Okay, so Christmas wasn't as bad as my grumpy pre-festive self expected. In fact, I had the best Christmas EVER, courtesy of my brother, and his wife's fantastically lively, lovely family, in their idyllic Roman hideaway. Baby Mimmo had more presents than he could open, so many in fact that we were still opening them on Boxing Day.
The Italians don't go overboard on Christmas. I was able to do my shopping on Christmas Eve, in a large department "store" (I mean "shop", but that word isn't really used any more), which was tastefully decorated, and wasn't overflowing with panic-stricken shoppers hunting for meaningless gumf to inflict on their nearest and dearest. Having said that, I believe they go nuts over January 6th - my Dad's birthday, therefore a highly laudable reason to celebrate.
My favourite present this year was a sea blue Ukulele, and a "teach yourself how to play" book. I've been confidently strumming away at a few chords, pleased that I've managed to remember them, until... this morning, when I discovered that the "teach yourself" book is all set up for the Uke to be tuned to four completely different notes to the ones mine's tuned to. Therefore the chords that I've "learned", while being perfectly in-tune, aren't the chords I thought they were, and I now have to re-learn them! I might just give up and sit back to watch the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's Barbican gig (here's a clip from it):
Something tells me I'll keep plucking away... I've got tickets to see them in Lewes on February 2nd, so I'll be even more inspired after that.
I'm back at work now, which is fairly busy, and not without its worries, but as the hapless knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail said, "I've had worse".
Wishing you a happy and healthy 2008,
Pete.
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