Wishing You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Season's Greetings


Here's wishing you the very best for
Christmas and the New Year.

Image for The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore
pp. 224 & 263

Review at 'The Witty Ways of a Wayward Wife'

Over at The Witty Ways of a Wayward Wife, the lovely Mrs T gave The Snowing and Greening of Thomas Passmore a green thumbs up. Not only has she selected a verdant colour scheme for this post, but has accompanied her glowing review with some superb photos, which certainly do justice to the way I was imagining a few key scenes in the novel. And as for the analogy to a 'rich dark truffle' -- well, coming from a chocaholic, I'm flattered. I'm also delighted that Mrs T felt so attuned to the language of the novel.

Thanks, Jane. What an excellent Christmas pressie you've given me.

Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

It can be a crazy time of year and a tad frantic at times, so it was timely when someone at work sent me a version of the following:

Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At lunch-time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair-dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.

3. Stand at the bottom of a tall building, point up and shout, 'Don't jump!'

4. Put your paper bin on your desk and label it 'IN.'

5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has got over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.

6. In the memo field of all your bank debits, write 'For Smuggling Diamonds.'

7. Finish all your sentences with: 'In accordance with the prophecy.'

8 don't use any punctuation or capital letters

9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

10. Whenever you go out to eat, order a Diet Water.

11. Sing along at the opera.

12. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme?

13. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.

15. Invent a wrestling name for yourself and insist that your co-workers address you by this. (What name would you choose? I'll stick with The Burmanator.)

16. When the money comes out of the ATM, scream: 'I Won! I Won!'

17. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the car park, yelling: 'Run for your lives, they're loose!!'

18. Tell your children over dinner: 'Due to the economy, we're going to have to let one of you go.'

19. Think of an appropriately inappropriate idea for Number 14 and post it as a comment along with your wrestling name.

20. Smile whenever you have no reason to.