[jambutty]

Like many people who live by themselves my Xmas Day will start when I wake up. When that will be will depend on a variety of factors but one of them won’t be kids diving onto my bed. So it could be at any time between eight and noon.

My first task is a visit to the bog, make a brew and yes even on Xmas Day, boot up the machine to see what has happened since I went to bed. After trashing all the spam a quick look around my usual haunts and then breakfast of some sort of cereal with ice-cold real milk and either sugar or honey. After a shower and shave etc it will see me ready to take on the world a couple of hours after waking up.

A cup of decent coffee made with all milk and a fag will see me scouring the Radio Times to see what programmes I will need to avoid. The schedules for the five main channels have nothing to interest me until 4:30pm on ITV1 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone but I have the DVD so that won’t interest me.

Somewhere along the way I will fit in a meal of some sort, probably one of those Birds Eye chicken dinner things or maybe as it is Xmas I’ll go for the Turkey dinner. If I can find a very small one I will also have a Xmas pudding with real custard, which I will make myself rather than one of those instant custard things.

The evening schedules are not much better although there is the new Dr. Who on BBC1 at 7:00pm. Unfortunately that clashes with the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures on Chan 5 at 7:15pm, which have always been a highlight of my Xmases. But the Dr. Who programme is repeated on Wednesday on BBC3 at 8:00pm so I can watch both programmes. Otherwise there is little else to interest me on the telly.

How do I know all this? I get my Radio Times delivered by the publisher and I just got the Xmas two weeks issue today.

However I won’t be bored because I can either watch a Laurel and Hardy film or a few Tom and Jerry cartoons. Or carry on converting all my records and tapes to digital format (.wav) for storing on DVD’s after I have cleaned them up with Audio Cleaning Lab to get rid of most of the background noise and crackles etc. It takes time but time is plentiful for me.

None of the family is likely to call in on Xmas Day because they have kids and they need to be at home for them. They will drop in on Boxing Day. I won’t be going to them because my son lives in Whittle-le-Woods, a daughter in Cherry Tree, a daughter near Accrington and one in Spain. So it isn’t practical to try and visit them all. In any case we keep in touch throughout the year.

In a nutshell my Xmas Day will be to my liking and you can’t ask for more than that.

MERRY XMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!