23rd December 2020

Last year Alton's Christmas decorations divided the town. Marmite the Marmot (you love him or hate him) bought second-hand for £4000 was big news in the town.

This year the council doubled down and bought Meribel. So now there are two giant marmots in Alton!

And here's a Christmas CHOON to brighten up your Wednesday:

24th December 2020

Happy Christmas! We made it, with a few delays along the way (sorry)

We hope you have a wonderful time, whatever tier you are in and whoever you manage to see (or successfully avoid)

Our photo of the year isn't a Christmassy one. Instead it's from when we managed one trip to the North East and saw Adam's Dad, and also Guy & Evgenia before they moved back to Cyprus. So here we are in a pub in Tynemouth, socially distancing.

21st December 2020

Who knew that Enid Blyton actually invented Rap?

In 1925?!

Here is her intro poem to the adventures of Binkle and Flip, the Two Bad Bunnies:

It almost fits the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel Air!

Blyton wrote this in the first months of her marriage, and she and her husband called each other Bun and Little Bun. This is the cover of the first edition:

20th December 2020

One of the favourite things we collected this year was photos of things that look like insults without actually being insulting. Enjoy!

 

22nd December 2020

 This is one for the nerds, I'm afraid. If you don't understand it, don't worry, it's a joke about programming with relational databases. And Santa.

18th December 2020

 If you had a go at my father's Quiz on December 10th (link) I know you'll be desperate for the answers:

1. CARD,                                                  16. PARTY,

2. GIFT,                                                    17.TINSEL,

3. CHEER,                                                18. WINDOW,

4. TURKEY,                                              19. LIGHTS,

5. PRESENT,                                            20. CRACKERS,

6. LIST,                                                     21. BOX,

7. ISLAND,                                                22. JUMPER.

8. DECORATIONS,                                   23. CAKE,

9. SPIRIT,                                                 24. HOLIDAY,

10.EVE,                                                    25. CRIB,

11.WRAP,                                                26. STORY,

12.TREE,                                                 27. PUDDING,

13.DAY (Lewis),                                       28. CAROL,

14.WEEK (Weak),                                   29. SEASON,

15.STAMPS,                                           30. HAMPER.

Today's picture is David Hasselhoff dressed as Scrooge. This is genuinely from Christmas 2019.

"Hasselhoff, who shot to fame through his performances in Baywatch and Knight Rider, will play the iconic miser in the play, which will also feature a hologram of Pauline Quirke as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Quirke will be projected onto a giant 20m by 5m screen.

As well as Quirke, there will be a real horse-drawn carriage, pulled by an "intelligent" 16-hand white Arab stallion horse, as well as a flying four poster bed, a ghost train and over 70 performers from The Pauline Quirke Academy.

The tour opens in Cardiff on 6 December before visiting the Birmingham Resorts World Arena and Nottingham Motorpoint Arena. At every performance there will be a £3,000 cash prize giveaway to one audience member."

How did we miss this?!

19th December 2020

Friend of the calendar, ace Ronsonite, and amazing author Shirley McMillan (Amazon link, other more moral booksellers are available) has sent this Christmas crib scene. It's like a sort of "Guess Who" of modern culture/naive folk art. Can you identify who they are, and who they are representing? Thanks, Shirley!

17th December 2020

For all you altos out there ... one of the best bits of Christmas, indeed for anyone who has ever had to not sing the tune ...

Beyond thrilled 2 share my holiday single "All I Want For Christmas Is You But Just The Alto 2 Part From When My High School Chorus Sang It" pic.twitter.com/ytwhDXAoHB

— Natalie Walker (@nwalks) December 23, 2016

16th December 2020

Here's a blast from the past. Ceefax was like the Twitter of its day, with some useful news, distracting jokes, and quality memes (remember Bam Boozle?). Extra exciting was the way the numbers would circle round but sometimes, just sometimes, it would skip onto a hidden page! Have a very Teletext Christmas!

 

15th December 2020

It's the season of Carol Services, with Woking last Sunday and Ottershaw next. Our school Carol Service is being broadcast on Youtube, and on Christmas Eve, Adam will go into church for the first time since March to play the organ.

Getting used to online services took a while, and someone wrote new words to the hymn "All Creatures Of Our God And King" about how it all felt:

14th December 2020

 Proving once and for all that Die Hard is a Christmas film

Remember you can make a great John McClane Christmas tree ornament with a small amount of Bacofoil

And this is a poll I did on Twitter. I still think I was right, but now there are 5 films it feels a little out of date.

13th December 2020

 What happens if you do a search for "Santa Hat" and accidentally spell it wrong?

THIS!

Try again!

Well, this is no surprise. Imagine you try to dress up your moggy as Santa.