The bliss of silence
I must say it has been a remarkably quiet winter so far.
I refer of course to the overwhelming false jollity in the lead up to Christmas.
There are several things that really piss me off normally. There is the insistence on using sleigh-bells in any and every bit of music, be it blaring in supermarkets or in television advertising. I fucking hate the sound of sleigh-bells simply because they are so ubiquitous. Then there are the songs that are pumped at us year after year – the Fairytale of New York, that ghastly Slade one and of course Bing Fucking Crosby. But you notice – they are all auditory irritations? If I can’t hear them then they don’t annoy me.
This year I have honed my reaction time on the television remote control to absolute perfection. The merest hint of sleigh-bells or a “Christmassy song” and POW – the sound has gone, not to be revived until it is perfectly safe. They can throw all the Santas, holly and turkeys they like onto the screen but I just flatly ignore them. Sky has gone berserk this year with rakes of channels devoted entirely to “Christmassy” films and programmes. If anything, that’s a very good thing as it keeps most of the shit out of the main channels [not that there is anything worthwhile in them anyway]. I skip the lot when poking around on the screen.
The lights are up in the village which makes the place quite pretty. But they don’t really signify Christmas as they are up all the year round. Nobody ever bothers to take them down since the year they were all stolen from the local cop-shop. We just decided it was easier, safer and less trouble to leave them there permanently.
The upshot of all this is that I am almost feeling a tad festive [only almost – I’m not going overboard here] simply because I can do things at my own pace. In previous years all the clamour and hype has driven me into a state of near apoplexy to the point where I never want to hear even the mention of the C word, but this year so far, I have gotten away with it and have remained nice and calm.
Add to that the fact that in less than tree weeks the nights will start getting shorter again and you could say I am almost enjoying the season.
<silent> Ho, Ho, HO. </silent>
I haven’t flicked the telly on since mid November, won’t set foot in a mall, and for Christmas, me and the mr head to the cottage and ignore the hoopla. Tis lovely.
As I said, the telly is strictly and rigidly controlled and there is only one shop in the area that plays quiet[ish] music which I can easily ignore. All my main shopping including groceries is done on line so I escape a;; the supermarkets.
Blissful peace.
It’s not just me then,I used to enjoy the c word when it kicked off in December and not September.
In the Dark Days when I lived in suburbia I used to bring the dog for walks around the housing estates. The trees used to start appearing in windows in early November, which I found very depressing. Now that I live in the civilised rurality, I won’t probably see a tree until Christmas Eve when I put one up here. If I bother, that is. I live by the old rules – Christmas starts on Christmas Eve and lasts twelve days, then that’s it.
Shit Granddad, you still watch the telly? I’ve got Sky as well: a 100 channels, mostly shite. I keep it because the missus loves the cooking channels and the reality bollocks. And when my grand ween visits she watches the cartoon channel.Thank the Lord for You Tube. Anyway, I get all the news I want from the weather report.
No. Herself does and I sort of tolerate it. We have somewhere in the high hundreds of channels, most of which are dedicated to rerunning repeats which have just been repeated on several other channels. The rest are all reality, cooking, God, shopping, ancient [pre black & white?] films, people moving houses and the most awful tripe that even the Americans have discarded. Herself is out at the moment and the house is blissfully quiet without the telly.
Don’t forget Jona Lewie.
Or Cliff Richard.
I don’t mind Jona Lewie too much as he’s not played that often.
Cliff Richard should have stuck with The Shadows.
Ah yes, the solstice – when the days start to get longer, BST is merely three months off and the sun’s warmth will get through. I love the summer and in a few short days, I can celebrate its coming.
Indeed, the celebrations here are more for the Solstice than anything. Maybe it’s my Celt ancestry or maybe it’s just that I do NOT like cold winter darkness!
You know what really gets on my wick during the “Festive Season” down here in OZ? Bloody television adds showing all the family gathered around the toasty fire feasting and drinking while it is snowing outside, WTF, this is the southern hemisphere! Christmas day is usually a balmy 38 deg C and the only ice to be seen is in the Eski (cooler) keeping the beer icy cold.
And don’t start me on Christmas cards with sleighs, snowy winter scenes, pine trees etc.!!!!!! I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen snow in OZ and it certainly wasn’t in December.
We get the same wanky bollocks in New Zealand. Makes me want to burn stuff, it sorely does.
Well, Happy Winter Solstice to you then, GD. And many mentally competent more to ya!