December Review of the Month

Everything starts to wind down in my writing world during December, which is lucky as everything else winds up to Christmas and I think I would pop if something didn’t give.

Week 1: (which was only 4 days)

I put in a bid to review an anthology which a few poetry friends appear in, it looks like a great quality publication and I am gutted I knew nothing of the submission for it. I do not think my application was successful as they had the launch in December, but I tried.

I also went to Permission to Speak, Rob Francis’s night in Stourbridge at the Scary Canary. Rob booked Ash Dickinson as the headline act, it has been over a year since I’ve seen him perform.Perhaps longer. Last time was Digbeth, Birmingham. I was also doubly excited because he has a new book out and I was able to grab a copy – which I then saved to be my Christmas read, but also borrowed 3 Christmassy novels from the library and with actually celebrating festivities and catching up with family and friends, I ran out of time to read it. It has become my New Year book instead… now my January book. It is my next read and has overtaken a whole shelf of poetry still on my must read radar.

Thanking Jonathan Davidson for teaching me to support poetry by buying books (back in Sept. 2013), I would love time to read them all. One day I will have my landing book nook and an hour a day to indulge.

It was an exceptional night, (despite the mic stand completely playing me up). Part of my set was ‘Fragile Houses’ which is a serious book and it made Ash feel comfortable to step away to his more serious work too. Which went down a storm. So I was glad that my set persuaded him to mix his up a bit. Very brave.

What I did manage to do was re-read his previous collection – (bought last time I saw him in Digbeth), I love having the poet’s voice in mind as I read their words. I had forgotten how stonkingly good ‘slinky espadrilles’ was. It was a delight to hear some poems from this, his first collection at PTS.

 It was actually 2014 when I last saw Ash perform. How time flies when you’re writing poems. The photos I took of Ash are trapped on an old phone, so you can make do with a 2014 lazy Sunday version of me instead.

If you fancy ordering a copy of Slinky Espadrilles (2012), which remains one of the top selling titles, you can follow the links below. Or maybe you would rather treat yourself to the latest collection Strange Keys (2016) … both published by Burning Eye books.

http://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/slinky-espadrilles-by-ash-dickinson

http://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/strange-keys

A great night at ScaryCanary and I also picked up a copy of Rob’s new pamphlet ‘Orpheus’ published by Lapwing. It was his first reading from it.

I have since watched him perform from it at SpeakEasy and he has a few more dates in the Midlands, up North  and soon down South too.

28th Jan – Wolverhampton Literature Festival @ Wolverhampton Art Gallery
16th Feb – Stanza @ The Exchange, North Shields
25th Feb – The Black Light Engine Room, Middlesbrough

More dates may be added soon in Folkestone, Leeds and London

Rob is also donating all of his profits for this book to charity. £25 was raised by initial sales for the village School feeding scheme in Namibia. I am not entirely sure if this campaign has now closed as the crowdfunding page has finished. Know that if you buy a copy, Rob has donated profits so far to this cause.

Ordering Orpheus – please contact R. M Francis https://www.facebook.com/RMFrancisPoet/

I also returned Heather’s projector which I had used for the Book Party event to show my Fragile Houses Poetry Films. Over Christmas I discovered my mum had been given a projector through a contact in education (they were upgrading), after it served no use to my mum she gifted it forwards – not releasing her poetry daughter was about to embark on Poetry Films… so if any of you know of anyone getting rid of a working projector at any point I would be very interested. My car has also gone over the clock (100,000) with all these poetry gigs, so if anyone has a decent 2nd or 3rd hand car to sell also let me know!

My friend Caution Poet had a couple of events at the Anchor Gallery, Birmingham where he was generously selling artwork and giving away copies of his latest collection of poems. On the same night there were Christmas Spoken Word events at The Ort. But my relatives were up from London and it was my Gran’s birthday so I missed all the poetry and went to celebrate with them instead.

I was asked to perform at the Mistletoe Festival in Tenbury Wells. In the end Myfanwy and Peter Sutton made it and I am in conversation about 2017.

I had my winter solstice poem ‘Burn All the Clocks’ accepted by Three Drops From a Cauldron at the end of November, but don’t think I mentioned it on the last review. It is going to be published in the Midwinter Anthology.

Week 2:

I continued to make Poetry Films and missed Hatstand – I have missed all the events hosted this year under this new night. I hope they continue in 2017 and that I may make them. Monday night is a tricky one with teaching the next day.

I worked on the Writing West Midlands December session, prep and planning. I missed Gary Longden’s Poetry Alight and Roz Goddard’s Stanza Christmas Party to go to Stirchley Speaks, which was a great night.

I also worked on two projects which at this time were in initial planning stages. The one has been signed, sealed and delivered and is already forging new developments into 2017. The other is ready to start in February, on a date that I have been asked to perform as part of a Peace Day at Coventry Cathedral. Both events are geographically too far apart to manage in the same day. I hope to get involved with Antony Owen’s next event in the summer. In the meantime I am writing poems to be read on the day.

December sees the return of SpeakEasy at the beautiful Cafe Bliss and, to rid you of your Winter blues, we’re bringing along with us the wonderful Nina Lewis!

Nina has had poetry published in many publications over the years and has recently celebrated her first solo publication, Fragile Houses, published by V. Press. A wonderful poet with a back catalogue of hard-hitting and beautifully crafted verses, Nina Lewis is definitely an act worth seeing.

I headlined SpeakEasy in Worcester. It was a great night – there are some photos I need to track down. My non-poetry friends came to support me and Café Bliss was packed. It was a great night although one of the most nervous I have been (home crowd and all that) and there were about 8 close poetry friends (and regulars at this event) who couldn’t make it so I was supressing the paranoid part of myself for most of the evening. I did manage to enjoy the open mic spots and the atmosphere was brilliant.

My set went well and I sold quite a few copies of Fragile Houses. I even performed one of the poems I didn’t envisage ever being able to perform in public. That may be the only time I do. So for all the people who were there that was a first and last.

As with all things the 8th December when I headlined clashed with other events, The Grizzly Pear where I missed Bohdan Piasecki and Leon Priestnall and also the Nine Arches Press Christmas Party.

On Friday I had one of the most exciting meetings of the year and some delicious cake! I missed Caution Poet’s second event and Clive Osman Performing from his new book ‘Happy’ at the P Café as I had a lot of writing work to submit and a WWM to prepare.

On Saturday we celebrated the end of term with a workshop on Fiction and a slightly Christmassy session for WWM. To prove how talented the writers are in my group there was an entire page of the plan I discarded as they were already there. Great when young writers don’t need all the input. They, like me, are passionate about learning the craft.

Week 3:

My final week of real world work and I booked workshops for the Verve Poetry Festival (Feb.) with Kim Moore and Sarah Howe, I met both these talented poets this year and cannot wait for this treat – which was a Christmas present from my Mum – even better when these experiences are free! I missed the booking at Swindon on Kim’s workshop due to getting a little lost finding the new venue. So I am doubly looking forward to the magic.

I helped organise accommodation for the Quiet Compere (January) Wolverhampton Literature Festival.  I started working on a collaborative project which will see 3 new poems written (and submitted) in as many weeks. I worked on general submissions, getting the last bit of writing done before the Christmas break.

I had also been asked (in October) to produce a writing prompt for Squiffy Gnu (an online writing/ poetry group). The deadline was the 14th and although it had been on my radar for a while I couldn’t start to work on it until after I had headlined SpeakEasy.

I am really proud of myself for coming up with an original idea and not copying someone else’s groundwork. I have yet to actually attempt the writing myself and have only read a few of the outcome poems, but again I plan to carve some time out to do this next month. It was fun to be a guest poet and an honour to be the last one of the year. Thanks to Chris Hemmingway for this opportunity.

I missed Luke Wright and Jasmine Gardosi headline at Howl, again next year HOWL is already in the diary for February, it has been a shame to miss this events as it is always a great night. Once again I will blame work and distance.

There was a Christmas Party for the Walsall Arboretum poets which I couldn’t attend originally because of work. However, that day work was cancelled and I had hoped to make it after all. I was buried under a self created submission mountain though and it was in the middle of the day. I heard they had a good time.

Instead, the following day, I treated myself to the Poet Christmas Party (like a works do but better), just three of us meeting up for lunch and pretending it was our annual do really! I made the mistake of drinking a glass of wine as I wasn’t driving, but I had forgotten that I skipped breakfast and hadn’t yet lined my stomach. So I guess I was entertaining.

I missed Attila The Stockbroker and Caution Poet Man Down on Friday night as it was Stanza and I had missed the previous two months and really wanted to go.

It was a great and Christmassy evening.

Week 4:

Christmas and my hibernation from my poetry skin.

In the Greenwood Shade – my poem about the Frog Prince (initially started at a workshop with Angela France) was published by Three Drops From a Cauldron in the December Issue.

https://threedropspoetry.co.uk/2016/12/23/three-drops-from-a-cauldron-issue-ten/

Poetry Wraps Up Christmas

This is another post I wish I had written before I banned myself from being online – most people give up things for Lent… I know, long story to be explained more fully in the post where I write about why people shouldn’t go offline at Christmas. Long story short (as this is a poetry wrap post) Mr G and I have just managed our 1st ever 2 week holiday together over Christmas and as I may have mentioned, come January we will be apart for the working week. I vowed to give him my full attention for a fortnight, the man has put up with my wild 2013/14 Poetry Tour without complaint! The only way fulfil this promise was to not be online.

My final poetry gig of 2014 *although I have since found out more were available, was at The Ort with Debbie Aldous, it was an amazing night and I wish I could have tapped vigorously away at the keys that night when I got in. It was the day Mr G arrived home from working away for the first time in our relationship, so I didn’t – having already made my no-internet vow. I hadn’t told Mr G about it, just decided to do it, he did notice, eventually.

It was a great night and my 1st event of the month, as I had been ill on antibiotics and missed all the other Christmas Poetry events, sadly.

It was a fantastic night and I thoroughly enjoyed spreading Christmas cheer amongst the creative community. My set of Pantomime & Christmas poetry went down well.

This was my final gig of 106 in 2014, I am not touring myself so much during 2015, my mission was to get myself known locally as a poet, objective met. I want (need) to spend more time writing in 2015, I will still manage some of the monthly events, just not 10-12 times a year. I will take it month by month and am always on the look out for commissions, usual performances and projects to become involved in.

My first gig of 2015 will be on Tuesday 6th January in Ludlow.

Knocked Out – A Break in the Circuit

I have missed the last few weeks on the poetry circuit which is a great shame because I love Christmas Poetry Events and I also won’t see a lot of poets until 2015 now.

I have been on antibiotics for the past few weeks for something that could have become an abscess (I had a really nasty one a few years ago when I was still teaching full time – the antibiotics didn’t work and I ended up in minor surgery and several weeks off work), so I panicked when I woke up to find this.

Mr G and I have also had a house saga, 3 weeks without a working boiler or gas, no central heating or hot water! We have had engineers out several times but each time more faults, problems and parts were needed, eventually yesterday the roofers arrived – without scaffolding towers and basically I had men at work from 11 am until 6pm! The result was worth it HOT WATER and HEATING for the first time this month!

I have managed to get most of my Christmas shopping done, the decs are all up and the cards have been written (should have been posted 2 days ago), work has finished and I am celebrating with one last poetry event (final one before Christmas) tonight, which I am looking forward to. I will be performing at The Ort Spoken Word later on tonight.

I did manage the final Caldmore Workshop with David Calcutt. https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2014/12/19/caldmore-community-garden-workshop-with-poet-in-residence-david-calcutt/

I managed the last Writing West Midlands Writing Group of 2014, with a little slot of my own on writing poetry as well as my second mentoring session.

Here’s what was in my Writing Diary that I missed this month;

Mouth & Music – The Christmas one, Speakeasy – the Christmas party one and Bare Fiction Launch in Birmingham.

Yesterday I missed the final EVER Poetry For Lunch at the LoB (Library of Birmingham) because I had men here trying to mend our house all day. I am gutted that I missed this event as I was there at the very first one and have made as many as I was able to this year. Here are some pictures of the event.

Bernard Davies  Dave Barber

 Tessa Lowe

Birmingham City Council are facing some massive cut backs and aren’t able to continue this free poetry event that Jan Watts with the help of Charlie Jordan, Tessa Lowe and Andrea Smith has hosted this event weekly for a whole year. I have signed a petition against these cuts and will post a link here for you to do the same. The UK has suffered with many library closures and those that survive have faced massive cut backs.

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2014/12/19/people-power-reverse-the-cutbacks-library-of-birmingham/

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION

 Mr G has been away this week – this is the first time ever he has been the one to leave and not be around, it has been strange and a little hard, but it is a transition into a new period of our lives. He is today, coming home for Christmas – I am excited!

So that was Christmas

Christmas Day

Christmas has been wonderful – it was the first year Mr G and I did the grown up thing and hosted the celebrations. And in the true style of us we went out Christmas Eve with friends and didn’t prep the veg or lay the table *lesson 1 & 2. In the morning we had to clear a lot of unpacked boxes from the dining room (which is actually a second lounge the rest of the year) most of it is bags from the car and boxes of resources I no longer have a classroom to house. The upstairs is now a bit of a mess and will need to be tackled next year.

We collected the dining furniture Monday evening and I bought the tablecloth, seat cushions and placemats on Tuesday afternoon. We had already done the big Christmas food shop on Friday – which was a huge trolley full but actually the Christmas dinner was all allotment food apart from the Turkey. Mr G deserved 5 Michelin stars for his meal! He dug up parsnips and picked sprouts before we went out Christmas Eve,  we both prepared vegetables and then his Godchildren came for their presents and spent a few hours with us. They picked carrots in the garden and washed them at the sink. That was after they had played outside and lost a Sticky Ninja on the roof of our conservatory and one in next door’s tree!?

 Family came for dinner and we all had a massive feast, only managed half my plate, which meant last night (Boxing Day) I had another Christmas dinner. My mum came for tea and it was a lovely, happy day.

After 8pm Mr G and I finally relaxed and opened some of our presents, watched Christmas television and fell asleep.

Lessons for Cooking Christmas Dinner:

1) Set the table the night before

2) Prepare your veg the night before

3) Put the Turkey in as early as possible – 10 a.m was a little late!

4) After serving stick each plate in the microwave before adding hot gravy to keep it all warm for the table.

 

Boxing Day

We had the traditional Irish Coffee (which we couldn’t have Christmas morning as I was driving) and got up to open the rest of our presents. Later we went out to the pub to meet friends and then came home, had Christmas dinner #2 and spent the night listening to music and enjoying liquid gifts!

Today we have a friend coming up from London and then hope to meet up with more friends in town who we have not seen yet this Christmas.

I have finally *after 8 days, shifted my winter bug so I hope to visit my relatives over the weekend (who I didn’t get to see on Christmas Day) and then relax and enjoy time off work.

 

 

 

 

 

 I am delighted to come back and find that we have new followers, I had a ‘wish’ number for the end of the first year of the blog… I wonder if we will make it!

I have some writing deadlines for the end of the month and events and performances are booked to start again after the New Year. When I have finished celebrating Christmas and anniversaries I will probably have to chain myself to the offline laptop and get work out the way before I come back to blogging, feel free to leave comments I will pop in over the next few days and I hope to post the next instalment of the Goal Setting before the New Year.

 

Enjoy your celebrations

 

Birthdays, Winter Colds & Christmas Preparations

Today is my youngest nephews birthday – he’s 6 and spending the day at a chocolate factory with his friends! 🙂
Despite still being full of winter cold, I woke up at 6:30 and felt quite alive! (Due to a 9hr sleep plus sleeping through most of yesterday!)
I had to get to my brothers early before they all went out to collect excited children and eat chocolate! Fin had asked for a Thor fancy dress costume WITH hammer, which I managed to get- it was a real shame because he wanted to put it on and couldn’t as he was party dressed ready!
He is such a sweetheart.
Although my visit was quick (especially as I didn’t want to share my germs!) it was filled with love and smiles.

 Bless him – he was so excited to have a birthday to celebrate before Christmas this year!

Then I headed for the supermarket (make as much use of being up and out) -it wasn’t open for half an hour but I took my writing magazine with me to read in the car park. I went for a few last minute Christmas bits, medicine and milk. I came out half an hour later to a manic, thriving car park and was on the way home before I realised I had forgotten the medicine!

 We have treats to eat today – which is fabulous because I was far too tempted by the Christmas stock piles out in the conservatory! Actually we did both have a bowl of wasabi peas and crisps last night whilst watching a film.

Today I making myself feel better by being up & dressed… I plan to write Christmas cards (far too late to send them on time) and wrap Christmas gifts. I am surfing the net looking for some homemade table decorations for Christmas (I still need to collect the table!) and after all that, if I have any energy left I may treat myself to some writing time.

Bookish Christmas Trees

© 2013 thealbertlibrary.com

There have been lots of pictures shared on social media this Christmas which I have enjoyed. I wanted to share the bookish ones here – maybe one year I will have a go myself. Full credits to other websites for these pictures.

© 2013 stylefizz.com

© 2013 lushhome.com

© 2013 lushhome.com

Merry Christmas!

We are just 5 days away from CHRISTMAS!

And I am excited as a younger version of myself would have been! Despite being full of winter cold!)

Today Mr G & I are both booked off work to do our FINAL Christmas shop… starting locally in the shops, then later driving to the supermarket for the BIG Christmas Food Shop!

Then I am going to spend the rest of the day tucked up warm – in an attempt to get rid of the cold that has been with me most of the week.

I haven’t done much writing since making my submissions earlier in the week. I have to look at the action plan and catch up a bit. Monday has been allocated as a wrapping presents and writing day.

I will probably post again before Christmas – I am sure it is a busy time for all of us, but I will not be posting as much as usual over the next 5 days.

Have a Merry Time preparing for your festive celebrations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Arrives… Finally!

Despite Christmas appearing in the shops in November, we have never thought about it until December in my family. Mr G likes to stick to the tradition of decorating 12 days before Christmas, which was Friday.
By the time I made it home from work I was so tired I was asleep before 6pm, we decided to leave it all until today.

I organised my nephews to come, the youngest is 6 in just over a week but for now he is 5 and happy to decorate trees, he told me at my Gran’s 90th how he enjoyed it. So I plotted with his parents to get him over.
My eldest nephew wanted to come and play games on the Playstation! They both arrived late morning and by 3pm the house was Christmasfied – my tree has been completely decorated by him and is gorgeous. When I look at it, I instantly think about him!
He was mortified we had no presents yet to go under the tree!

 

 

Mr G had decorated the main tree before the boys arrived. And now the stairs have a garland and gold bells and stars hanging from the banisters on the landing, wreaths on the door. Decorations on the handles and mantelpiece! But better than all that – the house was full of laughter.

We played games, did some drawing, wrote Christmas lists and cooked pizza, they had a great time and I loved them being with us!

This evening I even STARTED my Christmas Shopping – online and out of the cold. I love a Christmas shop in the crowds though, will possibly make 2 local ones before Christmas Eve, I only have a little work booked next week. Should be plenty of time for wrapping and completing Christmas preparations!

I AM GETTING EXCITED NOW! Can you tell?

I haven’t done any writing today and have some deadlines coming up on Monday. Tomorrow Mr G and I are going over to my Mum’s for Sunday Dinner and around that I will attempt to make deadlines!

 

Mouth & Music 23 – An Outstanding Night!

Such a great night I had to think of a suitable synonym for the title of this post! I cannot work out how to enhance OUTSTANDING – imagine the word surrounded by Christmas Fairy Lights with Fireworks going off in the background!

I am excited even now writing about it and it has been nearly 24 hours since the event – in which time I have managed to de-mask my face of all its Aladdin make-up, sleep, work a full day and get 18 3 year old Angels ready for their Nativity Play!

The Journey
There is always a yarn here – my life won’t be nearly as exciting once I have a SATNAV! But I guess my petrol bill will be smaller, a lot smaller!
It is a difficult town of Ring Roads and roundabouts and not one I am used to driving around, plus it’s dark, plus (and this was my real reason for becoming lost… oh, what a surprise I couldn’t find my way!) there were NO ROAD NAMES, the ones that did exist were hidden behind shrubbery!

 The venue is only 20 minutes from my house – it then took another half an hour to find it! What makes this story so funny (to me at least) is I was lost on a ring road (you can fill the rest of that in.) … In the end I decided the best course of action was to drive as if heading home, turn around and approach it again – and that was when I realised I was lost on ring road zone 1 as opposed to zone 3! I HAD gone left down the right way, I HAD gone down the right hill… the only mistake I had made was to follow the road as opposed to turning left and finding the pub a few doors down!

The joy of getting lost was;
I find the Carpet Museum where Heather Wastie is a Resident Poet and I had the comical adventure of abandoning my car in a taxi rank and in full Aladdin costume getting out and asking for directions.

Long story short (after you have already read the long one!) I got there and JUST in time! And there were still sign up Open Mic spots available!!

The Theme
 Was Pantomime (each month has a different theme) and there was a Fancy Dress and some great costumes, it was so Christmassy – despite the Pirates of the Caribbean themed room – which suited Mogs well. He won the fancy dress as a Pirate, he had a talking parrot toy, a billion props and made a peg leg joke that truly was genius! A deserved winner!
Sarah (MC/Host) was Mrs Claus, Heather was a Fairy Godmother, Mike was a Lion, Mogs was a pirate  and I was Aladdin.

There were Christmas Crackers on the tables (I won some Christmas stickers. I love stickers!) and a really vibrant atmosphere!

Performers
There were a few of us first timers – which is always better if you are not the only one – Michelle Crosby sang and read a great set at SpeakEasy last month and here again at Mouth and Music with new/different material it was a joy to hear her and watch her on stage again! Mike Alma bravely (well he was dressed as a lion!) went 1st so that I didn’t have to!
My set was strange – this I think is my 8th time behind the mic again and I don’t usually write rhyming poetry. I was aware that most of the room had never heard my poetry before and I felt a little awkward or silly reading it – It was designed to be silly poetry – pantomime theme inspired – but I felt uncomfortable. I don’t think that came across though – thank goodness.
It took just under an hour and a half to construct these Panto Poems and I know naturally I write narrative poetry a lot quicker. Next month’s theme is a subject I reflect on often and have already found 6 poems in my collection. 5 minute open mic slots allow 3-4 poems depending on length so I know I will need to choose but I look forward to decisions like that! As I am not having to write any new material I am going to start learning lines and attempt to perform the poems properly!

I enjoyed the night immensely and was glad of a place in the first half so I could sit back (not literally as I was on a stool!) and relax for the rest.

Other performers all thoroughly enjoyed by me were; Daub & Wattle, Tom Wyre (Poet Laureate, Stafford), Andrew Owens, Mogs (John Morris), Elena Thomas, Sarah Tamar & Heather Wastie. It was great to see some new faces and hear some new material from faces I am getting to know.

Headliners
Humdrum Express (Ian Passey) who had me tapping my feet along to his guitar and Tim Cranmore (current Worcester Poet laureate) who is famous for carving musical instruments from vegetables and playing them! I have known about Tim since Maggie Doyle hung up her Laureateship in the summer, I have seen Tim at a few events but I had never had the pleasure of SEEING him perform! My face ached from smiling and laughing, the last time my face hurt that badly was a Royal Academy of Dancing exam – you used to have to fix a smile onto your face for the ENTIRE hour of dancing, made possible by the amount of gel holding your hair up in a bun, it worked like a face lift for teenagers!

I had a superbly great evening and enjoyed myself so much, it feels like I have had Christmas already!

PHOTO CREDITS ©2013 Elena Thomas

December Begins…

© Copyright 2013 Getfunny.net

So December arrives and I sleep – a whole day of hibernation. After the party (my Gran’s 90th) I think I was exhausted. Plus Mr G and I stayed up until the small hours.

At first I slept until 1pm and then I fell asleep and went back to sleep at 6pm, I have been up since 9pm and need to go to bed soon to make sure my body clock is right for tomorrow.

I have tomorrow off work and then have a full working week after.

Tomorrow I have a meeting I have been invited to in the city with a regional network about short story commissions, I am attending a book launch on Wednesday, have a Stanza meeting (Poetry Society) on Friday. There are several events which I may/ may not attend to watch/ perform poetry – depends if I get my energy levels up! I have to write some new material too and am enjoying writing for the blog challenges again too.

As far as Christmas Countdown goes – I am excited – I am like a kid at Christmas time.

Today we opened our wooden drawers in our Advent Calendars – Mr G surprised me last week with a Santa Sleigh Wooden Advent Calendar complete with surprises in every drawer. And he has a wooden reindeer which I enjoyed filling before the weekend. Sometime last week he jokingly commented that I should write Christmas cracker jokes (implying that mine were just as bad.) So with a little online research I filled his with Christmas cracker jokes and treats.

He had a build the burger sweet which in 3 parts only just fitted in the drawer and this joke:

Name a bird that writes?

To which he answered; ‘You’ which is funny, but wasn’t the true answer.

I got a Roses chocolate and a blank scrabble tile … intriguing.

I felt a bit Christmassy – especially as there were so many people today on social networks posting images of their Christmas trees and kids in elf costumes. We watched a Christmassy film and I looked up a Christmas fudge recipe.