Christmas songs & quotes

‘Tis the season to listen to cover versions, fa la la la la, la la la la.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oTC63hgsiY&fs=1&hl=en_US]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF6mF0ebX6Q&fs=1&hl=en_US]

And some Christmassy wisdom….

“The one thing women don’t want to find in their stockings on Christmas morning is their husband.”
– Joan Rivers

“Nothing’s as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.”
– Kin Hubbard

“Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas.”
– Johnny Carson


Glee & Christmas songs!

It’s December! And Dublin is gorgeously Christmassy with the snow and the Christmas lights and all the rest – even if it’s slightly nightmarish trying to travel anywhere. So…. yes, Christmas songs!

I continue to love and adore Glee, so these two Christmas songs are rather happiness-inducing. (Sidenote: Kurt and Blaine, oh so cute. And yet it would be kinda nice to keeping see that played as a friendship rather than anything else.)

Christmas FM is back, mostly playing good Christmas music, and then occasionally playing ‘Christmas Shoes’, which is the worst song in the history of the universe. Have some non-appalling Christmas songs instead:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hVEdE0O5tA&fs=1&hl=en_US]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhjTHlui2ws&fs=1&hl=en_US]

“Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money.”
- Anonymous


Bits ‘n’ bobs

(but no actual Bobs, unfortunately)

– In these gloomy times, Ellen has listed ten things she loves about Dublin.

– Big Smoke had its second Literary Café last Saturday, in the absolutely gorgeous Ormond Wine Bar. It was a lovely afternoon, though when I did my own reading (a short snippet from Big Picture) I was reminded of how terrifying it can be to get up in front of people and read. And yet how fun (hello, inner teen voice, speak!). Our guest readers and student readers were fabulous, and it was lovely to see former students who’d popped in as well.

– I saw the latest Harry Potter movie recently, and it delighted me immensely – makes me want to go and reread all the books once I have a spare few days. The joy in them is definitely seeing how bits of the book turn up on the screen – they’re not designed for people who haven’t read the books, or at least that appears to be one of the things that keeps coming up, particularly in relation to this film. But there’s something quite nice about how, in a world where we so often hear “ah, the book’s much better, the film’s crap” and an implicit disdain for the simplifcation of a book on the screen, there are films which assume an audience familiar with the source text. (Also? Kind of want to be Hermione Granger when I grow up.)

– It’s a month ’til Christmas! Which means…. Christmas songs!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kmPz5IbU90&fs=1&hl=en_US]

“Aren’t we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know… the birth of Santa.”
– Bart Simpson


Ah, holidays.

I had a dream. I had a lovely wonderful dream that I would be so terribly organised that my Christmas holidays could begin on December 15th (right after finishing my last class and finishing up the paperwork for it) and then I could do some nice organising-of-teaching-resources that I’ve been saying to myself I ‘really must do’ for the past couple of years, and instead I’ve spent December at the sort of low-level sickness that lets you go and teach for a couple of hours and then go home and collapse and not do very much of All The Other Things One Should Be Doing. So on December 23rd I decided I was taking Christmas holidays, and a lot of Lemsip.

And still I have the guilt, for which I blame the ol’ Catholic upbringing. Plus the same cough/cold combo I’ve had for weeks. (I’ve just started watching House, in which there is much Ominous Coughing, so there’s a lot of self-diagnosis/hypochondria going on during the viewing process.) I think among my 2010 goals will be to actually learn how to take time off without feeling guilty, even though a little voice in my head is saying “but then you will get nothing done, and become lazy and unmotivated and useless!” Quiet, little voice! Quiet!

This could get a lot more neurotic, but let’s have a pretty segue into dream furniture… I really want a chair that is also a bookcase. Sadly, do not think any Irish shops stock such a thing of wonder. But I love the idea of a bookcase chair. Possibly more in theory than actuality.