Music and Mustard Enhanced Food (Blog 46)

So, as I was expecting, Christmas has passed. (That’s just how time works, isn’t it, but you can never be truly sure. Life’s been quite weird on occasion). Am I glad that it’s gone? Nope, not really, it was pretty good. But the day itself wasn’t the only thing that went well, the runup to it was mostly a success as well. If you’ve read my earlier blogs, you will know that I planned a Christmas eve walk in Richmond park. Well, hike I did. Even though worthwhile, the ramble was a bit disappointing, however, as the place was so crowded. Even so, that did mean I was less likely to get attacked by evil deer, as I believe there is safety in numbers. I’ve certainly never heard of full blown interspecies wars, anyway, other than some weird elephant-man skirmishes, I saw on the news. But there are no elephants in England and deers aren’t elephants. However, whilst alone elsewhere, I’ve had a few standoffs with cows, which were genuinely quite frightening. Some of them are known to be killers, and all they have to do is charge at you, with those dead eyes. Anyway, when I got home from Richmond, I wanted to make sure my new CDs I was going to get had a respectable looking home. I gave my room a huge clean and hoovering, as ‘A Christmas Carol’ played on my TV in the background. I know it wasn’t really made for 29 year olds, but I don’t care. It actually has quite a deep social message.

A day of chilling out passed, and it was Christmas. To start it off, I went for another ramble, this time in Chobham Common. The walk there was better, (as it was a lot quieter) even if it was much more familiar to me. The weather was also nice and refreshing, although grey, but that’s fine if not preferable, as far as I'm concerned. Soon however, my light exercising and healthy living mindset took a turn for the worse. Once home, I went on a huge chocolate bender. This was before, as and after I opened my presents ‘from my dad’. (I actually ordered them for myself). I got myself another Joe Stump album which I don’t particularly recommend, as once you’ve heard one of them, you’ve kind of heard them all, it seems. However, more positively, I ordered a fun David T Chastain album, a Tony Macalpine CD and some Judas Priest. The usual stuff, basically; a largely bland Yuletide, it could seem. A little strangely, though, I also got myself a reggae album. I know right? What’s going on? To be precise, it was ‘Scientist… Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires’. When it’s at its best it really is awesome, and has the greatest vocal melodies you could ever wish for. However, rather disappointingly, the whole album has about 2 minutes worth of singing on. Ah. The rest is dull instrumental stuff. Still, adequate backing music, I guess.

Even though Christmas dinner was simply warmed up supermarket food, it was pretty tasty. After it was given a healthy dose of mustard, that is. Mustard on the Yorkshire puddings, mustard on the turkey, mustard on the pigs in blankets, you name it. Mm-mm. Not mustard on the potatoes, though, I’ve never liked them. Why my dad offered me some, is unclear. I’ve refused them all my life, and he thought I’d just changed my taste then? Did he think god came to me and said ‘Simon. Eat the potatoes, you’ll love them now, and for no reason whatsoever!‘ Nope, that didn’t happen, nor has anything like that happened to me. So drop it. Potatoes are only good for chips and crisps, as far am I concerned. After everything was gobbled up, a lot of time passed to more music listening. To enhance the sonic experiences, I thought I’d play some online chess as well. In one match and amazingly, I managed to get my king to the opposite end of the chess board. Even though that’s not the purpose of the game, that’s a genuinely difficult thing to do, no matter who you’re playing against. I didn’t make a move for a while after that point, as I wanted to savour the moment. I was just about to get the king back to the other side, when I got checkmated. Damn. I got offered another game by the victor, but whether that’s because he was impressed or just wanted an easy win, I don’t know.

Later in the day and out of curiosity, I checked the BBC news website. ‘Queen Praises Terror Attack’? Holy shit! Oh… Wait… ‘Queen Praises Terror Attack CITIES.’ My bad. Obviously my misunderstanding was for the best. I don’t like crazy Christmases. The other news stories weren’t TOO bad on the whole, either. They certainly didn’t hint at mass revulsion and certain future revolutions. Later on in the day again, and to burn off my no doubt dangerously high sugar intake, I went for a run around some nearby lakes. There, I went into turbo mode, and it seemed all of that glucose was really showing its worth. I’ve ran that course many times, and I’m sure I had just smashed my speed record. Following that, I did my last set of chilling. I watched the James Bond film ‘Skyfall’, (the last half hour of which was pretty boring, unless you REALLY love the sound of machine guns) and then that was pretty much the day over. So that’s Christmas finished, for another year? No, no, I get another one, in a way. In an earlier blog, I mentioned my brother escaped the celebrations. Well, I’ve recently learnt that he wants to have his own Christmas when he gets home from holiday, in America, soon. On that day, he’ll be opening my presents, and I’ll be opening his. Double Christmas!