Seasons Greetings to anybody who stops by this blog.

Christmas Eve, everybody is home. Tricia is apparantly preparing food for tomorrow, although it sounds like the kitchen is being dismantled from here. Nikki is watching ‘don’t forget the lyrics’, Robbie is at his mates, and Ellie has gone to bed.

Nikki is enjoying some peace and quiet. When she hasn’t been working in Finchley hospital as part of her Uni placement, she has been working at Homebase, with little rest in between. She worked today up till 2pm, then she met up with Tricia, Robbie and Ellie in Aylesbury and they watched Madagascar 2 at the cinema. She has finished at Finchley now, and is back at Uni in mid Jan, and will then start another placement at Watford at the end of Jan. She has been offered a load of hours by Homebase over the next week, and as she could do with the money, she will be back off to Hatfield on Saturday. Rob will go down and spend a few days with his sis next week to keep her company, as her house is otherwise empty.

Whilst at Finchley hospital, Nikki was assigned an elderly gentleman that she had to get walking again after an operation. Well, she got on well with the old feller, and was successful in getting him up and about again. His wife was so pleased wih progress, she took in a box of chocolates for Nikki. Here she is… she got them on Monday, and they are still not opened… that’s what is called willpower.

At 5:30 this evening Ellie and I went up to the Crib service at the church. Now, in recent years I have done the first reading… but I wasn’t asked this year. My youngest daughter was asked instead! Usurped by my own flesh and blood. She read beautifully. Clear and and not to fast… Dad was proud.  Ellie had read last week as well, quite a difficult piece, at a Carol service in the church, and did exceptionally well. It’s all good for her confidence. Ellie loves TV shows like the X Factor, and would dearly love to be able to sing. All the evidence so far seems to point at her not being able to sing very well… not that she lets this get in the way at all. I have tried to convince her she would make a far better news reader… but this idea hasn’t quite taken just yet.

After having repeated problems last year of Ninja the cat climbing up the Xmas tree, we have only had one instance this year of a cat up a Xmas tree… they are getting a bit older and perhaps less lunatic. Here is Lily, recently found hiding in Ellies bed.

I took Ellie and Rob over to see my Mum and Dad last Sunday. They were looking well, and are pretty pleased with Dad’s progress. A nurse still visits daily to dress and inspect the scarred area from the op, and he seems to be doing ok. Fingers crossed he keeps progressing.

I found myself being somewhat reflective today. It has been a quick year (I know each year is the same length of time (although this year was a leap year), but it seems to have gone quickly), and I started looking ahead. The  volatility of the financial markets is now starting to be felt in the job sector … MFI and Woolies going to the wall etc, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the year ahead. Zavvi, a DVD chain now looks like going under, and another 3,400 jobs at threat. It isn’t just in the UK, but everywhere, including the US, and of course next year Mr Obama steps into the hot seat. He seemed to win votes by sounding like he was all things to all people, but he will find it difficult to be like that once in power. I always thought he would probably be good on the foreign policy, he seems more outward looking than Bush was. But whereas Bush came into power when there was a big budget surplus in 2001, Obama will be looking at a massive budget deficit (as much as a Trillion dollars). This will no doubt manacle him with his policies, and will restrict him. He is being labelled as America’s new hope, and it seems there is an awful lot of expectation, which I think he is going to find hard to live up to as things stand presently. It is almost as if he is seen as some kind of hero in waiting. Interesting then that the Archbishop of Canterbury has just said this evening that ‘people should not wait for “larger-than-life” heroes to solve the world’s problems’, now he said this more in reference to God, but he is right (and I don’t normally agree with him, I think he is a fruitloop most of the time), in the sense the world can’t pin it’s hopes on one individual waving a magic wand and making everything better. I think unfortunately that people in the US think Obama has a magic wand. He may be inspirational, and motivational, but that won’t fix what is broken. He will need to make tough economic policy decisions which will upset the very people that voted for him. Interesting times indeed.

It’s a different world from when Bush took over in 2001. Russia, China and India are more powerful, and the Americans no longer seem to be the single superpower. I can’t see history being very kind to Bush in retrospect. Are there any positive items to be recalled of his presidency? It seems war and economic turmoil are to be his legacy. In the UK, Gordon Brown seems to be enjoying something of an uplift in popularity after announcing a series of measures that will burden the UK with massive debt for generations. Very ironic. I do not believe history will look favourably on him either. What was the point of the VAT cut… it is costing billions, but a reduction of 2.5% is negligible on most goods. I can’t see how it will help uplift the economy.

I can’t say that I know the answer. But to all intents and purposes we have almost witnessed the death of capitalism this year, and the rebirth of socialism with the effective nationalisation of parts of the banking sector. There is a saying, ‘everything in moderation’, and we don’t seem to have followed that path for a long time. Why did national utilities like Gas, Electric and Water have to be privatised ? To raise money for the government it would seem. We now have EDF, a French company controlling part of our nuclear industry. There has to be a line where we protect national interests, and the people of the nation. The line of moderation. Are EDF interested in the welfare of British people, or the amount of money they make ? Well, it really isn’t our welfare. I can understand the argument for privatising something like BT, a non essential utility, but privatising Water was always beyond my comprehension. I don’t purport to be either left or right wing, I like to follow a middle road, with common sense decisions. I guess that is is easier said than done.

On a lighter note, I have been sampling some of the Xmas TV offerings over the last week. I was so looking forward to Lark Rise to Candleford. I had enjoyed the series last year, and whilst the original stories are somewhat exhausted, I thought the BBC would come up with something progressive. The showing last Sunday night was a big disappointment, as it centred around a ghost / spirit, and to my way of thinking was drivel. I can only hope it improves. It was clearly filmed in the summer, and all the fake snow against a backdrop of trees with all their greenery looked very odd – how could they have missed that ? Even I know that most trees lose their leaves in the autumn. Oh well. The QI Xmas special was also a bit of a disappointment. We all (with the exception of Ellie) enjoy QI, it has us laughing out loud. But not this one… a few light moments but generally not up to the usual standard. I watched Rab C Nesbitt on Tuesday evening… now I did enjoy this. It veered towards vulgarity instead of comedy at times, but there were some funny moments, and it was interesting to see the take on his alcoholic recovery. We all sat and watched Shrek the Halls this evening, which was quite funny. Tomorrow, if time permits during the big day, there is Wallace and Gromit, which is normally brilliantly done, and Doctor Who.

But of course the prime purpose of the day will be the family. Just the five of us. We have our own format for the day, which the kids are used to, and of course we dare not change it. Merry Xmas to all. TTFN.