the corner office

As it turned out the dreaded 'can I got outside and ride my scooter (with retractable drawer underneath for Star Wars figurines)?' request never materialised - the trick is to make sure there's plenty enough to keep a young'un busy indoors (and there was). So we had a very cosy Christmas.

I expect the gammon hangover to last until Thursday. I do not intend to hop back on the scales to assess the Christmas damage until the 2nd week of January.

I do have a lot of cask ale to finish off by this coming Saturday night, though.

Further notes:

• Cars2 (see above) was excellent. I think I've seen it about 3 times now.

• Downton Abbey Christmas Special. Has redeemed itself after season 2's waywardness. I think I was also more positively disposed to the viewing experience because I knew that a Christmas Special demanded a happy ending, no contrived cliff-hangers and 'oh FFS just STFU and kiss her already' moments.

• I got a copy of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards. We put it on last night (before Downtown Abbey). Ronwen, at some point, turns to me and says 'this is a lame movie.' This was hard to respond to because one doesn't quite know how (especially after a day of feasting and enjoying teh aforementioned cask ale) to explain that yep it may be lame but it's an animated fantasy movie that (a) is a cult classic and therefore has a certain old-fantasy-fan cachet, (b) takes me back to when I was an especially-so fantasy nut, (c) reminds me of when I was a young fella with a spring in my step, (d) harks to a pre-CGI pre-almost-everything avant garde and oddly naive world when the threat of being nuked out of existence was real and pressing thing that people needed to deal with, (e) etc etc.

• We all naturally wish the Royal Consort a speedy recovery. Even more British than the Queen's speech on Christmas day is the ridiculous obsequousness that infuses every minute of the media's coverage of the whole affair. When the inevitable one day happens and the Prince reaches that point in the Royal Lifetime Itinerary where he will Shake Hands No More, I will put money on the fact that at least one BBC presenter will posit the theory that the Prince is in fact the Second Coming and will rise again, if not because God has decided that as a Royal he's Just That Awesome, then because that's just the tireless, plucky sort of man he is.