Tag Archives: Christmas

North Parade, Oxford surprises once again

GOOD OLD North Parade.  It’s so good they named it once.

I was alerted to the fact something was going on by the fact that loud alarums and tuba players were filtering through my not very thick windows – it’s -4 Celsius here tonight.

Naturally, I investigated. What was going on? Here’s the video.

Charming, no? After the lasses had finished their last song, one of them turned round, put her candle down and burst into bitter tears. Her friends all rallied round. “What’s the matter? What’s the matter?”  The matter, it transpired, is she was very very cold indeed.

And it is. We couldn’t take a proper snap of Santa Claus on our SnackBerry, but here’s one we snapped earlier in the same street.  Tashi Ji, from the R&C, was serving food in the street in his shirtsleeves. He’s a Sherpa. Must seem like summer to him… Σ

Everything must go in UK sales

SHOPS IN THE UK were panicking before Yuletide because nobody seemed to be buying anything. Quite a few started sales well before The Day of Turkey Nemesis in Blighty. And then came the after-Christmas sales. Everything must go. The level of nervousness in the High Street is palpable. When I bought a book from a chain the other day, I said is it true everything must go? The lass at the counter looked nervous and said “I haven’t heard anything about everything”.

Unfortunately, the period of tinsel brings with it a large amount of indigestion in the shape of the cold and long January which inevitably seems to attract bills.

It’s very cold here in Blighty at the moment, while the pundits are predicting that as many as 600,000 jobs may be lost during 2009. No one knows where it’s going to end.  A Happy Hogmanay to ye all! Hic! ♥