Thursday 27th December

Christmas has come and gone and we had a good time with  my daughter and grandchild over the weekend.  We had a panic moment, as she had to resign from her job, unfortunately her boss lady is not nice.  But it eventually went off fairly well, the resignation letter was sent on its way by Matilda's finger without much ado!

We did not go overboard on the food. I cannot stand a fridge full of bits and pieces, in fact suddenly there was no eggs but my soul says Xmas is but one day and the traditional things had already been made. 

Yesterday someone put on F/B a video of people haranguing a couple in their car outside Tesco, the car was smashed up, but the driver eventually drove away.  Just an incident? well apparently the man had attacked a Tesco employee, and so 'rough justice' was meted out by a crowd of trolley weapons and wheel jacks, no one was hurt, except the car, but it does not bode well for the future.

Christmas also shows the good side of this festivity, as people go out and help those less fortunate, toys are brought for children, meals are cooked and that is what gives us that warm and fuzzy feeling inside but of course the calamity of homelessness and children in B&Bs is there all the year and that is the subject that really needs tackling.  Looking at the Trussell Trust site and I see that the politicians have been using the foodbanks as photo opportunities according to stories abounding in the media.  What do we make of this country?

On Christmas day we went next door to the pub for our 'free' drink, which Harriet and Lucy always do on this date,  There was a couple down from Cornwall staying in one of the holiday cottages and as we chatted and bemoaned the fact that the holiday cottage scenario was as bad in Cornwall as it is in other parts of the country.  The fact of the matter is that many of the young are priced out of the villages they were brought up in by people who want to retire to that 'roses round the door' cottage, and I give no excuse for us either.  We were intrigued as to why they had resorted to Yorkshire, but the answer is plain and simple, in-laws resided in Scotland, Yorkshire is middle ground.

Caught 'A Week with Marilyn' film which was a triumph of Englishness and actors, gosh we produce films of such lush nature as to the rich middle class lives, that such films must fool American people into thinking that this 1956 England is a true representation.  There is a very old film called 'A Taste of Honey,  around  in the 1960s  with Rita Tushingham that captured the bleakness of poverty then, sometimes it is wise to revisit the past and compare with the present.

Presents include books of Susan Cooper, and a rather interesting one with patterns of simple dresses by a Japanese designer and some perfume, we, Paul and I, were unsure of presents for each other, or whether we needed them.  A call in to Bils and Rye gallery is on the menu, and maybe a DVD player as well.