Cups of kindness as the hour approachesMonday, December 31st, 2007, 9.36am
In Cellardyke, our local gang refer to the KC band as "the boys", and because "the boys" are away this Hogmanay for the first time in 6 years, a dozen of us got together on the 30th at the cosy wee flat of HMS Ginafore for food, drink and party games. The games were largely for the benefit of my daughter, including trivial pursuit, call my bluff, and a complicated one with names on paper and some sort of grid? There were good natured squabbles, of course, but as the competitive streaks grew wider with drink, turns took longer, and still being sober I found myself thinking about all the stuff coming along in January.
January. I once had a book with a different fact for each day of the year, and for Jan. 1st an explanation of the origin of the name "January". A colour drawing of Janus, the two-headed god who looks both forward and back, is etched into my memory, and I imagine him to be straddling midnight on Hogmanay. Having had a great year in 2007, personally I'm hoping Janus is suffering some sort of double vision this Hogmanay, but on a wider scale I truly hope that he can see the past cups of greed and wrath replaced by cups of kindness.
Happy new year y'all!
My point being the week in between29th December
The Anderson's postponed Christmas meal on the 27th did not disappoint. Although my mum called a "presents for kids only" rule this year, us adults ended up with more daft gifts than ever, largely because my wee brother misheard the rule as "kids' presents only", and nobody wanted to be caught out once the news spread. Still, my dad loves his lego, and not one of us has lost his or her childish sense of humour this past 12 months and 2 days. We always have more puddings and sweets on the menu than anything else, with mulled wine and Tokaji Aszu the drinks of choice - my point being that Christmas really is just for us kids.
I was invited to a party on the 28th, but although 'tis the season etc., preferred to stay in and play scrabble and backgammon with my 8 year old daughter. She doesn't mind losing despite trying to cheat, and is happy to discuss the similarites between The Blue Nile and David Bowie. Everyone seems to be in limbo for most of the week between Christmas and Hogmanay. Sure, the shops and banks reopen, public transport fires up, and you could call in a plumber, but the workers all seem a bit listless, the shelves are largely empty, and the plumber would no doubt turn up half cut anyway - my point being a party would be lame too.
Now here we are early on the 29th December, and i'm planning ways to make these last 3 days stretch out as long as possible - starting with tumblers full of neat cherry brandy I reckon - my point being identical to the point I made two hogmanays ago when I started playing Beatles songs using only one chord.
Procrastmas21st December
It's the shortest day, meaning only 3 more sleeps until I START thinking about Christmas. By noon on the 24th i'll just have everyone's still to get!
As a self employed musician it is easy enough to avoid the festive hoo ha, there being a dearth of staff parties to attend, and none of this tit for tat swapping of cards between tour-frazzled band mates. Fife council came to my blinkered aid this year by hiding the Anster town tree in a cage. Anyway, I tell myself it's impossible to get into the spirit of things until all my engagements are over and done with, but because this year's diary closed doors on the 16th, I decided to move house starting today.
There are obvious advantages to the Christmas Eve approach. The january sales have started, and there's plenty of stress free environments in which to think now that all those smug christmassy people, their hoover bags bursting with pine needles, have put a stocking in it with their "all organised just the veg." banter. Just avoid the wrapping queue at woolies, head home with a bootful of inspired-now-realised gift ideas, then plan that mulled wine assault on the watchnight service. After midnight open up your own presents carefully and start recycling the paper. Only once did I hear the dreaded sentence that starts "what a coincidence ..." and ends "... paper still warm!", but quickly diverted their attention back to Tiny Tim.
Kc Dec 2007
