All That Jazz

Our team Christmas lunch this year was at Ronnie Scott's jazz club, where you can enjoy an afternoon of food and wine accompanied by sets from three different performers (credit to Dei, our editor, for this inspired idea!) We heard a piano trio, then a great tenor saxophonist and finally a female vocalist, who really whipped the audience up into a festive frenzy, especially with her versions of classic Christmas numbers done in the musical style of the audience's choosing (the dub reggae 'Silent Night' was hilarious). It was a pretty tremendous way to spend an afternoon.

However, part of the deal is that everyone joins in for a big number at the end on kazoos (nicely laid out with the cutlery at each place setting). This was great fun, but even better was when they asked for volunteers to come up for a jam on the famous Ronnie Scott's stage, which has been graced by innumerable all-star names from the music world, past and present.

I didn't need asking twice, but I did let Jeremy go first for a microphone level test; old habits die hard. What's that? Is there a recording of this spectacular event? I thought you'd never ask:

And massive thanks to Alex for his off-the-cuff iPhone camerawork :)

Overheard #97

The perils of ordering last-minute Christmas presents over the phone:

"Hello? Yes, I ordered a lip-gloss and you appear to have delivered me a designer beaver..."

I never heard the outcome.

Overheard #94

They simply couldn't resist:

"I'm off to the panto next week"

"Oh no you're not..."

Blue Christmas

I've always felt that red and green were the wrong colours to represent the true meaning of Christmas:



Or, if you prefer some context:

Cherry *hic* Mistmas, everyone!

To Both My Readers

SEASONAL GREETINGS

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practised within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, secular practices of your choice, or with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious/secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009 of the common era, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, nor without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, IQ, chronological status, mental deficiencies, religious faith, or sexual preference or practices of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are agreeing to these terms:

• This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal.
  
• It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting.
• It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of thewishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.
• This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.
• All taxes are the responsibility of the wishee, and the decision of a panel of arbitrators is final in the event of a dispute.

And on that note,I have a sleigh to catch; see you in the New Year!

Overheard #50

A suitable way to bring up the half-century...

"If I'm honest, I really don't think we should be encouraging people to take short trading positions on our cricket club Christmas dinner..."

Housework

So today was the start of Christmas.

We bought a tree, got the lights and everything down from the loft, realised that all the decorations were broken or cracked, went to get more at Homebase (which had a broad and tasteful selection, much to my surprise), spent rather too long with a spirit level and a bucket of sand getting the damn thing upright, stuck the lights on, watched as Freyja was singularly unimpressed with our efforts, went to a chilly carol concert at the Horniman Museum (thanks for the brandy coffee, Graham...), came back and had tea with mince pies and Christmas music while we put the decorations on and Freyja carefully took them all off and put them back in the boxes again.

It was great :)

And what made it all the more exciting was that we have our house back. When we bought it, the downstairs looked like this:


Then, after a rather sudden decision to knock the ground floor rooms through, ten days ago it looked like this:


And now, I am enjoying a rather good glass of port, in this:



Two weeks and counting (and we're going to need more port...)