The joys of Christmas

The trouble with holidays is the coming back bit.

Which is to say that yes, you got away from it all, but now it is all waiting for you and clamouring even more loudly for attention. Even my poor neglected little blog.

Don’t get me wrong. I am involved in lots of projects which I am thoroughly enjoying most of the time.

A new collaboration with a new friend on a teaching project.

My singing students are proving to be unexpectedly satisfying to teach as I see their sometimes remarkable progress, and I also get some creative pleasure myself from working out arrangements for their songs. I have been contacted to give several weekend jazz singing workshops, which is time consuming to prepare but a joy to do.

English teaching for adults is fun as the groups become more confident and we can laugh together.

My contact with my autistic musicians is always an emotional rollercoaster. The boy with red hair is having more and more problems and is to be transferred to another central hospital better able to help him control his violent impulses. He has been replaced by the boy who sleeps a lot. The boy who sleeps a lot is a bit more alert now that we have moved to a proper music room, and he is no longer able to curl up on the carpet with a blanket over his head if he wishes to avoid a situation. He spent the first session alternately hiding behind a curtain and approaching to within 3 cm of my face and staring into my eyes. He is exactly the same height as I am, so this is a rather disturbing habit. Although, on reflection, this is not so bad as the girl who bites (she is breast height!).

And then, there is Christmas.

I have decided to make a list of things that I like about Christmas instead of moaning about what I don’t like. It will be shorter.

1…seeing friends and family

2…singing carols (especially the pagan ones)

3…clementines

4…bottle of champagne on Christmas day

5…watching the gorgeous David Tennant in Doctor who Christmas specials. Darling d and I will both be very sad when he leaves

Mmm it isn’t a very long list…Here is a bit of David Tennant in case you've never seen him

shsh, some of us are slobbing

Shshshshshshsh. Please tread softly. It is the morning after.
Yesterday was not the best Christmas feast ever, but we gave it a good go.
The pouilly fumé was faded and forgettable.
The 10 year old mouton cadet discovered in the cellar, which had been accidentally overlooked and found with such anticipatory joy, was a shadow of its former self. There was no flesh on the bones. I bravely continued drinking in the hope that these wines might improve during the brief time that they were in the glass.

You will never in a million Christmases guess my favourite part of the meal (although they were my only cooking contribution so I am prejudiced and partial).
SPROUTS
Thinly sliced crispy stir fried sprouts with garlic and cumin and Chinese five spice. They should have had ground coriander with them as well, but I had run out and they were still great. The only thing that they had in common with the usual molten sprout of christmas day is that you couldn't count them.


My sweet H laboured valiantly in the kitchen trying to accommodate a carnivore who won’t eat vegetables, a would-be vegetarian if she had any will power, people who like chocolate a lot and people who don’t like chocolate at all…
Drummer boy breezed through quickly between social engagements, pausing only to consume his steak and give an after Christmas-dinner drum lesson, thereby annoying the neighbours and luring the student here so that he could get a lift to the next social engagement. I remember when I had that same rapacious hunger for life - just. I have faded like the mouton cadet, but there is more flesh on my bones, not less.

Darling D and I looked forward to an eye candy moment with David Tennant and then the evening saw us transformed into beached-whales and involved much too much chocolate for some.
(Darling D informs me that she has taught her french friends a new word which has become "à la mode". To slob, I slob, you slob, he slobs etc. Sometimes I feel really proud of my culture...)

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz normal service will be resumed soon