I had a Sunday off this week just like normal people, which is something I shouldn’t get too used to as I’ll have to get up early very soon when The Sunday Alternative becomes a lunchtime show. There was once a series about various entertainment types; theatre, sitcom, and those kind of things. One edition was about radio which went back to the golden age of variety shows on radio that the whole family would gather round and listen to. The talking heads in the programme all commented on how they only have to hear the theme music and they can immediately taste roast beef as it reminded them of their old fashioned family Sundays. On the flip side of this, I remember reading a comedian’s autobiography (I wish I could remember who) and he said how people would always approach him to say how much they enjoyed listening to those old shows. His response was to lament the fact that although these radio shows represent Sunday leisure, those performers missed out on a proper Sunday because they were working. Eric Sykes wrote in his autobiography that he once agreed to appear in a live pantomime on Christmas Day afternoon, and as a result missed the whole day due to last rehearsals and broadcast and ended up having Christmas dinner in the BBC canteen. This is what is going to happen to me I suppose, while people are listening (during the peak ‘sat around the table having the family roast’ time of 1pm-3pm) I will be at work. It’s the emergency services, nurses, and radio presenters that you should all spare a thought for on the day of rest.

There was a little bit of work related activity today though, as after lunch I went to town and did a bit of fly-posting for my new club night next Saturday. I walked into town with Jack to give him some exercise. He behaved all the way there, but let me down at the bus stop by barking at a man who wanted to ask me a question. There was another woman at the stop who looked a bit shocked, so I came up with a story about how Jack once witnessed me being attacked and has been protective ever since. This drew sympathy and let Jack off the hook despite it being quick thinking bollocks.

I was supposed to be going to a gig at Glee tonight to do a review for The Nottingham Evening Post (as I still call it), but it was cancelled a couple of days ago so I had a Sunday evening free. This was a green light to resurrect one of our old Sunday teatime traditions of egg and chips for tea. As we have more Christmas DVDs than there are days of Christmas these days, we have to start a bit earlier than everybody else does. The films usually come out with the boxes of Christmas decorations, but Mandi excavated the collection a few weeks ago so that we could watch Love Actually on our anniversary. We’ve already watched Meet Me In St Louis, (not strictly a Christmas film but does contain Judy Garland’s rendition of ‘Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas’, the second best version of that song after Bert and Ernie), and tonight we settled down for A Christmas Carol: The Musical. Last Christmas I set myself the task of watching a different version of A Christmas Carol every day during Christmas and I got a little fatigued by it if I’m honest. I had wanted to write some sort of guide book to all the different film adaptations, but couldn’t motivate myself to write down my thoughts on each film and eventually didn’t bother. I’m still keen to do more stuff work-wise with the book after doing last year’s audio book version, but I’ll be maintaining a comfortable gap in between film viewings. If I can raise enough money (check out the PayPal button at the top of this blog) then there is a filming project relating to A Christmas Carol that I am keen to maybe do in time for Christmas 2014.

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