JetPlane

Michael bought me this for my 40th birthday in June and it’s taken me this long to read it. It was great! It follows on from Jim Grimsley’s earlier book, Winter Birds. The love story is very touching, following the growing relationship between two young men, whose characters are beautifully written.

“Comfort & Joy” (Jim Grimsley)

There was only about a dozen people in the Arts Picture House tonight to see the Golden Compass. All the elements were there for a good film, but something was lacking. The plot seemed to move from once scene to the next without any conviction and there probably wasn’t enought time to do justice to the complexity of the book. I loved the Bear, and I really loved how the daemons were portrayed, so much so that I got my own daemon from the film web site! She’s a raccoon! Overall, a fun film that captured some of the spirit of the book, but without the heart.

Chris and Emma gave us some unusual Port Sippers that we put to the test whilst watching Victim on DVD. Effectively we were drinking port through a straw! The also look lovely in the glass cabinet.

Christmas is an interesting time to be finishing a book that is clearly capable of shattering one’s religious beliefs. Dawkins comprehensively, intelligently and methodically puts together an excellent case that God does not exist. This has been my personal view for a long time and it was refreshing to see the case put forward so clearly. What also comes across is the real danger to us in not challenging religious views and society’s dumb acceptance of other’s religious views no matter what they are, particularly when this involves the education of children.

“The God Delusion” (Richard Dawkins)

We had good Christmas Crackers this year: racing Santa and Reindeer.

“Santa and Reindeer Race” by GrahamMcCannCAM

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Spent the day with John and Dawn at our house in Cambridge, They arrived about 10 for breakfast and Michael made some lovely smoked salmon with scrambled egg on toast with rather luxurious smoked salmon that made it extra special. We opened our presents about midday, with a glass of sherry and it took quite a while because there were rather a lot of them!

Rush Hour was a big hit with us (thanks Tony and Gemma) and there’s also some good online versions (Traffic Jam). My nephew Lewis also got Rush Hour and he’s up to Level 13 (I’m still at 4!). Tried to have a stroll before dinner but we had a quick wander round the block in the rain. We passed a few people—about 6 groups, which was more than I expected.

We cooked a very nice wing rib of beef and had a relaxed dinner with rioja. Then settled down to chat and watched the heavily promoted Dr Who, which was cheesy, but enjoyable. I liked the angel Robots, quite scary! We had a little, teeny buffet and then some nostalgia with To the Manor Born, after a 25 year gap. It was great fun, and Penelope Keith, Peter Bowles and Angela Thorne did a really good job of getting back into the spirit of the original. Dawn had a nice long Skype video chat with her son, Ben, in Australia, which she hadn’t been expecting to do, so that was a nice surprise.

After John and Dawn went back to their apartment in Warkworth Street, we went for a stroll around Parker’s Piece at 11.15, which was (predictably) deserted,

We had a lovely relaxing Christmas day. Thanks for all my pressies too!

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