The Midnite Chronicles

It’s official - the Christmas Holiday Period is now finished. I can’t believe how quickly time has gone and it seems ages ago since new year, even though it’s actually only 5 days.

Life with me remains good although I’m still not quite right after sickness bug at Christmas. However it is starting to pass which is a good thing.

I’ve had a funny sleeping pattern in the last few days which has been a little awkward but should hopefully be rectified this evening! However, because I switched the television deep in to the early hours I discovered a documentary on a children’s TV program that I used to watch … ironically when I was a child! T-Bag was the name of the show. I’m not sure how many of my friends watched it. I don’t think many admitted to it at the time but I loved the show. It was interesting to note it was actually one of the most popular shows back then!

Anyway, time to settle down and get some shut eye. So blog soon!

Christmas, Life, Movies/Film/TV Christmas, New Year, Sickness Bug, Sleep, T-Bag

A new year, the glimmer of new light

We have seen the sun set on 2008 and are greeting in 2009! Some with parties, some with small gatherings, some in quiet reflection. So much to celebrate, both past and future! New Year is quite a unique time of the year, a time to place our dreams and hopes in the future.

However, the reality of 2009 might not seem like a dream for some. With the economic climates at home and globally people fear loosing their jobs, their stability and possibly even their homes. This is quite a terrifying thought. Times are probably going to be tough for a while. How long no-one knows, but all things must end. However, I am a firm believer in through adversity comes goodness provided we work hard for it. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s worth fighting for.

I hope this New Year, we are able to keep in mind those around us and those for whom times are really tough. Every day can really be the greatest day of our lives.

Happy New Year to one and all!

Sleep well tonight, for tomorrow is your future! – Simon Rogers MMIX

New Year's Message

I stumbled across the Post Secret blog the other day whilst doing some research and found this nice image. It speaks for itself!

Friends, Life

Outtakes from the classic Blackadder Series.

Comedy, Video

I met up with two school friends last night for a drink at the local. It was nice to catch up with them both. The great thing about last night was how spontaneous it was. We planned to meet up at the local but from that stage onward it was up to spontaneity!

We ended up going on for a meal. I’m not sure if my friend noticed but he actually ordered the wrong meal for me!! None-the-less it was still enjoyable. The whole night was enjoyable and even more so as I was able to drink because I usually end up being the one who is driving. Also, I rarely drink so was nice to have a few.

At the end of the night we spent ages talking about high school and the endless road-trips we’d gone on. I had forgotten how spontaneous our high school existence was! We would end up taking the car out and get to a junction and one of us would randomly shout left or right and that dictated our trip! We never had a destination in mind just a desire to be out on the road and free!

Food, Friends, High Life, Life, People

I like this image … I’m guessing most probably will be indifferent and more of the rest will not like it to liking it … but I like it! I like the whole composition of the photo.

Life

The Twelve Days of Christmas, it seems, are misunderstood. Contrary to popular belief, these days are not the 12 before Christmas. In fact they are the 12 days after Christmas Day beginning on the Evening of Christmas Day. The Twelve Days start after ‘Christmas Day’ as Christmas was considered Sacred and Holy.

The Twelve Days of Christmas, and the associated evenings of those twelve days (Twelve-tide), are the festive days beginning the evening of Christmas Day (December 25) through the morning of Epiphany (January 6).

– Wikipedia

Because of our modern understanding of astronomy and thus time keeping we begin a new day at Midnight. In days of old however, the end of the day was when the sun went down and the sunrise was the beginning of a day. Thus the nights were part of the next day’s holiday. For example; Christmas would have started at sunset on 24th Dec and would have ended when the sun when down on 25th Dec. Whereas we would say Christmas was solely on 25th Dec.

The Twelve Days of Christmas conclude at the Solemnity of the Epiphany (the arrival of the three kings visiting the child Jesus). Twelfth Night due to the observations above falls on the evening of 5th January.

There is some dispute on the meaning behind the lyrics of the popular Christmas song The Twelve Days of Christmas. However the Christian values attributed as are follows;

• A Partridge in a Pear Tree is Jesus
• Two Turtle Doves are the Old and New Testaments
• Three French Hens are the Three Theological Virtues; Faith, Hope and Love
• Four Colly Birds are the Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).
• Five Gold Rings are the Five Books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch); Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
• Six Geese A-laying are the Six Days of Creation
• Seven Swans A-swimming are The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit: prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, lending and compassion.
• Eight Maids A-milking are The Eight Beatitudes; blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, they who mourn, they that hunger, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake.
• Nine Ladies Dancing are The Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
• Ten Lords A-leaping are the ten commandments.
• Eleven Pipers-Piping are the Eleven Faithful Apostles; Simon-Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James bar Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas bar James.
• Twelve Drummers Drumming are the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed.

Christmas

I guess it’s that time of year when we kind of review what we’ve been up to over the past 12 months and where we want to direct our lives in the next 12 months and beyond.

Before I picked up my laptop I was playing around with my mobile phone and switched on it’s music player. I’ve got quite a diverse collection of music on my phone. I’m constantly amazed at how Music can take us back to situations in the quickest of moments. Maybe it’s where we heard the music the first time or maybe it’s the song we relate to a certain event, period of time or situation. The first song to play ironically was Both Sides Now which I blogged about a few days ago. This song always reminds me of London. Night time on the tube. Dark outside but the tube carriage lit up. Listening to the song with a friend one earphone in my ear, the other in hers. I cannot remember the exact stop but I remember we bought a bottle of wine before we went back to the flat.

I’ve listened to a few other tracks on the play list but whilst I’m writing this post I’m listening to Both Sides Now. It’s quite a luxury to have music completely on demand. We probably take too much for granted.

Aspirations, Christmas, Music/Audio, The Past

This is just a very short post to say Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all have a very fantastic and marvellous day.

Christmas

I was listening to TalkSport in the early hours and one of the callers-in told the host, Adrian Goldberg that a Tesco Store was currently taking down their Christmas Trees already! It’s only just Christmas Eve! Unfortunately I can’t remember whereabouts in the country this Tesco store was. I expect however that it won’t be just one store!

Christmas