk about in spite of being married for 11 years, which is surprising, apparently) and I didn't have to listen to Shayne from X-Factor's dreadful single even once, which would not have been the case anywhere else in Edinburgh on New Years' Eve.
In terms of pressies, I got considerably more than I expected, including:
Books
The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins
Darwin on Trial - Phillip Johnson
The Time Travellers - Simon Guerrier
Doctor Who: The Legend Continues - Justin Richards
Only Human - Gareth Roberts
Back to the Vortex - Shaun Lyon
The Curse of Lono - Hunter Thompson and Ralph Steadman
The Judgement of Caesar - Steven Saylor
Eric Gill - Fiona McCarthy
The History of Time - Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Music
Songs in the Key of Z Vol.1 & 2 - Various Artists
Complete Peel Sessions - The Fall
DVD
Dad's Army Season 3
Flint Street Nativity
plus a Sonic Screwdriver, a Dr Who calendar, bottle opener and pack of playing cards and two Dalek key-rings, courtesy of my lovely mother-in-law (who also bought me the Season 27 (ok, Season 1 officially) box set of Who and gave me it early).
J seemed to like everything I bought her (or pretended that she did, which amounts to the same thing) which, as ever, came as a bit of a surprise.
It's just a terrible shame that I'm back at work now, which means I won't have time to watch/read most of my presents until some time in April.
This was most obvious at Hogmanay when, for the first time since about 1984, we stayed in by ourselves. The two oldest kids were at their auntie's house of the night and the youngest one was in bed by 8pm, what with being three. It was nice to get some time alone to talk (and we had plenty to talk about in spite of being married for 11 years, which is surprising, apparently) and I didn't have to listen to Shayne from X-Factor's dreadful single even once, which would not have been the case anywhere else in Edinburgh on New Years' Eve.
In terms of pressies, I got considerably more than I expected, including:
Books
The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins
Darwin on Trial - Phillip Johnson
The Time Travellers - Simon Guerrier
Doctor Who: The Legend Continues - Justin Richards
Only Human - Gareth Roberts
Back to the Vortex - Shaun Lyon
The Curse of Lono - Hunter Thompson and Ralph Steadman
The Judgement of Caesar - Steven Saylor
Eric Gill - Fiona McCarthy
The History of Time - Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Music
Songs in the Key of Z Vol.1 & 2 - Various Artists
Complete Peel Sessions - The Fall
DVD
Dad's Army Season 3
Flint Street Nativity
plus a Sonic Screwdriver, a Dr Who calendar, bottle opener and pack of playing cards and two Dalek key-rings, courtesy of my lovely mother-in-law (who also bought me the Season 27 (ok, Season 1 officially) box set of Who and gave me it early).
J seemed to like everything I bought her (or pretended that she did, which amounts to the same thing) which, as ever, came as a bit of a surprise.
It's just a terrible shame that I'm back at work now, which means I won't have time to watch/read most of my presents until some time in April.
2 Comments:
So what did you think of Darwin on Trial?
Unconvincing - for all the kudos Johnson gets froi the Creationist lobby, his arguments seem as tired as every other Intelligent Designer. Lots of analogie swhich seem, on the surface, to make sense but which on the lsightest of further thought turn out to be poor science (or at least to seem like poor science ot unsicentific me).
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