Christmas came a step closer today as I made (yes made) and wrote all my cards. It was both a joy and a chore, depending on whether I was swearing at the printer, or sitting in front of the telly with hot tea and toast, scoring the spines of each one and then folding them over ready for sending. Certainly the latter was very relaxing, which was just what I needed.

Last night was a busy one - and a late one - as Trevor, Jon and Paul came around for dinner at half tenish when Trevor had finished his shift. I’d invited them all around so we could watch It’s a Wonderful Life, promising it was only about 90 minutes long. As it turns out, we finished it not long before two this morning - it was considerably longer than I remembered.

I guess I’m lucky they came at all, as it was the second time we’d attempted to watch it. Last time was four or five years ago, before any of us had a proper DVD player. I’d moved my PC into the lounge and balanced the screen on top of the case. We’d all squeezed around the little 15in monitor to watch the decidedly titchy picture, until in the middle of the scene where there’s the run on the bank it all broke down. I spent the rest of the evening glossing over it while they… erm… I don’t know, actually - probably drank a healthy dose of my vodka stocks to make up for it.

Anyway, this time around it made it all the way through to the end, after which we had the inevitable post mortem, music playing, and finishing up of the wine before they headed off.

So there was no chance of an early start after that - especially as getting up meant tackling the dish-pan mountain. In all, that made for a fairly truncated day today, but at least I now feel very blithe, and I had two excellent ideas for the book. Now all I need to do is get back into the swing of writing the damned thing.

1. Why I Write
   I've just finished reading Why I Write by George Orwell. I've always admired his writing - like many people - so it was interesting to...
   
   
2. Tea and cats and cake
   It's strange how empty the flat feels without the cat. I took her back mid-afternoon, and in spite of the fact she only arrived on...
   
   
3. Jobs completed
   I feel very righteous at having got a lot of jobs done today that have been sorted out a while ago. I went into town...