This evening I offer 2 alternative stories of the day.

One.
Shortly after 8am this morning, a knock at the front door heralded the arrival of a very wet courier. Through the rain he handed over a large parcel and disappeared in his little red van. As the strains of Postman Pat receded from my subconscious, I attacked the parcel and discovered it contained a magical bottle allowing the holder one wish. Excited, I ran to make a packed lunch: tomato soup and chocolate biscuits.

Two.
Shortly after 8am this morning, the tones of my alarm clock heralded the start of a very long lie-in. Through the fog of sleep, Mr Farli handed over the duvet and disappeared to his computer. As the strains of Christmas receded from my tired muscles, I attached myself to the pillow and discovered the bed contained a no longer hot water bottle. Disappointed, I finally got out of bed and went to make lunch: tomato soup and chocolate biscuits.

One
I opened the magical bottle and wished for a perfect day, with enough of interest to blog about.

Two
I opened the hot water bottle and wished I didn’t have so many essays to write.

One
The phone rang. The man said I was the winner of a special shopping prize, which had to be taken today. A vintage Bentley pulled up outside the door and we went off to shop. Strangely, there was no-one else in the shopping centre, despite it being one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Most of the shops had been replaced by second-hand bookshops, although the clothes shops that remained were great fun: they contained only clothes in my size. Every time we started to get fed up of shopping, a sofa appeared and we sat down to watch some new episodes of West Wing with some coffee.

Two
The phone rang. It was my sister’s phone calling to let me know that my sister was on her way out and had forgotten to lock the phone keypad again. The bin lorry pulled up outside the door and took the cardboard off to the dump. Strangely, I couldn’t face going sales shopping so the sofa appeared from under a pile of stuff and we sat down to watch some new episodes of Torchwood with some coffee.

One
As the afternoon faded away, we went for a romantic walk and returned to find someone had cooked dinner and cleaned the house.

Two
As the afternoon faded away, I did some Greek homework, cooked dinner and decided not to bother cleaning the house.

One
After dinner, the Bentley returned and took us to the theatre for a lovely night out. The cast included Colin Firth, Rob Lowe and Pierce Brosnan.

Two
After dinner, we sat and watched tv. The cast included David Walliams and Matt Lucas.

One or Two? Which do you think really happened and why?

Another quiet day with some dozing, some reading for essays, some cooking (pizzas and foccacia made without the assistance of the bread machine: yum).

I also did a spot of wool shopping and have enough for a first project. Photos will follow if it ever gets finished.

This evening we are catching up with Torchwood.

I will go and try to have some adventures so that I can blog more entertainingly.

I celebrated returning home by falling ALL the way down the stairs. I had just finished unpacking and was so excited at having finished that I ran to tell Mr F. The house we were staying in Up North has much shallower and wider stairs so my feet had auto-piloted onto the second or third step and completely missed it. Thankfully there is no major damage, just sore muscles and a small bruise on one cheek (not on my face). It felt like sledging down a very bumpy hill and apparently made a very alarming noise. It could have been much worse.

In our journeyings, radio 2 has been a constant companion. I was interested to hear the 5 finalists for the Great British Battle of the Bands: Rolling Stones, Beatles, Oasis, Take That and Queen. We had already guessed the Beatles and Queen and I will be happy with either winning. Do vote for your favourite, by following the link above.

This evening I am going to have a nice sing along to Fiddler on the roof. All together now: yobba dobba dobba.

I have had a lovely day with various in-laws. The presents have been presented, turkey has been turkeyed, pudding puddinged etc.

The most exciting development has been the Stitch n Bitch Crochet Happy Hooker book that Birdie mentioned back in November. Now I just have to get some sensible sized hooks, sort out how American yarn weights compare to British ones (Daisy – any clues?) and I will be away.

Doctor Who is now on and so the evening progresses. I think that is enough for today.

There is internet Up North! I am sitting in a very comfortable armchair, with my laptop resting on the arm, waiting for Mr F to return from a great expedition to… er the fish and chip shop.

We have been for a walk up a big hill this morning, so we have definitely earned the fish and chips. I took pictures on my phone, but do not have the correct lead with me to show them.

Ah the fish and chips are here, but alas no scampi. Apparently there was a power cut (haven’t quite got to the bottom of that explanation yet)

- Greek exams are nice
- The end of term is busy
- It is possible to do all Christmas shopping in 2 hours…
- And wrap things the same day…
- but it does not leave enough time for proper blogging, hence this list.

Have you seen this site? If you are travelling by road in the UK, you need to see it. Chris’s British Roads Database. A true work of genius.

I am off up north shortly for a few days. I hope there will be internet there, but if not, have a very happy Christmas.

I am in the last throes of essay writing. I am determined to be done in time to watch Hogfather tonight. Only about another 800 words to go. Why is it that the essay I haven’t done much reading for was easy, while the essay where I have dutifully read and made notes on all the chapters is very confusing?

I hate giving in things that aren’t perfect, but this time, I think I may have to. Ah well, just the Greek exam in 2 days to worry about afterwards and I stand a better chance of getting a good mark in that, so more time will be spent sorting that out.

Enjoy your Sundays people.

We hosted the wise men for our church posada this week (being asked to so this sort of thing really makes me feel I belong in church). I had lots of fun sending them on a journey around the living room – they were very good quality wise men, wooden and about 8 inches tall, apart from Caspar who was much smaller. At least I assume the small one was meant to be Caspar (I may be using Caspar the friendly ghost as my reasoning there, for which please excuse me). Anyway, it was great to host Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar.

As we were on our way to the next house to drop them off, Mr Farli started singing We three kings of Orient are, one in a taxi, one in a car. Shocked and dismayed, I questioned him about these and demanded that he sing the proper words:

We four Beatles of Liverpool are
John in a taxi, Paul in a car
George on his scooter, blowing his hooter
followed by Ringo Starr

I have been having great trouble in choir the last couple of weeks with The Angel Gabriel from heaven came. I can’t manage without singing most highly flavoured gravy at least once in each run through.

I despair sometimes, I really do.

This post was brought to you through the inspiration of fineline

Since I have been locked away in college since September (well it is starting to feel like it), have not been into a large shopping area since mid November and watch most of my tv programmes on video since I am never in at the right time (and so miss the adverts), the material nature of most preparations for Christmas have mostly passed me by.

It was an absolute joy to be in the first advent service, singing O come O come Emmanuel for the first time and not be heartily sick of Christmas.

The trouble with academic terms is that if you want to celebrate Christmas within the community, you have to do it early. Schools and universties therefore start rehearsing for Christmas ludicrously early, although the result is probably all the better for it.

There is the memory of me as a small child begging Mum to let me start practicing Christmas Carols as soon as the Autumn term started (we were banned until half term). I do love Carols and expect the next week or two to be full of them, but I am glad not to have been singing them since before advent.

Christmas is not fully here until that glorious seventh verse of O come all ye faithful on Christmas morning and I am looking forward to celebrating the mysteries of the Incarnation over the full 12 days of the feast (essays permitting).

Happy Advent everyone. May your anticipation be worthwhile and rewarded with the joy of Christmas.

If anyone would care to tell me why I am in college this early in the morning, I would be very grateful.

Looking around my study, I realise that I have begun to hoard fruit. There are three items: a satsuma (now partly prepared for eating*) an applle, and a pear. Oh and there is another apple hiding in the corner. This last one is unlikely to be eaten because a) it is a red apple and b) it has been sitting there for about 2 weeks now. I had hopes that I could overcome my anti-red apple prejudice, but this one will, I fear, meet its end in another way. On a related note, I did not have any breakfast before leaving the house, so I am now going to hide the evidence of my secret fruit hoarding nature. Yum.

The satsuma is now prepared and being consumed as I type. I am sad to report that it is no longer in its prime, and some pieces are rather dehydrated. On the whole, it is still pleasing because the pith came off easily and my fingers (and therefore the keyboard) are relatively free from sticky orange stuff.

Exciting, huh?

* Does anyone else take all the pith off each segment before eating any?