Family Matters
6 January

2006 has begun.

As is traditional in the Kimberley Avenue household, Ross and I did not make a great thing of New Year. Instead, we said our goodbyes to 2005 by watching twilight over Liverpool Bay from the Crosby waterfront, peppered by the occasional distant fireworks. We were asleep by late evening and only briefly woken by the midnight revelry in the street. It was enough for us to be able to mutter "Happy New Year" to each other.

Before that we had ploughed our way through the first half of the second season of Lost. The narrative is a bit pacier second time round. Now that we are into the bunker things are (or maybe are not) becoming clearer. Presumably, at some point, the doomsday clock will stop.

On the Friday night, we went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I've never been much of a one for C S Lewis's fantasies. I was just a little too young and probably the wrong class for them to have made an impression when I was little.

The film is a good presentation of the story and was appropriately spectacular when called for. The actress playing the youngest of the children was quite splendid. I can't imagine Americans managing to produce such an un-selfconscious and unselfish performer. So, three stars.

When I have been talking about the film, however, I have ended up saying that I disliked the Christian symbolism. And I feel awkward about this because it is not that the symbolism is Christian that I dislike; it is the particular aspect of Christianity that I feel uncomfortable with - that of redemption. I think that it is quite possible for me to redeem my own past misdeeds by my present and future actions. I find it difficult to accept that someone else dying can expunge all guilt and sin. So, all of the Azlan/Christ sacrifice and resurrection makes me edgy.

The film company denies that there is anything specifically Christian about the film. So, what they thought they were making, heaven knows. And how they will deal with the Garden of Eden and the eating of the apple in The Magician's Nephew, one can only wonder.

I know of this because Ross and I have been listening to the story read to us by Jim Broadbent in the dark as we go to sleep. Now I know who Diggory is. Many years ago, Gill berated me for not knowing that he was the younger version of the Professor in The Lion, The Witch, etc. Well, now I know.

I've also been reading Untold Stories by Alan Bennett which was one of my Christmas presents this year. It goes without saying that he writes well, with insight, with (sometimes bitter) humour, with an ear for the vocal foibles of his clan. However, the book is excessively large and I doubt that I shall be able to read it cover-to-cover.

Lunch on New Year's Day was spent at my parents. This was a pleasant affair and the meal, though cooked to within an inch of being mush so that 80 year old teeth and dentures could cope, was still quite tasty.

Aside from sociability, the main purpose of the visit was to fix up their Freeview Box for them. It went well and they now have access to all the free to air channels. This was their Christmas present. We also managed to give them a second. They had been contemplating purchasing another television set because, according to them, the old one was on the blink. As soon as they had digital access, they realised that the television was perfectly good in both sound and vision. The problem had been that the analogue signal was (purposefully) being diminished.

Monday we cooked a meal for Ross's parents, his brother Sam and his grandad. This had been postponed from the previous week owing to the blizzards on the East Coast. Actually the weather has been a mess recently swinging from cold to mild, bright to gloomy all within the space of 24 hours. We had duck, mashed sweet potato and parsnip, sprouts and chestnuts followed by a fig tart ehich Ross created from our new Jamie Oliver recipe book. All in all, the whole enterprise was a great success.

Tuesday was a veritable first day back at work day with all the talk of the Festive season. I busied myself with clearing a three week backlog of email and completing all of the paperwork and Internal Verifying for our City and Guilds assessments. Out of the house by 7:20am, I travelled there in complete darkness beneath rain sodden clouds. Joy of joys, my return home was under a clear bright sky. It was deep twilight as I turned into Kimberley Avenue at 16:45pm but the good news is that it will only get lighter in the early evening as the days progress. It would be wrong to say that this is good because it is not a moral event but it is certainly to my liking.

Ross had left the front room curtains open and the tree lights on so that I had one last welcome from this year's tree. We spent the evening taking down the decorations and returning the house to normal. We even feasted on some of Monday's re-heated vegetables. I have to say that I am very impressed by the complete lack of waste that we have created this year.

Wednesday brought a trip to the Plaza cinema to see Mrs Henderson Presents. Oh, it was alright. But it ran out of steam in the second half once the theatre was open and the ladies took their clothes off. Everyone went through there paces very prettily but I wasn't at all overwhelmed. Just two stars here.

Friday night I watched Elizabethtown on Ross's laptop. Oh, it was alright. But it could have been better. I guess that my problem is that American movies of a certain type seem to make such a production number of everything. So, a memorial service cannot just be a memorial service; it has to be a tribute event that would do a major world figure proud. It was just a bit too heavy handed despite Orlando Bloom being gorgeous. Two stars here.