Friday 20 December 2024: Merry Christmas!

Despite my best intentions, I didn’t get a lot done yesterday. 

Yes, I uploaded a post, and I commented on a few. But much of the rest of the day was then spent making graphics and videos for Monkey Dust and here.

I tried a couple of videos on here, but they didn’t work. So I had to make a regular image for today’s post. The sentiment is the same, it just would have been nice to have falling snow.

The Monkey Dust one worked really well, but once I’d created it, I then had to create a new monkey logo with a Santa hat on as I couldn’t find the old one. Then I had to resize the new image so the whole hat showed. And then I was able to add it to the Christmas image and place it behind the falling snow.

I kept one of my video images for Instagram and decided to use it on Facebook as well, but I gave up on having one on here. All it is is animated falling snow over the top, so I just removed the falling snow and re-placed the text. 

One of the dog’s humans came to collect him, but we had time for a cuppa and a natter this time, and between the three of us we put the world to rights. When they left, we got ready and went straight out.

We had Christmas gifts to buy and we decided to eat out while we were there. That was a real treat. We went to Frankie and Benny’s (and called it our work’s Christmas party!) where for the first time ever I saw mac and cheese on a menu. I bet F&B’s have had it for ages. I had bacon on the top, but the poet chose a meatball dish. Then we had a sundae (him) and American pancakes (me) for pudding. Nom!

We managed to find everything we wanted and we nipped into Currys to look at colour printers and hi-fi units. There were more printers on display than hi-fi units, so I think we might be going to Argos today to see what they have. 

I haven’t researched the printers properly, but I saw an expensive one I liked and a cheap one. I can’t go too cheap, though, as it’s false economy. I also don’t want it to be wi-fi connected because I know some of the manufacturers are using that to force the printers to stop working when they think it’s time to buy a new one. 

We’re going out again today, but we’ve decided to go out in daylight. I can work when we get back.

The poet spent an hour or so removing the whiteboard tape from the whiteboard so I can use that in the coming year. The problem is the board is above a radiator and the heat from the radiator caused the tape to stick really hard. So he had to scrub the board a few times with alcohol to get the remnants off and then he sprayed it 3 times so far with a treatment spray that restores the surface. I don’t know yet how I’m going to use the whiteboard, but at least I have a blank canvas again now.

I’m definitely going to be working over the holiday, but it will be writing work rather than client work. I have a lot to do before the end of the year still, plus we have family coming on Christmas Day. We want to tidy the house for then and I’d like to get a full set of nice mugs so we’re not giving everyone scruffy old ones. We’ve had a couple of breakages and we’ve put a couple in the dishwasher that shouldn’t go in the dishwasher.

We’ll be doing the Christmas grocery shop tomorrow, although we’ve been buying a bit each week towards it, and we’re collecting the meat hamper on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. Daughter-in-law #1 will be bringing a nut roast for the vegans, but the poet has offered them a choice of pumpkin soup or prawn cocktail, as she revealed they do still sometimes eat shellfish. 

The weather forecast is grim – cloudy and overcast with a bit of wind, rather than rain or snow – so I’ll just have to make do with the snow on here.

Thank you so much for sticking with me for another year. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas if you’re celebrating (we do!), and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. I’ll see you on the other side!