December, already??

I know the calendar doesn't lie, but really? December? We have a tradition (more of a house rule) that we put our Christmas tree up in the first weekend in December. The boys would have it up from August, and I wouldn't bother at all, so it's a compromise. The boys did all the hard labour this year, and it looks wonderful.

They did all the decorating because it turns out I have a broken pinky toe. My foot kept hurting so eventually I went to the doctor, who sent me for x-rays after muttering darkly about Broken Foot and Six Weeks in Plaster ... which meant I was very relieved to find out it's just a broken toe. But it would explain why it hurt so much. So I avoided having to have a plaster cast, but I am supposed to spend the next two weeks not walking or driving.

It's really hard not to walk!!! I'm going to work from home for the rest of the week, which is easy enough as I have a desk job, remote access to all the emails and documents, and a team with my mobile on speed dial. It is hard not to want to keep doing things ... although I should not whinge about HAVING to stay on the sofa and watch television while my meals are cooked and the washing is done :) Poor husband of mine.

One job I can do is digitising the vinyl - recording all of our old albums into a MP3 file and onto the computer. It is so low-tech that I have to do the recording in real time and actually listen to each album as it plays through and gets recorded. The boys were fascinated by this bizarre concept of vinyl, and grooves, and a stylus. I couldn't explain to them how it worked with any degree of accuracy so we googled it and all learned something.

The albums themselves are a bit of a laugh. My husband worked in the record section of a department store while he was at school and university, so has a fairly decent collection even though I question his taste. If I roll my eyes at anything in particular he says it was a gift. Surely not. We both deny responsibility for the one above. "Why did you buy that?" "I thought it was yours?" "Mine! God no, I would never buy that" etc.



This is one of my favourite albums, not because of any musical merit but because I had it on constant rotation for about six months in 1985 and then never again - so every song takes me straight back to the delights and horrors of life as a 15 year old girl. Strangely, I still know all the words to every song. Ask me what I read yesterday in the very useful "Practitioners Guide: Capacity Assessment of Anti-Corruption Agencies" and I would stare at you blankly - but apparently there is plenty of room in my brain for three verses and a chorus of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World".