Hi!

It's been another busy weekend, working on my second job
on Saturday (learned a new skill there too - it's always fun
to keep trying new things!), and had to have a quick trip into
Hull today. However, I had forgotten it would be so busy, with everyone rushing to the retail parks to stock up for Christmas,
so it wound up being quite a hectic afternoon. But how could
I forget about Christmas shopping? Well, I'm in quite a
fortunate position this year, as my lovely fiancee Louise
started up an online craft shop recently (shameless plug alert!: http://www.folksy.com/shops/catfaceandpancakes)
so we're uniquely placed to stock up on gifts.

On the road into Hull there's a big garden centre, all under glass, that has the best display of Christmas decorations and lights that I've ever seen. Every year I know it's time to start looking forward to Christmas when I see their lights on as I drive past. Fortunately it's not on a corner, or I'm sure it'd be an accident blackspot from the end of October 'til the New Year!

The rest of the weekend has been spent preparing for a craft fair in Bridlington next Saturday. We're selling some of Louise's items there, and we're going for a festive display. This has meant we've had to get the decorations down early, and we spent last night going through them all. As they're all wrapped up in newspaper it's like opening presents early.

We've been hitting Billy Idol's Happy Holidays and Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart albums pretty hard too.

And it's not even December yet...

Happy Winter!

I've just had a lovely Autumnal afternoon, involving putting the fire on, and some sandalwood incense (we have a gas fire but I miss the log-fire smells), while listening to a fantastic CD Louise recently got me - Bob Dylan's Christmas In The Heart. Yup, the folk legend has released a Christmas album! It takes pride of place with Billy Idol's Happy Holidays (another unlikely but great Yuletide gem), and it's really getting me in the mood for that most wonderful time of the year now.



Unfortunately in my line of work Christmas heralds the busiest time of year, and we've started working overtime in preparation for it already. The nights are drawing in and the shifts are getting later - and there's another six or seven weeks of that to go before the main event itself. Sigh... Still, it'll be worth it in the end - all said, it really is my favourite time of year!

Here's hoping for a white Christmas!