As the title might indicate, I have not as yet acquired the Christmas spirit….but I hope that it is on its way.
As Leo has been very ill, I’ve been spared the endless stream of ‘Jingle Bells’ and other such abominations as hospitals don’t indulge. However, there are other distractions to while away the hours of waiting for test results – such as the mask ritual.
A new government has come to power with the express aim of breaking the cartels which are breaking the back of the country. While having popular support, every state institution is out to sabotage their efforts, stuffed as these institutions are with the creatures of the cartels.
In the case of the junta running the health ministry a number of high ranking officials jumped ship to international organisations at the change of government while those remaining bunkered down to make change difficult. The new health minister – young and a woman – is pushing ahead and the President has backed her by sacking the entire remaining junta – roughly on the grounds of incomptence and corruption. However, their appointees are still in place and to mark their defiance of the minister, who is not too bothered about mask wearing, masks are imposed in all state hospitals on staff, patients and visitors alike.
Thus, while we were waiting for results of tests, Leo was using an inhaler. Something you can’t do while wearing a mask. An officious nurse bustled over, commanding him to wear one and when I indicated that it would be a physical impossibility, threatened him with being thrown out if he did not comply. Given strength by the inhalation, Leo drew breath and blew her backwards bow legged with his opinion of her intelligence and his suggestions as to where she could put the test results once they arrived. He was exhausted, but it was worth it to see her depart in a huff and even more so when the assembled porters came over to pat him on the shoulder, beaming in delight.
Still, he is home now, though running up to the local hospital daily, and Christmas can begin.
Music has always been part of the celebrations……the traditional hymns and carols and the awful schmalzy stuff alike……whether your tastes run to this….
Or to this…..
Or this.
Then forget the miseryguts with their
And enjoy whatever suits your mood.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and many more to come, with ‘Adeste Fideles’ from Notre Dame de Paris as it was in all its glory.
The Venomous Bead 
Sending healing thoughts and good wishes that the test results come back positive and he can school the idiot nurse again through treatment. Best and Happy Christmas wishes from me and the Ranch Hands 🎄🎄🎄
Thank you so much. He has had a rough time but has pulled through, even though very tired and fragile. I think having a go at the nurse got the adrenaline running! Have a lovely Christmas, all of you.
Everything aside, I hope Leo’s test results are favorable. Nothing planned this end but to keep our wits about us. Wishing you both well as always. ❤️🐾
No plans here either, just playing it by ear. Enjoy a quiet time – unless you feel like kicking up your heels!
A quiet evening for me, Helen, and a quiet day thereafter and thereafter. with g’ma. Like many, waiting for school to recommense.
I was never rowdy over Christmas….NewYear don’t ask me….
I thought I had sussed commenting on your blog but it has gone tits up again so I shall ask the local teenage wizard to try to sort it out.
Look after yourself, don’t go too mad on the exercises and above all, remember Limerick!
Best wishes to Leo. I hope his condition improves soon.
Thank you…much appreciated.
Merry Christmas, Helen, to you and to Leo. I’m in a carol-free zone myself, the best place to be during any given Christmas season. Pat the dogs for me.
Dogs duly patted. I trust Bluidy Clavers will be having a bone or two over the more or less festive season.
Gadzooks, my very best wishes to Leo for recovery and fullness of well, In fact, I command it be so.
Christmas? Magical for a few childhood years, interesting for a few others. These Humbuggery Days my chief concern now lies in securing supplies of coal and broccolii (there has to be some plural). I have given up on a world where Establishment “adults” ban glitter and suggest that a turkey may be cooked over two candles and a list of “celebrity” personal pronouns. I shan’t be missed. I may be arrested (if there’s a Plastic PC available not on Twitter duty) for beginning the day (for everyone else, at Sparrowfart o’clock) with 200 watts of Slade and Greg Lake. 😉
Thanks for the kind wishes. I think that currently I have more faith in your command than in current medical science where recovery is concerned!
By eschewing turkey you may be mistaken for an eco loon so will be free from arrest…if questioned you have only to display the brocolii to have Plod falling back, taking the knee and offering you compensation.
I did enjoy that music this morning. Especially the classical ones.
However, I have ‘accidentally’ posted the Irish onto Facebook, Twitter and my blog.
Sorry about that.
I don’t know why I enjoyed them so much today, even the papists were good. I must be coming down with something…
Leo has a way with nurses, though I am not sure the ones I knew would be off in a huff at that. He would just get it all back again! So many were Irish after all!
Your Christmas will still be special, even though the dogs will eat most of it.
Truth to be said I am not a great fan of nurses….having my pineapple pinched by them at a young age has always left doubts about their saintlinesss and have had a few humdingers of ‘exchanges of views’ down the years. Clearly Costa Rican ones need a few Irish trainers to stiffen their sinews.
Posted the Irish one, have you? Doubtless the curse of Cromwell will descend on you….and you are probably right about the dogs. If it’s flesh, they are ready to do their duty.
Good grief, that reindeer could make a fortune on a talent show! I hope you are feeling better.
Sorry to hear the latest news. Will send a message to you both.
Cheers, Diane and Nigel.
Thank you. Much appreciated. I hope you are set for a peaceful Christmas at home.
I’m so sorry that Leo isn’t doing well, and even more sorry that he has to deal with incompetent staff to boot. As for politicians, the less said the better. They are proof positive that humans aren’t God’s crowning achievement. (Personally, I think dogs are, but that’s just me.) I hope that in all this mess you can somehow have a merry and peaceful Christmas!!! Please know that I’m sending good thoughts your way……
Thank you! He is at the local hospital every day but only for tests and a check up luckily, so we can havea quiet Christmas at home.
That nurse is one I have watched before in that department….bustling about looking busy while her colleagues do the work.
i agree about dogs….better put a few of them in charge of the country!
I hope Leo’s recovery has continued and that he’s feeling a bit better for Christmas and more than that in the new year. Thanks for the Dropkick Murphy’s video without which my Christmas is never complete. I liked all your musical offerings but did I mention the Dropkick Murphy’s? Yeah, that’s the stuff. We’ve no special plans this year. This time around there’s no hedgehogs to be placed in the neighbor’s manger scene and no dogs at dinner videos or Amazon specialties so it’s just the two of us trying to out-Scrooge the other. I hope the AJF likes the new bathroom faucet I got her. Anyway, our fondest wishes to you, Leo and the wild pack of canines who now likely number well into the double digits. May you all get a bone, figgy pudding or a bottle of the good stuff – whichever is your preference. Now excuse me whilst I serenade my next door neighbor with my special rendition of the Dropkick Murphys.
Good to hear from you.
Leo is – do you know the song ‘ Is Izzy as he was’ – better than he was…one close approach to the dark portal averted.
How come your neighbour is getting off so lightly?
Kenneth McKellar sings a good Ball of Kirriemuir…..
Best wishes to you and the AJF….and the curse of Cromwell on your neighbour. He’s not English? Never mind. We have to be universalist these days.
Thank you for a splendid selection of Christmas spirit – haven’t heard that version of The Holly & the Ivy before – just great!
Sorry to hear about Leo. Hope you both have a bah humbug free Happy Christmas and may there be health and (some) sanity for you and all of us in the New Year. Sue
Yes, I think we could all do with a saner world coming up soon!
I discovered the Sheffield carol tradition when in France from a Yorkshire postman with a second home there….really stirring stuff.
Leo is feeling better, thank goodness, so hoping for an ambulance free Christmas.
Oh good, just two days to Christmas then it will be over for another six months, until the tinsel and jingle bells remind us to stock up again. I hope you have bought your Easter eggs in good time?
Thank you for the eclectic range of musical entertainment. I think Adeste Fideles is my favourite. As much as I despised my sojourn at a convent boarding school and the enforced church attendance 30 times a day, I did enjoy the hymns. Oh, and the swinging incense.
With every good wish to Leo, who so politely mopped up our dog’s pee from your floor in what seems like many moons ago.
Much love to you both. Susie
That was an afternoon and evening to remember! And not for the pee alone.
According to our music teachers the choir of Notre Dame made the blunder of an additional note in’ angels’……amazing the things that come back to one.
I shall be glad when this part of the year is over…all government offices closed until January 11th followed by a mad rush to get forms and taxes sorted before the deadline of January 23rd!
Gosh, it was indeed a day to remember, not least driving over the ploughed field. 😀 And a lovely meal, prepared under strict supervision.
And the house of myriad small dogs….
As to the strict supervision, thank your lucky stars you did not want tea……
Loved the ‘Bah! Humbug!’ – it was almost Gallic in its disdain. I am sorry to hear that Leo is so unwell and hope he is more betterer now. Have you considered moving somewhere more convivial – Canvey Island, perhaps, or Barrow in Furness? Meanwhile, I hope you had a more than reasonable Christmas and wish you love and laughter in the year ahead. x
New treatment and Leo is feeling better, thank goodness.
I’m not sure we could take the strain of life on Canvey…….especially being old enough to be aware of the 1953 storm. Another climate catastrophe and we could be sitting on the roof clutching the dogs…
I’m rather late to this, Helen, I am sorry. I am still looking for the comments box on your last recent post too – but anyway, let me say, in order, (1) Happy New Year to you too! (2) I was sorry to hear Leo was so ill, but glad he could be home for Christmas, and I do hope he is improving. I’m also glad he felt well enough to blast the officious nurse to the other side of the room! Interesting choice of Christmas music you offered. I wondered if the folk of Dungworth are singing a local tune – I suspect it is, and if so I’m glad they are proud of it and still sing it, (even though in fact I prefer the traditional tune). There are a number of “local” tunes to well known carols which still being sung, and I like to hear them. As far as Christmas music is concerned, I realised in Sainsburys just before christmas that I now feel nostalgic when I hear “Last Christmas I gave you My Heart” . It’s an awful song which I have always loathed. But now it seems like an echo of my youth, or at least of shopping in Sainsburys when I was much younger …..
First of all, thank you for your kind wishes….Leo is better, but not at all well, though happier at home than in hospital.
The Dungworth people are part of the Sheffield carol tradition…I think you have posted about a similar tradition in the west country…..and I enjoy them, not least for the atmosphere!
I was spared the christmas music in the shops this year but, by report the little drummer boy seems to have finally been drummed out!