Waiting

We live in a society that rewards impatience and instant gratification, if I can drag out a much-used term. I’ve been as guilty of this as anyone in the past. I come from America, after all, and in the good old US of A, nearly everything is expressed in a purchase no matter what the occasion. That last just slipped out. Everything must be now or sooner. There is no waiting. If you can’t afford it now, then borrow money to afford it now or steal to have it now. These are all symptoms of the same thing. The delight is in the purchase now and not in the anticipation of the gift. In our youth, this was the other way around. We were invigorated by the excitement of waiting, the delicious expectation. Whether or not such joy should be felt for purely material things, is another kettle of fish that I won’t go into here.

The run up to Christmas was wondrous in our imaginations, the gifts and goodies imagined and the friends to share them with. We had no control over what was purchased and when. We had to wait until Christmas Day. There was no cheating and opening it earlier (in most cases). When you’re grown up, you can buy these things for yourself whenever you want. In fact, a lot of the time you buy them exactly when you want. Not counting big items like car/house. There’s no waiting. Almost no real desire for the item.

I decided to do a bit of an experiment. There was an item that I wanted and had for quite a while. I was certainly able to buy it now (on credit) and have it delivered to me within a day of purchase to use. Instead I chose to wait to buy it for a week and then wrap it up and put it under the tree, waiting another week to open it on Christmas Day. As you know, it isn’t Christmas Day yet and the excitement is there. The little gleeful feeling inside.  The many web articles I’ve read about it. And this is something I chose, which makes it somehow different, something more grown up even.

There are many reasons that I look forward to Christmas with bated breath; the look on G’s eyes when he opens his presents, the lovely food and drink that is shared by my loved ones, and the company of that family. But in a small way, the emotions of the day will be sweetened by desire.

Christmas menu

I’m a man and if there’s one thing that men like to do it’s make lists. You may have noticed my obsessive lists of books that I have read, am reading and will read in the future. I think I’m rehabilitated enough not to bore everyone with those lists any more. However, I’ve channelled my list-making urges into something far more constructive. I make weekly menus for our meals and translate those lists of meals into even longer lists of shopping, which I then go to Sainsbury’s and purchase (while listening to Tito and Tarantula, of course)

As I’ve been the one choosing the meals, I couldn’t really complain about them without seeming completely mental. This has pleased NE to no end as she’d had enough of my bellyaching. Any increase in harmony in the household benefits all.

So, when it came to thinking about the Christmas Eve/Day and Boxing Day meals. It was only natural that I make a list, then more lists from those lists and possibly lists from those lists of lists. In the past we’ve just winged it, you see, and what that’s led to was a huge over-buying of food and then a huge over-eating of food. This year we’re going for the surgical strike, the laser-guided bomb of cuisine. Only the food we love made with the best ingredients that we can reasonably find. Limit the leftovers.

This we will do the  following:

(LIST!!)

1. One meat for Christmas – a turkey in our case

2. No Christmas cake! We had a talk and realised that none of us even liked it. We’d made it for everyone else.

3. Go to Sister-In-Law’s for Boxing Day – Great company and cocktails!

4. Figgy pudding! And not some bitter/twisted Christmas pudding.

5. No sage in the stuffing. Having lived in the land of Sage for a great number of years, I loathe the stuff. We’re having chestnut stuffing instead. Delicious.

6. Kenyan AA coffee served with cream and/or Baileys – Best coffee in the world.

7. One kind of potatoes! That’s mashed potatoes with cheese and not roasties this year. Next year, who knows…

8. When cooking Christmas dinner… be a little tipsy.

Oh my aching back

I wrenched my knee yesterday going down the stairs. I have a history of bad knees going back to my days when I used to do pitching as in American baseball. I think I bruised a few of my tender tendons and it hurt when I moved it laterally. Not good news as I had to go into work  on Friday night. I tried not to limp too much.

I went into work to rearrange our server cabinet… I won’t go on about that as it’s boring techie talk that not even I am that interested in going on about. Rest assured there were lots of crouching and knee abused that had me literally screaming in protest. Luckily I couldn’t hear myself as the music was blasting out. There was also a large amount of bending over. My back ached well into the next day.

Ahhhhhhh, Saturday. A lovely day to rest all the aches and pains of the night before… or not! NE and I had volunteered to clear the Church car park and bright and early we found ourselves in said car park with a pair of shovels and a monumental task ahead of us. Luckily we were joined by our friend J who had brought another shovel and a huge iron pry bar to shatter the solid ice coating the tarmac. A few hours later and we’d cleared the pavements and a path down the centre of the car park, which was pretty good going for the three of us. Needless to say my back was killing me!

At least I didn’t slip and further injure my kneee!