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Merry Christmas! I'm now back with my parents for Christmas (unless you're a burglar, in which case er I'm actually still at home) and after a busy couple of weeks juggling the buying of presents and writing of cards, I'm finally relaxing into the Christmas spirit. I always enjoy Christmas Eve and the wonderful sense of wellbeing that flows from knowing that there is nothing left to do except eat grapes and cake, and sit back for a day just reading about "The Man Who Swam The Amazon".
Recently though I've been thinking about the many contradictions of the season (with its peculiar mixture of happiness, anticipation and anxiety) and reflecting on how things have changed since I was a child. In those days, when my sister and I were very young, we would wake up desperately early on Christmas morning to find our pillowcases stuffed with presents from Santa - Christmas being one of the two occasions in the year (aside from our birthdays) when we could ask for the big ticket items - like a bicycle, or an electronic keyboard - that were out of reach during the rest of the year. In a sense even though it was focused on material things I suppose it really did still seem rather magical.
These days - being older and of independent means - the magic of Christmas is more about spending time with the family, and less about getting cool stuff (which to be honest I'm able to buy for myself any time in the year). Christmas Day has a different and more enjoyable rhythm, which thankfully no longer includes tearing off wrapping paper at 5:30am: it's about simpler pleasures, like bacon butties for breakfast, everyone chatting and joking together over Christmas dinner, and a trip out in the cold to watch the annual Boxing Day Matlock Raft Race - or a walk along the Seagirt boardwalk with Kyle. (I was very fortunate to spend last Christmas with Kyle in New Jersey with her folks, and I'm sad not to be with her and be able to spend time with them all again this year.)
I do still like to give gifts and send Christmas cards though, and I think this compulsion is what causes me the most (self-inflicted) festive stress - I worry about finding gifts that people will really like or want, and in the past I've found the business of actually wrapping the stuff to be disproportionately taxing. I think I can feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of small decisions (like, "will Dad like this book?" or "what's the best way to wrap this hexagonal box?"). But I'm also starting to learn that things get much easier once I stop worrying and (as Kyle suggested to me) try to just enjoy it.
Which brings me back to the feeling that I enjoy the most, which is when everything is finally done: cards written and presents wrapped. It's then that I feel I can actually take the time to enjoy the simple things - like how the ice on the pavement twinkles like glitter in the weak winter sun (something I'm sure that Kyle would appreciate!), the satisfying crunchiness of the snow underfoot, or simply being able to sit and read a book all day.
Hopefully you're also enjoying your Christmas Eve wherever you are. So before I get back to my book, once again: Merry Christmas to you!
This takes place against the background of a general feeling of things running down over the last few months, starting back in October when Yahoo closed its Geocities service (and with it my little website that was being hosted there) and bookended by the sudden disappearance last week of my local Spar shop (source of milk and Saturday newspapers).
Geocities provided free webhosting and I imagine that plain ol' economic arguments probably led Yahoo to pull the plug - but at the same time it seemed a shame that a lot of interesting and often wacky amateur web content was lost along with the service (though at least one of my favourites, a highly idiosyncratic and informative site all about swim caps seems to have been partially captured by the Way Back Machine internet archive).
I'm guessing that economics similarly contributed to the end of my local shops, and while obviously I'll survive their departures, it does feel like my real world - like the web without Geocities - will be ever so slightly little less colourful without them, at least for a little while.
The medical exam was booked for 1:30pm, and after a brisk walk I got there about 10 minutes early and feeling quite nervous as I didn't really know what to expect. In fact it turned out to be pretty straightforward - a chest X-ray, blood test, measurements of height, weight and blood pressure, and a few other basic checks - and most of the time was actually spent just waiting. I watched other people coming and going who I guess were also there for visa application medicals.
I felt pretty good afterwards - I guess it was the relief of having gotten over it - and after chatting with Kyle on the phone for a while I decided that I would head to the Oasis Sports Centre for a swim. The Oasis was one of the outdoor pools that I missed on my London Lidothon in July, but this one is heated and is open all year around - and it was nice and toasty in spite of the frosty London air (and the lifeguards completely wrapped in their coats). The staff there were also really nice, and after my dip I had a tasty pasta bake in the cafe while watching people continuing to swim outside. I'd definitely like to go back sometime and swim there again.
After that I still had some time to kill - the off-peak rail ticket that I had wasn't valid before 7:30pm - so I went back to Waterstones to get my books for Christmas ... plus a couple as a treat for myself: "Swimming Games and Activities", which looked interesting even though it's really aimed at children, and "The Man Who Swam the Amazon" (about this crazy German guy who swam along the Amazon river and somehow survived). I'm looking forward to reading both of them sometime soon.
So all in all it was a pretty good day. I think it might have been fun if Kyle had been there too (although we probably would have done something different) and it was good to have completed another piece of the visa application jigsaw. As ever - onwards and upwards!
