It's beginning to look like...........................

 ..... somebody elses video! (but more about that later).

First I wanted to start with some good news. I had lots of tests last week to find out if there was something wrong with me because I've been so ill recently. Turns out that if there is - it's nothing to panic about. What a relief.

Apologies the blog is late this week, but I've been on holiday and I literally couldn't face turning on the computer - I wanted a good break from day to day activity.

Before I explain the video - I'll let you know what I've been up to..... lots as it turns out.

I finished work on Friday. I always try to take the week before Christmas off. This works out well because everybody else wants the week between Christmas and New Year. I don't mind working that week because everybody else is on holiday and as a result I achieve 3 times as much at work as I would do normally because I'm not getting constant interruptions.

I know I'm a geek, but I'm actually very excited to go back to work next week as I'm going to try to do an entire build using an AI chatbot as my subject matter expert. (I did warn you I was a geek!). I'm also going to try to thrash it out in a day - to see what I can achieve without interruption. I know it's sad, but for me that's something to look forward to.

Aaaaanyway, what did I get up to this week. Normally when I break up I go straight into the preparation for husband's family pre-Christmas get together. But as previously mentioned because of the World Cup final this was moved to the previous week. So I broke up with literally no activity to worry about. Lazy times, whooop!

Son and I were due to go to the acrobats on Tuesday - this was what we managed to swap our tickets from the Christmas Concert to (No longer able to attend Christmas Concert because husband's family came a week early). In the end both son and I decided that we really didn't want to go and see the Acrobats - largely because there was no interval we could escape in if we thought it was boring! Neither of us felt we could cope with 90 minutes of backflips without swallowing our heads.

So in the end we went around the Royal Pavillion in Brighton. They really know how to make it stunning at Christmas with lots of trees and decorations. I don't know if you've ever visited the Pavillion, but it's just so stunning. If you want to know why then Google it, it's just so extraordinary inside (and if I go all 'guide book' this blog will go on for hours).

After that husband joined us and we wandered over to the Brighton Christmas Festival. This started last year and is Brighton's version of a German Christmas Market. Last year reports said it was rubbish (and the world was very COVIDy again) so we didn't go. This year we were promised it was better......................... it wasn't.

I've been to a Christmas Market in Berlin - it was amazing - it wasn't the big one with all the fairground rides, it was a smaller one with lots of things to choose to eat, smells of gingerbread (which you could buy), little shops with lots of amazing things. Importantly it was all very affordable. So you could buy your glass of mulled wine and have a Bratwurst in a bun and wander around looking at the stalls to find the perfect gizmo to buy to remind yourself of the visit (I bought a beautiful painted wooden bird for my Christmas Tree).

The Brighton one was somewhat different - for starters your glass of mulled wine would have been about £10 and the Bratwurst was £8 - so if there's 3 of you that's £24 for 3 sausages. I THINK NOT! All the stalls were basically normal market stalls, except everything was priced as if you were buying it from Harrods. Sooooooooooooooooo...... we walked around it in 3 minutes flat and went home.

Yesterday we went to Panto. Son was pretty annoyed at me for booking the Panto (as he's now terribly grown up and grumpy), but I basically told him I'd spent so much on tickets he had to come whether he wanted to or not! 

The panto was amazing - I mean really great. Normally when you spend a lot on panto tickets it's absolutely rubbish. This one - for the first time ever - was worth every penny. Because of COVID lots of big stars have been struggling to get work. Hence our show was full of West End stars grabbing some of the Christmas Cash. One of these was Anita Dobson. Now I'll admit that until yesterday I only knew her as Angie on Eastenders - back when it started (and I was young and alive).

My goodness she stole the show - what a singing voice and how she threw herself into the part. She's no spring chicken any more and I was kicking myself I didn't know how talented she is because she's been working on the West End for years - so I've basically missed lots of opportunities to see her. Anyway, although she stole the show all the main roles were really great and even the script was appropriate for the audience (some kids and some adults).

Gosh I love Panto.

Today is Christmas Eve and we've loads of plans, but I'm keeping them to myself or I'll have nothing to write about next week.

What's the video about (I hear you ask)....

Well there's no snow here - only rain - and it's Christmas. Luckily one of my friends has recently moved to Canada (in the last few weeks). They've had a cabin there for a while, but now they've made it permanent.

He's been depressing me all week with videos of snow and beautiful tree lined views (sooo jealous). This is a video he sent me yesterday, of his dog out in it's new snow jacket and snow boots. 

Firstly it's obviously very cute - secondly - you have to ask yourself - how do you get snow boots on a dog - my dog would eat me alive!

Anyway, I will doubtless continue to get lots of photos about their amazing new life - whilst I'm gazing out of the window at rain.

Perhaps they'll get eaten by wolves - now that would give me the last laugh (that's a joke by the way, admittedly not a very good one - but it's all I have).

Finally, as it's Christmas - this is the cheesy Christmas joke that's made me laugh the most this year:

A recent survey has shown that 6 out of 7 of Snow White's friends are not Happy.....

(Boom Tush - I'm here all week folks and I hear the turkey is lovey).