Over-spending and Debt at Christmas - please try and resist the temptation

I rarely touch on personal domestic matters, but at this time of year many people will become increasingly "excited" over the coming few weeks in the run-up to Christmas or the Festive Season or the Holiday Season or however you choose to describe it. I have little or no religious faith (I hover between Agnosticism and Atheism), but I have felt since I was becoming a teenager and then young adult that the idea that there was some "power" overseeing humanity was so much superstitious nonsense. I try to be "nice" in my personal dealings, so I hope that not too many are offended by my cavalier viewpoint, but ultimately if you are offended I'm afraid you will have to live with it, because in reality I don't much care. You have your views and I have mine.

In any case, however you view the coming few weeks, many people including me look upon the forthcoming Christmas holidays/festival/celebrations as an opportunity to get together with friends and family, eating and drinking rather more than is usual during the rest of the year, also offering hospitality and gifts to various family, friends and acquaintances and receiving similar in return. However, the simplest thing I can urge upon you is to not overdo it, and remember that if you are incurring debts, or your friends and family are, to fund this annual extravanganza, that booms generally are followed by busts. Debts incurred to fund this period will fairly soon have to be repaid, somehow or other. I realise that for younger families with young children that they will want to provide their children with a happy and exciting Christmas and certainly will not wish their own children to feel they are less fortunate than some of their classmate contemporaries, who receive the latest "must have" toys, games, clothes and gadgetry generally at this time of year. I understand the pressures that people face in a "consumer" society. Most of us have budgetary limits in what we can do; some of us have more "discretionary" income, beyond the absolute essentials, than others. Some amongst us have almost no such "discretionary" income at all and whatever "joy" (if any) they can look forward to over the coming weeks will be dependent on the help of others, which I hope will be as generous as others' means will allow.

But for everyone, I would like to urge some level of moderation, both in the desire to "give" and expectation of what you may wish or expect to "receive"; we all want to enjoy oursleves, but not at the expense (surely) of subsequent weeks or months of actual or near penury to pay for it. I volunteered for some years, quite some years ago now, with a charity organisation that sought to help people in various personal struggles and I always remember that another volunteer, when we were both "on duty" around this time of year, tried to explain to me the pressures she was under not to disappoint her own children in their expectations, which she was barely able (if at all) to satisfy. I am not "wealthy", but I suppose I am "comfortable" in comparison to many others, so it's possible that I don't always understand fully the pressures that face some others, I don't deny it, but I am very aware that not everyone is so fortunate as me.

In Nairn we have a weekly newspaper, published every Tuesday, as I have mentioned a few times before - The Nairnshire Telegraph does not have any online presence, so it is not possible to link to their articles, but one item they carry every week is a sort of 'moral homily' from some religious bloke signing himself 'Sandy Shaw - Nairn Christian Fellowship' and they are usually pretty trite, apart from being poorly written and full of logical non sequiturs. I read them, or at least glance at them, every week when I am in Nairn, and usually indulge in a little derisive chuckle and have at least once before written about something I read in the column - for example, in November/December 2011 when I wrote this. The article today (Tuesday, 6th December 2016) is the usual mix of religious mumbo-jumbo mixed in with practical advice, so whilst I find the former risible I am happy to acknowledge that that there is considerable "common sense" in the latter. The article this weeks is pithily entitled "Debt" and I reproduce it below:

The Nairnshire Telepgraph Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - page 8

Whatever your views on "religion" (and I have already expressed my own scepticism and indeed scorn for these "notions" and "beliefs" as they are what I regard as fiction), there is I think a good deal of common sense in the linked article. Do with my article what you will. In any case, enjoy yourselves over the coming weeks, but don't overdo it in any sense.

Christmas singing from a Male Choir in Indiana

A little different and very cleverly done ...

A Joyous Christmas and a Peaceful, Happy and Prosperous New Year to all who pass this way.

Peace and Joy at Christmas

I am signing-off now for a day or so over Christmas, but wish all who pass this way a Joyous Christmas and a Peaceful, Happy and Prosperous New Year. For my music this year I am embedding a short video-clip of images taken from the Hubble Telescope and using the music of Johnann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major, highly appropriate at this time of year. Enjoy!

A Joyous Christmas and a Peaceful, Happy and Prosperous New Year

My favourite composer is, by a long way, Johann Sebastian Bach so for my pre-Christmas message this year I'm going to feature two of my favourite pieces of music by Bach, one of which (the second) is rarely performed so there are not many recordings of it. The first is slightly better known, I think. Although I have little religious belief and much of Bach's compositions were written with religion in mind, I have no difficulty in reconciling this contradiction at all; Bach's works are sublime, whatever the motivation for them having been written.

Happy Christmas!


Der Herr ist mein getreuer Hirt, BWV 112
(The Lord is my faithful shepherd)

(Unfortunately I have no information about the record label from which this video-clip is taken. My own recording is on the Joker label, reference SM1047 - see below for more information.)



Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe, BWV 185
(Merciful heart of eternal love)

(A 1951 recording of a performance by the Swabian Choral Society and the Bach Orchestra of Stuttgart - under the direction of Hans Grischkat - Renaissance label, serial number X36. My own recording is of the same performance, but on the Joker label reference SM1047, purchased in Casablanca in 1973. The record pressing from which the recording in this YouTube video-clip is taken also contains a recording of BWV 112, the first video-clip above, as does my own record, although they are on different labels.)


I hope you enjoy these pieces of music as much as I do.

Greetings at Christmas to all who pass this way ...

I am signing-off for a few days for Christmas. I take this opportunity to wish all who pass this way:

A Joyous Christmas ... and that 'Santa' will bring you all you wish for! Not forgetting my sincere good wishes for a Peaceful, Happy and Prosperous New Year.

(The two images above are of a couple of the decorations I put up in my home every Christmas. I've been spending this afternoon putting these and other decorations, including several set of lights and Christmas cards along my picture rails and window lights in the windows in a couple of rooms, so now I'm going to settle down with my feet up on a foot-rest, read a book and watch a DVD until midnight.)

Ain't 'science' wonderful? And Season's Greetings to you, too!

To continue the seasonal theme of my last post (and the kiddies have demolished an earlier snowman which they had built on the cricket pitch in front of me earlier and are currently in the process of rolling more 'components' presumably to make another), this is how some scientists at the National Physical Laboratory (romatntically located in, of all places, Teddington, for devotees of the BBC Radio 4 I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue programme) are choosing both to celebrate Christmas and to demonstrate their technical prowess:


- here is a short video-clip of how the above very small (microscopic in fact- 10 µm across - think "1/5th the width of a human hair") image was created:




(thru the US-based, but in many way still emotionally attached to the UK, blogger Andrew Sullivan)

Daniel Boys sings 'Ave Maria' at House of Fraser in London

My first post alluding to Christmas 2009; Daniel Boys sings 'Ave Maria' in the window display at House of Fraser, London last week, to promote the 'Christmas in New York' concert:



- at least Daniel is nice to look at [ ;) ] even if the singing is a bit 'bar-room karaoke'. Yes, I've just been to wash my mouth out with soap! Read more about Daniel here.
(thru Made in Scotland)

Season's Greetings and other matters

A belated greeting to anyone who passes this way with my best wishes for a Peaceful and Joyous Christmas. When I began writing this post a few hours ago I was just sitting down, at long last, with my feet up on a foot-stool to watch the last half hour of J S Bach's Christmas Oratorio in a recording from 2000 at the Herderkirche in Weimar being broadcast over the past several days on BBC4 television and was just settling down to watch Handel's Messiah in a recording from 2006 at the Barbican, also on BBC4 television; since then there have been several lengthy family telephone and video (courtesy Skype) calls. Our Christmas Day lunch kicked-off this afternoon at about 3.15pm, just after Her Majesty the Queen finished her annual Christmas address - something of a tradition when I'm hosting a Christmas Day lunch here. Between breakfast and post-Queen lunch my habit is to open a bottle of champagne at around 1pm to go with some canapés; I've still got a few bottles of the cases of vintage champagne I got for the Millennium in 2000 from the Wine Society, so we had one of those and it was excellent (my normal champagne 'tipple' is Veuve Cliquot NV, my favourite amongst regular NV champagnes).

In fact I shouldn't have been here at all today, or this week, nor most of the next couple of weeks, but should instead have left here last Sunday to begin a drive down to Newcastle for a Monday evening ferry departure for Ijmuiden in the Netherlands, spending a night on the way to Newcastle near Edinburgh to break the journey, specially at this time of year with so few hours of daylight. From Ijmuiden, with a scheduled arrival last Tuesday morning it would have been a drive of just a few hours down to the south of the Netherlands near Maastricht, where my mother and I would have been spending Christmas and New Year with my brother and sister-in-law. However, that was not to be; it became clear early on Sunday morning that my elderly mother was not fit to travel, having experienced a severe 'dizzy turn' when she tried to get up that morning - a doctor visited later in the morning and confirmed, fortunately, that there were no other new factors to consider. Even though she had begun to recover by mid-afternoon I felt that it was still unwise to contemplate taking her on a long car and sea journey.

At a completely mundane and practical level our unexpected stay in Nairn presented a few difficulties. The only fresh (unfrozen) food I had in the house on Sunday morning was what was required for breakfast that day prior to our scheduled 10am departure for Edinburgh, so once the doctor had visited at about 1pm my first task was to visit the local small supermarket to stock up on the basic essentials for lunch and dinner on Sunday and breakfast the following morning, until I could get through to Forres or Inverness to do a more major food shopping expedition. Natually enough I had not bothered, either, to put up any Christmas decorations here, nor had I even thought about catering over the Christmas and new Year period as I had assumed that this would be well in hand in the Netherlands (apart from me taking a Virgina-baked Ham over as a small contribution - I do a baked ham every year for my own entertaining and people always say they like it). So apart from a major 'shop' last Monday, I had to undertake several other shopping expeditions on Tuesday and Wednesday after I had thought about what we might eat for Christmas Day lunch (the Virgina-baked ham is usually for Boxing Day) and get the decorations down from the loft, etc. So this evening is really the first moment I've had to think about posting anything on the blog.

Tomorrow will also see more lengthy international video (Skype) calls - Skype is an absolutely marvellous innovation, one I've been using pretty regularly for three or so years now. After tomorrow (Boxing Day), which is my mother's birthday, which will be another 'big day' for catering, I should have a little more time to write on the blog. Meantime I raise a late Christmas-evening glass of champagne to you, whilst watching the final few moments of the Messiah.

Send a Parcel to our Boys/Girls in Iraq & Afghanistan

IMPORTANT - Please see update at end





Surprise Supplies is a scheme which aims to send parcels to every single member of the Armed Forces currently serving in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. A lot of them receive little in the way of support parcels from home and they really do make all the difference. We are all aware of the disagreeable circumstances these soldiers are working in and this is a small way of our acknowledging what they do on our behalf.

The scheme is very simple and all you need to do is to put together a small parcel containing a few goodies and then send it in the post addressed to one of the addresses below. It will mean such a lot to these wonderful men and women serving so far away from home to know that people are thinking about them and that we value and appreciate the sacrifices that they are making.

It would make even more of a difference if you could organise for a group of people (your friends, colleagues or staff for example) to put together as many parcels as you can. Please forward this blogpost to all your friends and family and ask them to do the same. There are over 14,000 servicemen and women serving overseas in Afghanistan and the Middle East so the more parcels that we can send out the better.

How does it work?

All you need to do is to put together a parcel (or parcels) containing a few ‘goodies’ with a value of not more than £10, address the package to one of the addresses at the end of this post and then take it to the post office/put it in the post.

Royal Mail will deliver the parcel free of charge to the British Forces Posting Office who will then ship it on to the relevant BFPO number.

Padded jiffy bags and old shoe boxes are the best for packing things in but any kind of old cardboard box or packet will do. Use tissue paper, newspaper, bubble wrap and anything light to stuff the package and stop things rolling around.

Postage is only free of charge if the parcel weighs less than 2kg and they are very strict about this so we recommend that you weigh your parcels before taking them to the post office.

There are lots of women serving out there too so although the mailing labels says ‘a Serviceman’ if you would like to put a parcel together for a woman please just amend the label accordingly and it will be given to a female.

What do I put inside?

One of the main elements of this scheme is to provide a bit of variety. Therefore if you can, use your imagination to the full and think of a cross between Christmas stockings and tuck boxes and you will be on the right track. It is very hot in Afghanistan so please do not send things that melt such as chocolate. Alcohol (and pornography!) are forbidden but this still leaves plenty of goodies such as:

Biscuits, cake - homemade wonderful but bought wonderful too – but think long life like fruitcake, gingerbread or malt loaf. Anything in a tube, vacuum pack or tin to perk up their rather basic rations is great - toffee sauce, (M&S does a good range of savoury and sweet sauces in tubes) condensed milk, salsa dip and cheese straws, cream cheese, fish paste, chutneys, chorizo sausage, dried fruit and nuts, mint imperials, chewing gum and everyone loves Jelly Babies.

Soduko books and magazines – Nuts, Zoo and FHM we are reliably informed are the most popular but also the Week for current affairs and any kind of magazine will be very welcome, the more varied the better as there is lots of time for reading and magazines get swapped and shared around.

Candles (for illumination, not scent), lip salve, moisturiser, medicated talc, deodorant, toothpaste and cotton socks (M&S do a great range of cotton socks that are v. popular – black and olive green are good colours). They also have to drink vast quantities of water so any powder flavourings in a package like Berocca, Vitamin C sachets etc. would be both light and immensely appreciated. Finally old fashioned pick ‘n mix sweets are particularly recommended but please keep the contents within £10 for the sake of equality.

Who will get my parcel?

Your parcel is being sent to one of two addresses in either Iraq or Afghanistan. From there they will be distributed throughout theatre. You won’t know who has received your parcel but you can be sure that a deserving soldier will be very grateful. Please do write an encouraging message inside your card for your soldier but please sign with your Christian name only and do not give your address as we do not want the soldiers to feel obliged to write thank you letters.

What is Surprise Supplies?

Surprise Supplies came about because of an idea Lexi Douglas had whilst her son was serving in Afghanistan in 2007. She regularly sent him parcels stuffed full of cakes and other nice things and when Charlie wrote home he said how appreciated they were but that not all of the boys received parcels from home so he would share his out with them. Lexi told her friends and they volunteered to send parcels and the idea grew from there. You can read more about it HERE

Send your parcels to:

(For parcels to AFGHANISTAN)
A British Soldier
c/o Capt. S Beattie MBE
HQ Task Force Helmand
Lashkar Gah
BFPO 715

and/or

(For parcels to IRAQ)
A British Soldier
c/o JI Branch
HQ MND (SE)
Op Telic
BFPO 641


PS/ I sent off a parcel to each of the addresses today and now that I have assembled the 'goodies' for each, I know roughly what to buy for the other packages I plan to send over the next couple of days (I plan to send 4 more packages to each of the addresses, so that I will have sent 10 packages in all by the time I have finished). Each package with the contents below weighs just under 1 kilo (about 2lb) and the contents cost just a little more than the £10- suggested in the rules, but not so much more that I can be said to have completely ignored the suggested maximum; the contents listed below cost £12.45 for each parcel, with the cost of the 'Jiffy' bag, the Christmas card and the decorative bows and sticky 'Greetings' labels being minor extras. Each parcel I have sent/will send comprises (this is just my idea, you can vary it to suit your own tastes):

- Padded envelope ('Jiffy' size 3);
- Christmas card with a personal message inside, signed with forename only;
- a couple of small decorative bows (the kind you stick on presents); the package should be fun and colourful as well as useful;
- a small SuDoKu puzzle book (gift-wrapped: everyone needs to be able to unwrap at least one present, whether you're a child or an adult);
- small bag of 'Liquorice Allsorts';
- packet of almonds and raisins;
- tube of high-strength vitamin C 'fizzy' tablets (nice to drink and good for you);
- small tube of Lip salve;
- small bottle hand-cleansing gel (does not require water)(*);
- small tube of intensive hand cream (*) - you could instead send a small tube of foot cream.

(*) I got small 'travel' packs in the travel accessories section of my local Tesco superstore. I bought everything except the SuDoKu books in Tesco, the SuDoKu books came from Borders. No doubt other supermarket chains have the same or similar items.

If you can afford to send even one parcel it will I'm sure cheer up the brave soldier (male or female) who receives it. Please give as generously as you feel able.

PPS/ I have marked/will mark all my 'Jiffy' envelopes with the following: "Suitable for a male or a female soldier".

PPPS/ Most of this blog post is reproduced verbatim from here; I do not otherwise link to this blog because I have a personal disagreement with the writer, but I am happy on this occasion to link to and to acknowledge the source.

Note: The first link above is to a page on the Telegraph newspaper website, but for the past few days this seems to be completely unavailable (perhaps it is a DoS or simple excess activity over the festive period), so here is a .PDF link to the original source, with the main website address here.

Important UPDATE - the period for sending out parcels for Christmas to troops in Iraq and Afghanistand has now ended (on 7DEC07). I have myself had difficulty in desptaching the parcels I prepared as I have been told that the whole basis of this scheme was unworkable, because MOD regulations specify that parcels may be sent only to named soldiers. This is just a big a disappointment to me as anyone else, specially as I am now left with the contents of 10 parcels to make use of, probably by handing them to the Salvation Army or other similar charity.