Christmas and suchlike

As a confirmed and card-carrying, registered Christmasoholic, I've been a bit crap at Christmas cards this year. I've got the most gorgeous of trees that's been gracing my living room for the past week but I still haven't sent all my cards yet... Why's that? I thought I'd finished them off yesterday and then remembered more today. I've just recalled another I really must post tomorrow (which I think is last posting day). Lazy sod or wot?

If I've forgotten to send you a card please accept the humble apologies of a crap Christmaser!

I'm delighted to think that tomorrow is my last day at work before Christmas - at last! Off to see family for Christmas but then back to work immediately after Christmas to continue preparations for our big annual international seminar with ministers from all over the world attending, and it changes on an hourly basis in the final week or so. The first full week of January is such a *perfect* time to hold a big seminar (not).

Of course, as happens every time I'm off work for more than a day or two, there's masses to do and not enough hours in the day. I left work at 7.30pm this evening and worked on a list of things to do tomorrow on the train home. Sad, eh? And I'll spend a couple of hours out of the office tomorrow to check out some video material we've commissioned for the seminar - this is our last chance for a final edit of the material. I don't think we'll need to do much since the earlier edit looked good, but it's still a couple of hours away from the coalface.

I got an unexpected Christmas present at the weekend - 'A Certain Trigger' by Maximo Park (courtesy of Christopher). It's excellent, new music that sounds new. Too many of the 'new' bands at the moment just sound like versions of The Jam or The Clash - Maximo Park don't sound like either and the singer has a delightful Geordie accent to his singing voice. I've put the CD on my iPod to listen to tomorrow on my way to work but thought I'd listen to it now as well and I'm pleased I did. I know nothing about the band but they sound good to me! I ought to play them louder but not at this time of the morning! You can listen to samples of their songs by clicking on the cover photo (it'll take you to Amazon and you can listen to 30 second clips).