T'was the Week after Christmas

Photo © Rob Jones

I am lucky ... I suppose you could see it that way.

Over Christmas I have always worked. So have never had to get involved in the whole Christmas mayhem of eating, partying, socialising, giving by a deadline … In the past I simply have not been available to do all those things.

Which for me was good. I could watch. I could assess. I could see how everything turns out and then be more considered when all the fuss has died down.

And dies down it does…

The mania before Christmas, which has so little to do about the actual Christmas, subsides into a tranquility … a calmness. As I child I found it unnerving. A strange in between time after Christmas and before New Year. A cleansing. A time for reassessment. A time to consider the inevitable Letts Diary, plus pencil in spine, given to me by an aunt. A time to formulate a plan for the future, with New Year being the trigger.

Oh, and a time to hit the supermarkets for all the food that never quite got sold before Christmas, hurtling towards their Best Before dates, and getting cheaper by the hour.

Hooray for post-Christmas mince pies, pigs in blankets, stuffing and stollen.

Oh… and this year I was not on duty. First time in 25 years, maybe more. I had to keep asking people what to do.

R