I think I have managed to a fair impersonation over the last 6 months of a grumpy old man who hates everyone and everything that doesn’t fit into his particular world view. As it is Christmas and Jesus time I thought I had better set the record straight and say I am not really like that or at least I hope not. I don’t even dislike Christmas. I have always liked getting presents and quite like giving them. All my memories of Christmas are happy ones, even going to midnight mass with my mum and dad. So yahoo sucks to you lot that think I am just an angry cynic. Christmas cards annoy me because they feel rather compulsory and they fall over every time you draw the curtains – they are also, with very few exceptions very ugly indeed. However we had one this year that I really liked. It was by one of my great nephews and consisted of a stream of coloured lines in a vaguely festive shape – it seemed to have been done with no regard for any of the traditional symbols just an expression of perfunctory joy that summed up the mood perfectly. Other than that delight my nurse vomited during my chemo yesterday which was a festive role reversal and I found this letter (below) from Rowan Williams the ex Archbishop of Canterbury who I admire very much. I found it very touching if factually flawed.

Another annoyance I won’t subscribe to is wishing people a Merry Christmas. So I won’t and don’t. Instead I will wish all my readers   love and peace and a life as rich as Jimmy Hendrix only longer and without the drugs. Xx Here’s hoping we are all here next year especially  me.