Sunday 1st December

In keeping with my promise to Mandi about keeping Saturday as a day off from my workaholic tendencies, and to make amends for recording the show and going out last night when we had a guest, we had a festive day out in town today and showed Heather around the fine city of Nottingham.

There’s a Christmas seasonal event called Hockley Rocks happening every Saturday this month, so we took our seats outside Hartley’s with some coffees to watch the first singer. Our main reason for coming into town was for that lovely tradition of outdoor ice-skating during the Christmas period. After getting it wrong for a couple of years, Nottingham Council has amazed everybody by doing something right and bringing back the ice-rink. It was also nice to see some of the stall holders in Victorian dress; something I said was missing a few years ago. Unfortunately though, the people running the ice-rink have got everything all kinds of wrong. Not only do they allow too many people on the ice at the same time, they also don’t smooth out the ice in between sessions in order to let people off and on the ice in quick time to make more money.

I had been teasing Mandi all morning in response to her making light of my lack of skating ability, pointing out that for all she knew I might have been taking secret lessons. She doesn’t probe too deeply when I say that I have been at the recording studio or the radio station, so I could surprise her on the ice with my dazzling moves. As soon as I hit the ice it was obvious that this was untrue, although I only fell over once (the fault of a child who got in my way) I managed to skate my way around the rink, even if I didn’t look totally comfortable.

The best bit of going ice-skating though is the pub afterwards. We made our way to Malt Cross for a few winter warmers; Mandi and Heather had mulled wine and my dad and I had the pub’s signature ale Music Hall. We stayed in the pub for a while, Malt Cross is an ideal winter warmer of a place, although I do go in there throughout the year. I’d love to put on some sort of music hall show at the venue, mixing standup comedy and music but with a modern twist; I didn’t mean I wanted the comedians to do the “I say I say I say” business and sing supposedly innocent songs with hidden rudeness. I’ve said on radio about how Malt Cross have the best sound quality regarding live music as the Victorian music halls were built specially to carry sound all around the audience in the days before microphones. It’s the only place where you can enjoy a band without being inconvenienced by those selfish bastards who sit there talking.

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Sunday 27th October

I go through a strange up and down feeling towards Christmas; last year I had a wonderful time and loved every minute of it but the year before I couldn’t wait for it to be over. Yesterday we went into town with the main intention of looking through department store Christmas shops, to give us ideas for presents and new decorations. For some reason I couldn’t get into it and found it impossible to keep up an acceptable level of enthusiasm for Mandi’s benefit, (she has an unshakable love for the festive season) and found myself getting a bit grumpy at times. This is one of those years when I wouldn’t mind ignoring the whole thing and letting people keep Christmas in their own way so that I can keep it mine (paraphrasing Charles Dickens there). Part of the reason is the realisation that Mandi and I aren’t going to have children, and without children I will never have a dream Victorian influenced Christmas like the one I always envisage but never quite achieve (I have always wanted to have a train set on the dining table that had tureens of food instead of carriages that people could help themselves to as it passed them, I want other things too but that’s the first one that springs to mind).

It was pretty much a case of going through the motions as far as looking at decorations and stocking fillers was concerned while drifting around in John Lewis, Debenhams and BHS, and trying to look interested. It could of course just be that it is too early for me to get enthusiastic yet. I like being able to unwind and forget about work during the Christmas holidays, but I still have a lot of work to do before I can knock off for the two weeks. On Sunday 22^nd of December I’ll be presenting The Sunday Alternative Christmas Special, which will be going out live, so my holiday won’t start until I am home that night. The American shows will hopefully be recorded in that week, with me doing two editions; one for the weekend of Sunday 29^th, and hopefully pre-recording The Sunday Alternative for that date to save me having to work on that day. NottinghamLIVE goes out on a Wednesday, which means that this year we broadcast on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, those two shows will be pre-records too. The only problem is going to be doing the American show for the weekend after, 3^rd January and a live Sunday Alt on the 5th, which means that I go back to work before the end of Christmas. At least the calendar falls properly this year, with January 6^th being a Monday, so although not perfect everyone will be back at work on the last day of Christmas. Make sure you don’t work late though as you will have the decorations to take down when you get home.

We had a thankfully rare experience of piss-poor service at Hartley’s coffee shop in Hockley yesterday. Since it has been open it has had a rapid rise to first place of choice, (it was previously the place to go when Lee Rosy was full) so it would be a shame to see standards drop now. I ordered a cappuccino and Mandi had a gingerbread latte, and we went and sat outside. The waitress, (who I don’t think could be accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer) brought our drinks out without saucers. That might not seem like the end of the world, but when we asked for sugar she came back with one teaspoon which she placed on the table. I have to put that spoon in my drink and that drink will go in my mouth, so why the hell did she think it a good idea to put the spoon on the table? An outside table where any number of germs could be at work. I went back in for more spoons, (she only brought one out for the pair of us) but couldn’t really enjoy my drink after that. If we had been allowed to use saucers, the spoons could have been placed on there. I have written an email of complaint.

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