Fourth Tree
7 December

Well, the build up to Christmas has started.

We wrote our cards on the first Sunday in Advent last week and decked the tree this Sunday.

It's the fourth tree in this house. The first was a very rushed job shortly after we'd moved in. You can see the tatty wallpaper in the background. The second was probably my favourite so far. The third celebrated the newly decorated front room. The year we note the new curtains in the front room.

On Saturday night, I took Ross and my parents to see The Play What I Wrote over at the Lowry. I'd hoped that it might provide me with the theatrical highlight of the year but, overall, I can't say that it did.

Partly this was because the play promises a special guest star. I'd muttered to myself for sometime that it would probably be someone from Coronation Street who I had never heard of. Early on in the night, one of the performers told us that we would be having Sir Ian McKellen. I was very impressed. This turned out to be a joke. We ended up with someone from Coronation Street who I had never heard of.

Maybe that soured the experience for me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood. Maybe I was too tired from shepherding a boyfriend in a wheelchair and two elderly parents. Maybe I had build the whole thing up in my mind too much beforehand. I did laugh. I did enjoy myself. I did admire the sheer athletic energy of it all. But just not enough. However, it would be churlish to give the experience less than three stars.

In the week previous, I had been down at the Westwood Training and Conference Centre delivering another of the customer care courses I do so well. It was a shame not to have the company and the professional support of Phil but it went very well.

I can relax now and drift slowly towards the holiday season.