That Time of Year

So it’s that time of year again. I’ve been trying to pretend it’s not happening, have tried to ignore it, even with Jason and Colleen having happy sing-a-long parties and that woman from M&S flashing her underwear, but now I’ve seen the Coca Cola Santa and there’s no denying it...Christmas is coming.

I can’t believe that it’s come round so quickly. I mean I know that as you get older time seems to go faster, but this is ridiculous. It seems like no time at all since I was last fretting over what to buy everyone.

It’s at this time of the year that I give thanks for the fact that I have only a few people to buy presents for. Some people, like Mrs H3 have a fantastic knack of knowing exactly what to give as presents and merrily toil away (as she has been for months apparently) on creating that perfect gift. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no clue what to get for anyone.

I think I’m pretty easy to buy for (although I guess everyone thinks that), but I really couldn’t imagine having a problem getting me a present. I love so many different things, that buy me anything and you’ve probably hit a winner. Of course anything Harry Potter related is a sure fire hit. And no need to worry if you’ve bought me the right book, CD, DVD either – if I’ve already got them I’ll just return them to the shop and swap for something else I don’t have, but I’ll still accept them as if they were the best present ever. In fact any gift at all is just brilliant.

But other people aren’t like this or at least, being more accurate, I don’t see them that way. I have a need to find the perfect present for them and unlike Mrs H3 I have no imagination or flair for such things. And so I spend hours fretting away about what would be a good gift for people that I’ve known for my whole life but apparently don’t know at all and then end up buying them some boring piece of rubbish that they are probably too polite to tell me they didn’t want.

Of course along with Christmas come the cards, which I have also until now, given absolutely no thought to. I’m considering making some, although whether that will actually happen remains to be seen. So you may from get a real card from me, or you may get a virtual one, it just depends on how much I get done. But whatever the case, you’ll know that a lot of worrying and thought has gone into what you’re receiving and that I’m sending it because you are the most important things in my life and I love you dearly.

Inane Ramblings

Strange how the mind works isn’t it? Well, mine at least.

This morning I was sitting in the surgery, waiting to see my doctor when I happened to glance up at the LED board. Our surgery has finally hit the 21st Century and now has things like automatic telephone appointments (which are rubbish), a rather whizzy computer system that lets you check yourself in and tells you how many people are still waiting to be seen in front of you (amazingly this morning that was none) and of course the LED board. No longer are we subject to crackled voices calling out our names in a style reminiscent of those railway station announcers, each patient looking around in confusion as they try to work out whether it was them that was being called. Now our names glow red, proclaiming loudly that doctor or nurse whoever is ready to see us (or as is more usually the case, that s/he is now fifteen minutes late).

This morning though, watching the board cycle through its messages about repeat prescriptions and late doctors (although not mine, she says smugly – actually have you ever noticed the wave of hatred that is emitted by others waiting for late doctors when you get called in about a minute after arriving and they know they’re there for at least another half hour yet?) my mind picked up on the final message that The Doctor was twenty minutes late.

Sadly, my heart automatically beat faster at the thought that Doctor Who was working at our surgery and for a split second I wished that I was seeing him instead of the sterling Doctor Raval. Of course then sense kicked in and I realised that it was obviously a locum and so their name wasn’t on the board...but just for a minute there...and yes, before you say it, I already know I’m sad.

♥

So NaNaWriMo isn’t exactly going the way I’d planned. So far I’ve managed about 500 words, which is about 11,500 less than I should have written by this stage. In fact it doesn’t even really make up a plot outline if I’m being honest. I’d like to say it’s because I’ve been outstandingly busy doing all sorts of fabulous things, but I can’t. The truth is that I just can’t be bothered to write, although I am filling the time with other things like reading the latest Terry Pratchett Discworld novel Unseen Academicals.

And then there’s the UKS Cyber Crop which takes place this weekend and is likely to stall me further. This time the theme is The Wizard of Oz and I’m on the Toto’s team. How much I’ll do remains to be seen, but I’m sure there’ll be a Kiefer layout in there somewhere along the way. Amazingly for once I’m actually available for the whole thing, at least at the moment, although that doesn’t mean I’ll actually do it all; which reminds me that I should head on over to the website and check out the classes and see which ones I can actually attempt. As ever the finished layouts will be posted on here (or at least they will if I get my photo account back, as they’ve incorrectly suspended it at the moment).

Sadly I’ve just realised that this blog entry is longer than my story. Time to check out and get on with some writing I think!