Status Quo and Christmas.

The band, not the situation.

We drove up to freezing Blackpool to see them and they were pretty good - not as good as I expected, but good. I appeared to be the only one there that had never seen them before as die hard followers of the group had seen them a number of times. Or so I learnt in the Ladie's. We rocked all over the world as one man stood throughout the concert wearing a mac, scarf and Trilby, moving from side to side when the mood took him. There is something rather eccentric about the British. That may be it.

On 22 December we loaded up the car before setting off for the long drive down to Devon to send a few days with the Parental Unit, Tatiana, her partner Thomy and Todd. Before leaving I managed to do something to my back and as I pulled back the curtains in the living room I saw that I have rising damp and mold growing everywhere. There was no time to do much about anything so I folded myself delicately into the car, sniffed and we were off, windscreen wipers frantically wiping away the rain drops. And it rained all the way to Devon. Non-stop.

The news on the radio was not very comforting as the Young Ones were coming over from Brussels that day too and although the Eurostar was working (yes, this Christmas the Eurostar was on time and running), trains from Paddington to Exeter-St-David's were not. They were stranded at Taunton so my dad had to run up and get them. In the car.

Christmas was fine and jolly - we were told not to spend more than £10 on one another which would have been fine had my father told me that in November when I was being organised and ordering all my presents before a mad rush - and for slightly more than £10. Oh well. I would never have managed to get my mother, who wanted linen handkerchiefs, more than one had I stuck to the £10 - even John Lewis don't sell them. John Lewis. And they sell EVERYTHING.

Richard got me a Wacom tablet so I shall have to pick up on the tutorial and carry on learning what I can do on it before trying to put doodles up here. He also got me some nail varnish although that arrived while we were away.

It was lovely catching up with Todd who I haven't seen since August 2011 - and it is always good to see Tatiana and Thomy. I greatly missed Coralie, though, and have no idea when I shall next see her.

The journey back was awful for us all. The Young Ones had to get up at 5am to get the train from Tiveton (now that they were running from there) but my dad ended up driving them to Heathrow as there were no trains at all. They missed their Eurostar but managed to get the next one and Tatiana was only slightly late to work. Richard and I hit traffic at Bristol and Birmingham so it was a long journey home for us - and we got home to a very cold house, too. The heating had packed up and it is only today that we have heating and hot water again. The bill will be sent shortly, too.

I was turned down for another job which I'm rather upset about but let's hope that 2013 is a better year. I'm going to be 50, Coralie and her partner are going to Vietnam for 7 months and then spend 2 months travelling so who knows what else to expect.

A knees up to celebrate my 50th in Crewe, probably.

All two of us.

Ye Gads, it's that time of the year again.

It's cold, it's wet, it's dark. And then you go outside and it's warmer, drier and the sun is shining. It's called Winter. Getting up in the morning isn't quite so bleak - yet, but the days come to an end very quickly. Around 5-5.30pm. You can't really call that a day, can you?

Well.

The Parental Unit visited in April. It was good. What was better was that they brought flowers and left 6 bottles of wine. One must not complain. They got on with Richard very well - in fact, my dad and Richard really hit it off as they discussed their hernias and respective various operations over a rather good steak and ale pie. Richard's speciality.

And since then, I received a Shed. Oh yes. Mum and Dad bought me a Shed. Isn't that just lovely. A Shed. I'm just getting used to the word. Shed. It's half empty - or half full, but nevertheless, I own a Shed. No garage here, so I need a Shed. It's at the end of my long and horribly narrow garden and most of the things that should be in it are at this end of the garden, in the out-house. Or outside loo. It's time to migrate, oh yee empty boxes, lawnmower, et al.

A good thing about Crewe:

it's not far from places that do gigs.

So we're going to see The Quo next month. Yay, get us. Down, down, getting down wiv da kidz, like, innit? Or more like going down, down with the elderly ones two steps away from a nursing home. That's us. Kool.

We saw Mark Radcliffe in Nantwich in October during the 'Words and Music' week. Radcliffe was very amusing but I thought the small audience was a bit dull and didn't integrate with him enough - so I pointed out that 'Richard from Crewe' was here when asked if anybody came from anywhere other than Nantwich. Richard was mortified, got picked on all evening and I, "his controlling partner" (too bloody right, Mark) found it even funnier. It was an excellent evening. Richard didn't speak to me for a week after that.

Well.

Not until we went to see Thea Gilmore several nights later. Thea is a great artist - noted by most of non-Gilmore fans for her song 'London' which was sung throughout the Olympics and has probably paid off her pension nicely in Royalties. Despite having a stinking cold, she, her husband, son, Fluff, Tracey and Alan were great and I was very impressed by Thea's voice.

It's now November. I'm not growing a moustache or anything weird. Still looking for jobs - had a reject this week, the pain, and am looking forward to Christmas for once. It's also cold.

But I may have mentioned that.