A Belated Merry Christmas

I just want to wish everybody a (belated) Merry Christmas!!

The last week-and-a-half has been manic and the poor weather conditions have not helped free up any time.

Christmas was a good one this year, with the only let down being the late cancellation of Oxford vs Rushden.  I am optimistic that 2010 will be a year of better news and prospects for all of us.

I am still busy with work, with our business year-end coinciding with calendar year end, but am jotting down a few predictions for 2010 which I hope to share soon.

Take care y'ol!

White Christmas

It has taken three hours to get home on a route that would take about twenty-five minutes in low traffic, and it was like driving on an ice rink the whole way.  I understand colleagues who left over an hour before me to do a longer journey have still not made it home.

I hope everyone is safe and anyone who has had to trek in this weather is OK.

I guess I will be working from home tomorrow now!...  Thank God for laptops and modern technology.

"G5" Aiming For Christmas #1 In Charts

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Post script: If you would like to display this on your blog, please email me for the HTML code.

Question

Is there a convention of when Christmas decorations should be put up in one's home?  I assumed there isn't one because they seem to be going up from October in different places.  I know they are supposed to come down on the 12th day, but I am not clear of when they should go up.

I am of the mindset to leave it as late as possible as I get bored of the sight of them if they go up too early.  My wife [who is usually right about all matters concerning what happens in the house] has just asked if we could put them up soon.  The village lights were being put up last night, and I saw weeks ago that they turned the lights on in London.  The Tesco's where I shop has had Christmas cards on the shelves since July.

And is it just me, or are other people seemingly putting their decorations up earlier now than they did in years past?  When I was growing up, we would put them up on the last day of school, which meant the tree was up about a week, or less, before Christmas.  Now however, my parents seem to be putting them up in early December.  Are others feeling compelled to put theirs up earlier now?

Any thoughts? 

Turkey Shortage?

I intimated in a post yesterday that my guess was that retailers will be looking to keep stock low this year, so as to avoid burning off too much excess festive stock in sales, and this morning I have seen an article that seems to back my point about retailers expecting a quieter Christmas.

It would appear that Supermarkets have ordered much fewer Turkeys during this summer in their preparedness for Christmas; in doing so 30% fewer premium Turkeys were hatched this summer in preparation for this Christmas.

The article states that there are now concerns that there may be a shortage, and that some people will need to switch to an alternate meat for their Christmas dinner.

It will not just have been Turkeys that the big retailers will have slashed orders for; it will be across the whole retail sector.  Turkeys are a good indicator because they are so synonymous with Christmas and because they need time to be hatched and grown, demonstrating retailer confidence for sales ahead of Christmas. And the absence of surplus stocks will mean a reduced need for Pre-Christmas sales, and the absence of sales is not good for the economic forecasting of Mr Brown.

For the record, the Christmas accord of 2005 still stands which guaranteed that my wife and I would alternate Christmases between each of our parents houses also meaning that we shall be at my parents this year, and thus meaning Capon is the bird that will have already been pre-ordered.

A Small Request

Merry Christmas

Due to it being my busiest few weeks at work, and because of Christmas I shall be off the blog for a week or so.

I want thank everybody who has visited this blog during its short life, and wish you, and your families a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

I look forward to picking up next year, and seeing if I can summon from within myself the intellectual acumen, and absorbing wit that encourages debate and the exchange of opinions & ideas on so many of my favourite blogs that I read elsewhere on the interweb.

Merry Christmas.
Daniel

Christmas This Year

I was just preparing a post before I sign off temporarily for Christmas, which I shall post in a moment. In writing that post I paused for a moment to think about those who will not be having a great Christmas this year. Initially my thoughts turned to the McCann family, but of course there are so many others who will not have a great Christmas.

So saving any sanctimonious message from me, and if you should feel so inclined, please take a moment to check out these web pages, and if you are not so poor that you have some money spare two days before Christmas, then please donate at the appropriate site, (none of which are privately or Professionally connected to myself or this blog). Alternatively, if you can't face another Christmas TV schedule, the below pages have suggestions of plenty of ways you could help by donating your time. Hopefully, the oxygen of publicity from my hundreds of thousands of readers, [ahem], will also help in a small way this Christmas.

Please have a look at the below, which have been included in no particular order. Feel free to include your choices of worthy charities that might like to attract some attention this Christmas in the comments of this post.

http://www.findmadeleine.com/2008/

http://sikhcess.com/ecom.asp?pg=involved&gclid=CJ-SytfC15cCFYoH3godTHZxDA

http://www2.salvationarmy.org.uk/html/christmas/index.htm?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=[salvation+army]&utm_campaign=Brand

http://www.barnardos.org.uk/

http://www.nspccwishes.org.uk/donate/?wa_chan=advertising&wa_src=googleppc&wa_cmp=nspccwishes08&wa_crt=xmas%20nspcc%20donation&gclid=CMHq1_3C15cCFUob3godRnJCCg

http://www.childline.org.uk/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.raysofsunshine.org.uk/?gclid=CNSno-_D15cCFRU6EAodqGuYDg

http://www.rainbows.co.uk/?gclid=CKOgtKHE15cCFSI7EAodvGIXDg

http://www.asbah.org/