Voting for Christmas

The rugby Varsity match would always signal the start of Christmas as far aa I was concerned and it was usually played on the second Tuesday of December. I then tried to have some sort of party to go to every day from then until Christmas Eve. The build-up to Christmas was always much more enjoyable then the day itself.   Things have changed and now the match will be played in late March and I think trying to start my Christmas celebrations then would be a bit tricky.

So my new kick-off event has been the golf club turkey trot, a competition played in pairs for which the top three prizes are turkey. Last weekend myself and my partner came second and so I was in amongst the prizes. The Senior men also had a competition on the following Monday and again me and my partner came second. Only wine for prizes on this occasion though. 

So now the countdown for Christmas has started in earnest, but the news of a new strain of COVID is making it difficult for me to go out every day and be sociable. I did manage to go to Gino's skybar again last night with a few of the Visionaries. It was an excellent night which I think a few of the cry-offs might now be regretting not attending. Today I brought the Wallasey golf club green staff a drink in the clubhouse as a small thank you for all the hard work they have put in on behalf of the members this year. The rest of next week is looking a bit sparse though, as the latest government statistics and press conferences have put people on the back foot.

I am concerned that the information we are being given is not allowing people to make the right choices. We are never told how the death rate at the moment compares to the 2019 five year average for the same time period. We are not told how many people in hospital do not have the recommended number of jabs, and by their own admission nobody has indicated how severe the latest strain is. Indeed the data from South Africa indicates it could be quite mild.

The virus has no reason to kill all the hosts it is mutating on as that will be self defeating as eventually it will die off. If the side effects are minor then we are just facing another flu or common cold Winter challenge but there is no need to shut everything down just for that. Get on with life, get jabbed and live life for the reason it exists.

So back to the diary and address book to see who I can go out with next week!!

Oh come all ye faithful

The Varsity rugby match has traditionally been the start of my Christmas build-up. It used to be the only game of rugger I could temp my old mate Figs to go and see. We would have a belter of an evening and things kicked on from there.

These days the pre-Christmas alcoholically dominated lunches are few and far between so I have to make extra efforts to find and attend them. There have been a couple of Turkey Trot events at the golf club, and we have just returned from the London branch Christmas party weekend which was very enjoyable.

With only a few days to go though, I might be a little bit too sober for the Christmas festivities, of which I am less and less a fan as I enter my twilight years. I am off to Chester tomorrow to continue an IBM Northern tradition of red wine and lunch with Cookie. We have been doing this sort of thing for years and as neither of us could make the bigger do in Manchester last week we are having a cosy twosome in a suitable establishment.

Last night I went to the Liverpool Anglian cathedral where oldest ankle biter, Ava, was in her school choir. They were very good but most of the other choirs were not, and at times it felt we were in a requiem mass rather than a jolly Christmas event. Come on Radio City, buck your ideas up for next year.

Ava was amazed by the cathedral however, and she had every reason to be. It is the largest cathedral in the UK, and the fifth largest in the World. It was completed only as recently as 1979 and took 74 years to complete. Giles Gilbert Scott, a 22 year old, won a competition to design and build the cathedral, and he had to wait until 1942 before he could lay the final stone on the massive tower, which at its highest point is almost 100 yards above the cathedral floor. He sadly died in 1960 and was unable to see his life's work completed. For a choir of seven and eight year olds to bash out a few carols in such a structure must have been an amazing experience, as it was for us to watch Ava and her class mates do so.

I have one problem with the cathedral, and that is caused only by my warped mind. Above the great entrance there is a neon sign in the handwriting of Tracey Emin. It is therefore a prominent work of art. It reads ' I felt you and I knew you loved me'. Strange words to have in a church, given the current trend for tabloid exposes of the clergy!

The Nineteen Days of Christmas

I have had a bit of a result this year. My Christmas celebrations always start with the Varsity match, either by being at Twickenham in person, or in a pub somewhere watching on the TV. From then on its trying to cram as many Christmas do's and celebrations in as possible.

This year they have changed the date of the game. It was always the second Tuesday in December with a 2pm kick-off, its now the first Thursday at 4pm. So I have an extra five extra party days, and spectators at the game can have a much more leisurely luncheon before decamping to the ground. The local residents are not too impressed. They see it as another night of traffic conjestion but hey ho.

The game has lost some of its appeal as a match in recent years, with the professional game depriving both Oxford and Cambridge of the budding and current home international players who used to grace the sides. Nowadays there is the odd colonial cap who is doing a PhD or similar, otherwise it is well meaning under-graduates given the biggest stage in the game on which to perform. As an event though, it continues to get good support from students, graduates and hangers-on from the City. I probably fall into the last category.

Now where is my diary, I still have a few dates to fill up.