It's Holiday Time!

"So," you might wonder, "How does this '24/6 (I don't work Sundays) courier' celebrate Christmas?"  I'm not sure how good a picture these few paragraphs will provide, but here goes ...

As usual, a couple of weeks before the holiday a check-list arrived with the weekly invoice, asking us each to tick when we would be available over this period.  I checked the slots for Monday and Tuesday, and left the rest completely blank.  In former years I've tried all patterns.  Sometimes I've said I'll be available most of the time, held myself in readiness, and spent days listening to a silent phone.  On other occasions I've selected certain days to work and have finished up with a half-decent week.  It all depends when in the week the actual festival falls.  Midweek like this, there's not much chance of industry doing a lot for a fortnight, so I decided to follow suit.  I added a proviso that I might phone in to see if I can be useful if I feel bored with my own company, but for the moment that doesn't seem likely.

On Monday and Tuesday, then, I was 'working'.  In point of fact, this meant I went to Corby and Hatfield on Monday, and to Peterborough and Luton on Tuesday - about a day's work out of the five jobs involved.  As expected, I was back home about 1.0 pm on Christmas Eve and after that the phone might as well have been switched off.  I recall one year, sitting in the office waiting for work on the day before Christmas Eve, I was asked how I felt about a delivery in Cork the next day.  I was up for it, but after they'd checked the ferries they realised that I wouldn't get home until about 27th December, and the customer wasn't going to pay for that!

So here I am, home alone for a week or so.  There are no decorations, because I don't bother with them; it doesn't seem practical, and I don't really miss them.  The windowsill is full of cards from friends and relations far and near, which are much more meaningful and important to me.  With 'alternative gifts' so common these days, there are no presents to open, and I value this absence.  Too much money is wasted, in my opinion, by people buying things they can't afford, for people who either won't appreciate them or don't need them - often both.  I'm really pleased that I'm 'giving' lots of much needed vaccine and something to make fresh water available where they're both really needed.  That's not to say that there aren't some small seasonal gifts ready for me to take next week when I visit my cousin, but I'm glad to say that we both understand the cost and the value of these expressions.

When it comes to the festive meal - I confess that my culinary skills are minimal.  I'm quite happy to settle for the regular fare that keeps me ticking over for the rest of the year, supplemented by a few luxuries, such as mince pies, stollen, individual microwaveable Christmas puddings, chocolate biscuits, and the like.  I realise that even these could have a serious effect on my sylph-like(!) figure, but - hey - there's plenty of opportunity to diet in the New Year!

So, what am I doing with my time?  You might predict, it's family history most of the while.  I read somewhere that more people take up or sustain this interest over the Christmas/New Year holiday than at any other time of the year.  A cousin in the US recently provided me with a lot of information that I'm slowly incorporating into my own database, and if I can bounce it back with a few additions, it will benefit us both.  While I don't have TV, there are a number of programmes that I'm catching up with on replay that I wouldn't otherwise be seeing at all, and I've caught up with some reading.  Of course, behind it all is my faith and my involvement at church, the details of which belong elsewhere.  Suffice to say that, despite what might seem from the foregoing to be a rather dismal time, I'm really happy.  I have peace within; it's a time of consolidation and reinvigoration, and when work begins again January, I'll be able to face all that 2014 can throw at me in good heart.