Thread 15 - TalkLair: “I Can't Lie To You About Your Chances, But... You Have My Sympathies.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 14).

Autumn seems to have gone straight into winter. It's cold, wet and windy. In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

For some weird reason it’s heavy rain that bothers me more than the wind. I think it may just be the relentlessness of it.

Wet and windy here but not awful. I suspect my sister and/or one or both of her kids may be without power though. I really should find out!

We had a light sprinkling of snow the other day, and another one today that lasted less than ten minutes. There is something deeply wrong about you guys having snow when we don't. Here in Portland we're right on the coast though, and a friend of mine who lives northwest of me by maybe fifty miles has had about five or six inches, but I think that may have melted by now. I expect we'll be inundated with the stuff in a week or so though, just in time for DS2 and his family to drive 350 miles through it from NJ to visit over Christmas.

I sympathise with your daughter Brit, being married to someone with bad OCD. One of my nephews had it badly. It put such a strain on my sister and BIL. He was a lovely person but the OCD made him horribly manipulative.

I hope everyone has weathered Storm Darragh in one piece? We are very far from the Red/Amber areas but the gusts of wind have been rather alarming. Touch wood, our house seems to be intact (having lost our crappy garden gate in the previous big storm).

DH and I rushed out yesterday morning at the crack of dawn, while all was still calm, to buy a Christmas tree from the local garage. Then we had the whole day for the Christmassing of the house. Last year I hit upon the idea of making a small “fake” tree from the offcuts of the main one, which was so successful that this year I’ve done two! So we have the big real tree in the front bay, a little fake one on a shelf in the dining room, and another little fake one in the kitchen.

That's gorgeous, Kuc! I bet loads of people admire it walking by after dark.

That's lovely. I haven't done any Christmassing yet, partly because I need to do some serious cleaning and tidying first, and also had an unusually busy few weeks. Yesterday I went to our local oldies party and am still wrecked - the degree of noise 90ish over 60s can generate is extraordinary. But it was lovely to catch up with pals I hadn't seen in an age. I had planned to collapse with a glass of wine soon, but on checking RIP.ie I found that another old pal has died so I'm going to go into the funeral home and commiserate with the family. The lamb chops I was going to eat this evening can wait for tomorrow, and I'll fix some kind of pasta I can microwave when I get in.

Luckily Darragh didn't do any damage (that I have found so far). I'm in an orange (amber) county, but two red counties were 5 or 6 miles away, clearly visible from upstairs windows.

Looks splendid, kuc! Baby weasel will be back from uni next weekend, so all Christmassing is on hold till then. I could do with cheering up and am looking forward to it!

I was feeling distinctly un-festive and quite Grinch-like (work has been utterly exhausting), but now that the house is decorated I find my mood has lifted somewhat. DH even got the first lot of cards written and addressed, ready to post tomorrow morning!

Otherwise, we're quite behind on the usual Christmas organisation (see: work being exhausting). No cake has been baked, the only mince pies are shop-bought. The main task is the buying, wrapping and posting of presents to DH's numerous relatives - we're usually super-organised, with a spreadsheet and everything. This year, haven't even bought a single present yet.

Me and my brother made a load of mince pies the other day but we ate them all in two days. That's all the Christmassing we've done.

Great tree Kuc. I really need to get up to the loft and dig out our Christmassy stuff. DS` is arriving on the 15th to stay a couple of weeks, so I may end up waiting until he gets here and then co-opt him into helping me. DH has got a lot of stuff to do. We've just had a couple of cries for help from two different tenants so he's off this morning to see if he can do something about the loss of heat for one, though we may have to call a heating guy in tomorrow if it's not something obvious. The other is going to be, I fear, more disruptive in the end, but they can cope for now.

I have given up writing Christmas cards. All ours are e-cards now unless the recipient doesn't have email. Which reminds me I must write the letter to go with them. Some people hate round robins but I love them, and if anybody doesn't want to read what I write, that's what the delete button is for. I like to know what people I rarely see are doing with themselves. I usually write a template letter and then personalise it a bit as I send it.

Hmm, that reminds me that I need to sort the cards. If I'm away, they don't get done. Twice, I've written them and put stamps on and asked my wife to post them and come home to a pile of unposted cards!

That tree is gorgeous, @Kucinghitam. We don't "do" Christmas, apart from the odd shop-bought mince-pie, partly because we are both what MrG assures me is not atheist or even agnostic but "apatheist". This boils down to not knowing whether or not a god, any god, exists and not caring either way or even giving it any head-space, because it would make no difference.

But mainly we have never done it as a couple - apart from me sending a few Christmas Cards Of Politeness - because neither of us can be arsed! I usually watch (= fast-forward through) the carols from King's in case they sing something interesting, like this .. performed here, to perfection, by a Lithuanian boys' choir:

That was lovely Gonners - thanks for sharing.

Tbh I'm not a huge fan of Christmas on the whole, and when DH and I haven't been with the kids (as we weren't last Christmas) we just had a nice dinner to ourselves and a veg-out day. However, this year I appear to have gone nuts, as we have so many people coming. I'm feeding somewhere around 14 people on Christmas day, and there will be five children to open presents, as well as the nine adults. DH and I have already sorted our presents out (he needed slippers and I needed a sweater, so we each bought our own for about the same price), but I made literally dozens of jars of jam, chutney and dulce de leche, which I am making into hampers for the adults. I went to Goodwill yesterday and picked several baskets up for $2 apiece, as they cost a bomb if you buy them at a store.

That was indeed lovely music, and Kuc your tree is beautiful - the window is perfect with it.

I'm a sucker for Christmas- I love the decorations and the food, and the seeing family, but the best Christmas days are when it's just us. I've made mince pies, and mince meat. I mixed half a jar of the new stuff with half a jar from 2019, so it tastes nice and mature. The rest I made can mature under the stairs as usual for Christmases yet to come.

I'm hoping to pick up a tree tomorrow. They have four foot ones - I think, maybe five foot - in Morrison's but I'll need to get a cab back to mine - about a three to five minute walk - because there's no way I can carry it back to mine. It's a while since I've had a real tree but I do like them, it's the scent that I love to smuch, and I think after the year I've had a beautifully lit up tree will do me the world of good.

I have a relationship with Christmas that is at times ambivalent, at times wanting to escape from the whole thing but always secretly wishing for something magical that can't happen because that magical would be like my childhood but how it's remembered through those rose-coloured spectacles and not how it really was. I'm definitely going to make the most of it this year.

@Kucinghitam your tree is absolutely lovely.

Gorgeous tree, Kuc.

We've had all Mum's decs down from the loft, and rationalised from about 15 boxes to 5. The local charity shop will have an enormous display, and I have a few to take home.

Thank you all for the tree love

I have a slightly inexplicable love for the whole Christmas thing: the trees, twinkly lights, tinsel and holly, cheesy songs about snow and mistletoe, sermons and carols in church, pagan stories, brightly-wrapped presents... and most of all, THE FOOD.

My family don't do Christmas at all, unless you count our Bing Crosby White Christmas cassette tape that we would listen to in the car, in the month of December. And I remember, as a child, adoring the big faux-snowy decorations in the shopping malls and hotels. But otherwise, Christmas was merely appreciated for being a public holiday so we didn't have to go to school.

Thinking of Xmas music, is anyone doing Whamageddon? I haven't heard Last Christmas yet...

Kuc, your love of all things Christmas is heart-warming!

I am still in the game. I don't get out much, so I might be in until quite late. However, I have to travel on various modes on 23rd, that's probably when I'll get my ticket to the Val Halla, if I'm still in the mortal realm by then

Last week an underground water tank needed replacing where I work. I've never actually seen one before and was fascinated by the design. So practical and sturdy. It's a serious piece of kit. Felt rather sorry for the blokes installing it as they were covered in mud from head to toe.

Never thought I'd find a water tank interesting, but there you go.

It's the same as this one -

https://kingspanwatertanks.com.au/product/5000-litre-garantia-lilo-underground-water-tank/

We got Whatmageddon-ed on the 30th of November! Walking through the city centre, minding our own business, and some bugger was blasting it from their stall

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast I wonder if my Christmas-love is my way of coping with the darkest winter days? I've lived here for over 30 years and still struggle terribly with the lack of daylight, the cold and the wet. Doesn't quite explain why I adore carols so much, though - I'm so very atheist, but point me at a carol service and I'm there, warbling my way through every descant

OTOH, maybe it's our cross-cultural family bonding thing - ChezKuc we go all out for Christmas, and make a bloody good effort for Chinese New Year too.

I am also an atheist with a wistful love of Christmas carols and a less wistful love of Christmas FOOD!

So far I have avoided Whamageddon - managed it last year too. Maybe it's less popular here?