Sunday Summary | Sherry, Baby?

Hello to you, my lovely FOQ.

I hope this little missive finds you well. I won't make the blase assumption that all your Christmases were white/fine and dandy/the epitome of every hazy 1940s film made on the subject because, let's face it, life ain't like that.

But I hope you found some pockets of contentment along the way, you glorious people, you.

Apologies due to you all, by the way. I promised gifs aplenty in my late-running (clearly operated by Govia/Southern) post on Wednesday and delivered pitiful few.

So I'm making up for it in this post.

Ohhhh yeah.

This Chrimbly week, I have mostly been ...

EATING EVERYTHING IN MY SIGHT

Also ...

Reading

(and finishing)

Alun, if you're reading this, have a lil' scroll down. I know you're not into my book rants! ;-)

Well.

I really wanted to enjoy this book (Louise O'Neill was a great speaker back in August) but, as I hinted previously, it's not my favourite read of the year, by a long shot. (It's on a par with The Girl on the Train, let's put it that way.)

If you're into, and actually appreciate all the references to, contemporary actresses and supermodels, and Keeping Up with the feckin' Kardashians (what a waste of airtime they are, seriously -- I can barely even bring myself to find a gif to represent how much I don't care about them ...):

{Oh wait, look, I just did. #womanofsubstance}

and if you don't mind all the unsubtle 'fat-shaming' and continual, obsessive observations about the skinniness of the characters (the author professed to having an eating disorder in her younger years -- there should probably be a trigger warning at the beginning of this novel), then by all means, this is the book for you.

Otherwise, save yourself the self-hatred and read The Handmaid's Tale.

It's just so much better, and more original than OEY could ever aspire to be. Miaow.

I'm now reading:

which is a little like Judy Blume's Letters to Judy, but for grown-ups, and with Cheryl Strayed offering nuggets of her own colourful life story in exchange to requests for advice. (Which strikes me as a little 'never mind your problems, it's all about me' but hey!)

Watching (all the things, for it is Christmas ...)

Santa Claus: The Movie 

on Christmas Eve.

Because, Dudley Moore.

And John Lithgow.

And the quintessential 1980s-ness of the whole film. Which is a good thing.

This was followed up with the Christmas Eve staple:

The Snowman

and chased up with the almost inevitable -- and wondrous -- Elf

Oh and then there was ...

Moondial (my new Christmas DVD!)

It's still pretty creepy but watching it as an adult means being able to see small plot holes that we didn't notice in the 80s.

***POINTLESS SPOILER ALERT***

Such as, why can all the spooky children in Sarah's time see Minty, but the other kitchen boy in Tom's time can't, and neither can any of the ghost adults?! Riddle me that! Eh? Eh?

Still, it's a great watch, and I'm grateful to Ms Jessica for prompting me to ask for this little treat and thus dive back in to a heady sea of nostalgia.

Also ... And Then There Were None (a rather sinister adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel that went by a very controversial title ...)

{via here}

Well, all right, only the first episode for now but that was enough.

Annual period drama craving: sated.

Plus, may I just mention that this drama effectively puts Poldark

and Mr Rochester

in the same room.

My fluttering heart cannae take it. Simper simper. Swoon swoon.

Oh and I somehow even had time to take in the very entertaining:

Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas.

You cannae go wrong with a STS special.

Especially when it involves lllllllllamaaaaaas!

In other news, well, I've just been ... 

Doing Christmas

... which at Ma and Pa QB Heights looks a little bit like this:

{Camel cookies!}

{Drinks at friend Jan's in her magical Christmassy 'grotto'}

{Tired-face selfie with an elfie ...}

{O Christmas Tree! | (the big family one)}

{O Christmas Tree! | (the little QB one)}

{Cabin fever, QB-style!}

{Christmas flamingo #1 | Meet Prickles!}

{Christmas flamingos #2 and #3 | !!!}

{Christmas dinner table}

{The staple!}

{PUD!}

{... Uhmm ...}

I've also managed to catch up with friends and family -- special shout-outs to Justine, and to Tim and Conor (we missed our annual Caffe Nero meet-up last year so 'twas lovely to make up for it this year) -- and it's been mighty gorgeous to see everyone.

I've missed lil' Sis, though: I hope to resume our annual Christmas bickering on Monday when she rocks up for 'Christmas II'. :)

Pinterest Pin of the Week

Weekly Web Finds

• 18 Things You (probably?) Didn't Know about While You Were Sleeping | one of my favourite festive films | Thanks to Emma for this | on BuzzFeed

{via here}

• This is why you should buy the 'male' version of almost everything (girl stuff is more expensive -- as if we don't already pay a premium for being female ...!) | This is primarily an American study but do keep a vigilant eye out over here! | on The Independent
• The dogs that protect little penguins | Cute! Cute! | on the BBC Magazine | via Evie

{D'aw! | via here}

Well, FOQ, I believe this will be the last Sunday Summary ... of 2015! (Goodbye and good riddance, year, you've been a little bit controversial, haven't you, now...?)

Join me next Sunday (great, I now sound like a washed-up telly presenter) for the traditional, Annual Self-Flagellation over all the resolutions I failed to keep this year.

Pre-emptive Happy New Year to you all!

qb xx

PS This PS is dedicated to Charlie and Jos, and to Natalie and Georgina. Because they wouldn't get a mention in this week's SS otherwise!

Sunday Summary Monday Missive Wednesday Witterings

Oh, hi there, remember me?

I'm that oddity who promised you a blog post and then cruelly stripped it away from under your nose because, well, life got in the way. But now I'm back! From outer space! (Well, I'm no Tim Peake but I'm at the parental homestead and the rules of gravity are different here so, close enough.)

I should mention that I'm now on shared wifi so access will be sporadic at best over the coming days. 

I'm also frantically trying to get this post done before the next social engagement/wander round the block to look at the pretty lights in the vicinity with Ma QB. So, I apologise now for the brevity and lack of inspiration/usual QB punnery.

So anyway, how can I justify the time spent not posting on the blog? Let's see, shall we?

This week, I have mostly been ...

Reading 

I'm going to be honest: this book may have had huge acclaim and won an inaugural YA award ... but unlike The Handmaid's Tale {Margaret Atwood} on which it is very obviously modelled, OEY belongs in the here and now, and in ten years' time many of the quasi-subtle cultural references will be obsolete.

And thank goodness for that.

Watching

... more Christmassy things, whilst doing Christmassy things!

To wit:

{Love Actually}

{National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation}

and this episode of iconic 90s teen drama My So-Called Life: 'So-Called Angels'. Couldn't tell you if Claire Danes exercises her notorious cry-face in this episode but she's infinitely watchable anyway.

Listening

... to Christmas music. Much of Christmas music. All of it. Latest additions to the QB Library of Christmas cheese:

Oh, and this. This is just wonderful. (Thanks to Jan and Ma QB for this one!)

Meeting my Voicerox Family for Drinks

On Tuesday a small, select bundle of VR Lovelies gathered in a local public house-like establishment for pre-Christmas drinks.

Admittedly it was a considerably smaller, more select bundle than I'd anticipated but it did mean I got to have a very excellent chat to one of our newer members, which transmogrified into him giving me some Pinterest-worthy life advice.

So that was nice.

Of course, the requirement to chat overrode the requirement to curate ample blog fodder so I'm afraid no photos of actual people.

But, a big thank you to those who braved the weather and pushed through the inclination to stay at home and ride out another evening of pre-Christmas panic to come and join us!

Carol Singing

Then, on Wednesday, I alighted from my train fifteen minutes late, which was actually not bad-going given the state of play across the network all week last week egads seriously Govia/Southern, woman up and fix your freakin' network with the money you extort from us yearly, you soul-sucking lugworms.

Sorry. Got carried away then. Where was I? Oh yes! Carol singing! I alighted, yada yada, went down some steps, yada yada, and found my church family singing carols in the station underpass, as is our wont every year. So I sang some carols and stuff. And it was a bit lovely. There were harmonies and everything.

I think we may have cheered up a few beleaguered commuters. Well, we tried to, anyway.

Enjoying another Christmas dinner!

By Friday night I was all ready to:

but I still had some

to do so over I went to the church hall for the annual Ladies of the Parish Christmas Meal.

Again I failed to provide ample blog fodder because of this whole talking-to-people habit I'm trying to refine but here is a picture of the rather wondrous and festive Christmas table that welcomed us!

The food was yummy (especially the puddings) and there was even mulled wine at the door; there were various quizzes (including a game that involved identifying 24 household objects through mini stockings), and crucially, good company and cheer. Oh and a Secret Santa -- always fun!

Decorating QB Heights

Yes, finally, on Saturday, I cranked up the tunes and, in between sending out the last of the cards and presents, and panic-laundering everything in readiness for the trip back to the Parental Homestead, managed to put up the last of the decorations also.

On a day-to-day basis QB Heights looks like a flippin' minefield of Belongings so I think there may be a Feng-Shui February on the horizon for 2016 or maybe even a January De-Junk.

But I overlooked that and basically chucked fairy lights, Father Christmases and candles on every available surface:

{Nativity scene in the Home Bar. Sacrilegious? Discuss ...}

{My Special Santa, with his twisted foot and hole
in the head ...} 

{Notice the homage to humped creatures
and the TINY TREE ... #festive} 

{There is no such thing as too many fairy lights}

{The boudoir on a Christmas tip | Notice my neat arrangement
of baubles. Classy. Always.}

And in case you were worried that QB was deprived of a tree, fear not: there was one ready waiting for me at the Homestead, bought off the market last year and too big to store at QB Heights during the year so cultivated by Ma QB since last December. And doesn't it look quirky now?

No prizes for counting the flamingos this time. Sorry.

Enjoying Christmas Dinner with my Lovelies

Then ... after all that ... and a church service on Sunday morning, I headed up to the Toby Carvery (or, the Carby Tovery) for a Christmas lunch with my Lovelies. And mighty glorious it was too. The best pre-Christmas send-off I could have asked for.

{Photo by Jos}

{Photo by Jos}

With big thanks to Jos, Charlie, Fern, Ken, Al, Amber, Finn, Steve and Keira for rocking up and being superb. And to Jos & Charlie for the magnificent giftage. And again to Jos for taking decent photos when I once again managed not to!

Singing | in our annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

{St Matthew's Christmas Tree looking a bit splendid}

Perhaps it's because this year has flown by (cliché cliché ... writer flagellates self for use of patently overused expression), perhaps because the weather is so g'dawful and limp, and not wintry at all (Honey, I Broke the Planet) -- or perhaps because we felt 'mildly' under-rehearsed -- most likely the latter -- but I was certainly not ready for it to be NL&C time again!

That said, I think we got through it. At the very least we mastered the trickiest of the carols, Bethlehem Down, thanks in part to the recordings I found on soundcloud that broke down the music part by part. (#humblebrag)

When done properly, it should sound a lil' bit like this:

And I was certainly feeling a lot more festive by the end of the service.

Well, I ought to keep back a few details of this week for the next post (whenever I have time/inclination to put it up -- Homestead Time is not the same as QB Heights Time so I'm afraid I can't promise a day on which the Summary will reappear ... I'm struggling enough to carve out time to spend on Pinterest and to hunt gifs for this post while not bleeding the house wifi completely dry) so that will be more or less it this week except for, of course:

Pinterest Pin of the Week

Weekly Web Finds ...

... will have to wait until I find more things on t'web worth sharing.


So it just remains for me to wish all my lovely readers, you FOQs, you, a Merry Christmas. May it bring you all you hope for. Thank you for your continued readership and support this year. You've been epic.

qb xx