More Telescoping

Well, not much more. I got the telescope out again to look at Jupiter and the moons had all shifted around. One was just on the limb of the planet and one was far off but the other two were nowhere in sight. Gone off down the pub for a Christmas drink with their mates from Saturn though I hear they got into a fight with that mob from Neptune and Uranus. Titan always wins and Oberon is useless without Titania to back him up. It all started when Titan tried to pull Callisto and Ganymede got uppity about it. Titan then asked why Ganymede was worried because he didn't think he was interested in girls. You can see that it all just fell apart after that. That snitch Mercury flew to the Police and when he heard, Puck, the barman shouted out "Nymphs and Shepherds, run away". Jupiter had to be called to bail all his brood out but Neptune and Uranus were out for the evening so I think all their moons are still locked up. Proteus and Ariel told me all this in their one phone call.

Please don't complain about this anthropomorphisation of celestial objects; the Greeks and the Romans were doing it long before I did and not so very differently either. It must have been too much Scrumpy Jack last night. Martin says he has drunk most of his Christmas beer already and will have to go out and get more. He has just bought a Palm from the company and his wife, like mine, is shouting at him for ignoring her.

Christmas is just to tacky now. I can't think of one person I have met at work who seems to be treating it as anything more than an excuse for two weeks holiday and lots of drinking. Even the wall-to-wall Carols on Classic FM seem hollow. 'If all the year were playing holidays....'. Radio 3 did just play Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas carols which is better because that is one of only a couple of Carols. Talk of Vaughan Williams has remined me of ....

Great Driving Moments Number 43.

Driving along a long, straight road, under a grey sky on a 'no-weather' winter's day, with bare trees in clumps. The music is Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Greensleeves. I need to say no more for myself and you will have to guess the rest for yourself. I have just done a Google image search with the phrase 'Winter Trees' and despite throwing up many pages of photographs and paintings, not one looks anything like the clump of trees I have in my head. For a start, most of them are on sunny winter days rather than non-descript days.

Christmas for me seems empty without any mention of the reason for it. I know that seems obvious but it is not obvious to many people who I feel would take offence if you took away their traditions of the season. It lasts too long nowadays and while I can seer that, in this country, Christmas has always been an excuse for excessive behaviour, up until now, it has had some spiritual backing to it. Of couyrse, all this may just be nostalgia for Christmasses past, the 'they don't do Christmas like they used to' syndrome but it is now so spiritually empty that now I feel empty before the day in the same way that as a kid, I used to feel sad that it was over. The peripheral stuff around Christmas should be long walks in the cold (Grey) days and songs. For most people it seems to be lots of drinking and an excuse for behaviour that normally would be frowned on. It's OK; I'm not about to get out my Puritan costume.

It is now 07:45 and still pitchy dark but it is the sortest day the day after tomorrow. Apologies to any Antipodean readers; just throw another Turkey leg on the Barbie for me and I will be right over. Keep those tinnies cold for me. And with that rampant stereotyping, I think I should leave this topic for another day.