Christmas 2011

Written: Sunday 25 Dec. 2011

Ok, NOW I’m excited! It’s 01h35, the house is quiet, except for the ticking of my travel alarm clock and the occasional vehicle sound outside. I’ve been troubled by my old friend, Insomnia, again.

Tonight my daughter decided we had to decorate the house, and her child-like spiritedness ended up affecting me. I’d thrown the Christmas tree away during the year (or was it before last Christmas?), because we’d had it for so many years, it was shedding its artificial pine needles all over. Anyway, tonight we ended up improvising, turning an unused speaker into a low table, draping it with a sarong and then putting a potted rosebush onto it. My daughter then found the box of decorations and basically put things up all over the lounge. She found the lights and somehow managed to wind them round the other speakers, and when they were switched on, she called us to come and look - I must admit, she’d brought some magic back into the house. And the children shall lead their elders……

Earlier, she and her brother had made the fridge tart for tomorrow’s dessert. Yay! I think I’d better go and sleep. I hope the people I’ve just sat making CDs for (songs from my concert at Baran’s, in March 2010) like their gifts. This is a low-budget gift idea, but, like so many other things, means a lot more to me than anything I could’ve spent hundreds on in a shop.

So, yes, without the cynicism this time: Merry Christmas! I hope that, away from the hustle and bustle of the day, you’ll find a few moments to reflect on the many things in your life that are happening exactly as they should. And for those people who are spending their first Christmas without a loved one – I know how that feels; my heart goes out to you. Draw strength from your cherished memories and trust that the pain will go away…. eventually.