The rewrite of the book is done and a fairly recent draft is backed up, so at least I'm not worrying about that. But blogging on here is restrictive - I can't change the header, add links, or edit pictures, and the fonts are ill-disciplined, so you'll have to put up with an austerity blog until I get a new laptop.
We've had a fortnight of amazing dawns like this
and stunning sunsets. On Saturday I was driving home over the hills from Sheffield and the sky was a glorious, stupendous tapestry of orange and purple. Drivers were stopping on the crest of the ridge and taking photographs of it. I didn't have a camera and kept driving, but it's a wonder I didn't crash, because my eyes were continually drawn back to the sky.
Christmas seems different this year. Or at least, my mood this year is different from how it's been before. Sombre, I think is the word. I have held back from saying this, because I don't want you to think I see myself as a character from Little Women, but this year I am so aware of the hardships of so many people in "austerity" Britain - homelessness, debt, poverty - with so many dependent on food banks, that it feels pretty irrelevant as to whether I am having the kind of Christmas I consider to be my absolute ideal i.e. stuffed full of family. I am so, so fortunate in every way that matters. I never used to be able to understand when my father said he didn't want anything for Christmas - would I just give a donation to Shelter? - but now I do.
Dave has already given me my Christmas card for this year. He always makes me something in wood. Here it is:
I have an empty house today and a dead computer and I shall be decorating the tree. Yay!
I hope you all have the kind of Christmas you long for.
THE CHRISTMAS LIFE
Wendy Cope (Copyright) from If I Don't Know, Faber 2001
No comments:
Post a Comment