Thursday December 18th 2025 "How do you organise YOUR paperwork? And do you have a 'system' haha!!!!"

Yes, Friends, how do you organise YOUR paperwork? Do you play it straight and "by the book", I wonder? Or are you sometimes tempted to "kick over the traces" like this cop in today's Onion News?

Kudos, that man!

And reading Roherty's story in bed this morning, here in rural, semi-leafy Liphook, Hampshire, my wife Lois and I can't resist a knowing smirk, because Lois has already given me my "orders" for this morning - I've apparently got to do something about that "disgusting thing of yours", as she calls it! A.k.a.my bulging "pending" letter-rack (!) once and for all, because as Lois says, it's reached the stage where I can't stuff one single more other sheet of paper into it, so fair enough!!! (only kidding, Lois, if you're reading this!!!)

my wife Lois and me - some recent pictures

Plus, Lois knows that this much-postponed job will keep me busy upstairs in my shiny-new "home office", so she can get on with the real work: making the icing for our 2025 Christmas cake, and arranging all the miniature reindeer etc on the top of the cake, without any "artistic interference" from Yours Truly. 

You know it makes sense!!!!

our busy morning (!): (above) me "doing something about my disgusting, bulging

pending letter-rack" and you can see the results: I've left a couple of papers in there

"just to stop it closing up" haha!; and (below) Lois making the icing for our

2025 Christmas cake, and arranging the miniature reindeer etc on the top

[Is that all you two 'noggins' have done this morning, Colin? - Ed]

Well, no it isn't, as you're asking! Lois has perfected the decorations in our living-room, managing to fit our this-year's Christmas cards on every available surface and on top of pictures etc, while I've finally got round to ordering a replacement electric blanket for our bed. We've had our existing dual-control blanket for donkey's-years, and now Lois's side doesn't seem to work as well as mine, so she tends to "encroach" on my side, which is nice'n'cosy sometimes, but you don't want it all the time, do you - be fair haha!!!

So, in short, I've ordered a shiny new one from Amazon, and it's coming tomorrow! Yikes!!!!

Our existing blanket only has 2 settings - low and medium - which is a bit poor, but our shiny-new Snuggledown one will have NINE - yes, nine settings!!! Plus, it's got a special toe-heater, which will be a new experience for us, and we may be able to dispense with our bed-socks. "Say goodbye to icy toes!", the advert says!!!

Well, we'll see, we mustn't count our chickens!!!! But what's not to like haha!!!!!

(above) our living-room with all its multiple Christmas decorations, 

and (below) the ad for our shiny new electric blanket with its 

"toe-curling" nine settings  - no pun intended !!!!!

Yikes!!! And it's coming tomorrow, as long as Evri doesn't screw up the delivery!!!! We won't be able to sleep tonight for excitement, that's for sure!!! Better schedule a calming cup of decaf Horlicks for 10pm tonight, that's for sure!!!

a typical couple expecting an exciting delivery next day,

preparing for bed with a calming cup of decaf Horlicks

What a day - busy busy busy!!!!  [You don't really know what 'busy' means, do you, Colin! - Ed]

21:00 And you can see that Lois and I are in the most almighty Christmas "groove" now!!!

But before Lois brings out the decaf Horlicks, there's just time before bed to watch a fascinating documentary about the Tudor Christmas of 5 centuries ago, from veteran presenter Lucy Worsley. And what better excuse will Lucy have to dress up as a Tudor haha!

Lois and I didn't know that most of our Christmas customs of today date from Victorian times, so back in the 16th century, there were no Christmas trees, crackers of stockings, and no Santa would you believe!!! And the peasants had to keep working right up to Christmas Day and endure 4 weeks of unexciting food before the famous "Twelve Days" of idleness and overindulgence started, beginning on Christmas Day and stretching out to Jan 6th - what madness!!!! 

Ninety per cent of the population lived in the countryside in those crazy, far-off days, and they had to carry on working till the big day - what madness again!!!

For Henry VIII, in his favourite palace - Hampton Court, things were different, and when Christmas Day came, there began an orgy of weird food, like Boar's Head, swan, and peacock, plus mince pies, which were savoury in those crazy times, would you believe. There was no demarcation then between 'sweet' and 'savoury' so you could mix the two up without fear of critical disapproval or revulsion (!). And most of the food tended to be flavoured also with spices from places like Africa and Java. Top Christmas meat was beef, not turkey.

To look good in the eyes of your guests, you had to have lots of the table, but you didn't have to make sure it was all eaten - a lot of the display was just for show, to prove that you were "someone". And at least all the left-overs were distributed, or 'doled out' to the poor after the meal was over, and this was the original use of the word 'dole', would you believe. Particularly on December 26th which was St Stephen's Day, who was venerated for his charity.

After the programme, I look up the word "dole", and yes, it's a word found in all the Germanic and Nordic languages, and it's related to the word "deal", as in "dealing out cards" in a card-game etc, which I didn't realise.

And if philologists are right, and the word indeed originated from a "substrate", i.e. one of the languages spoken in Northern Europe before the arrival of our Indo-European ancestors in around 2500BC, then it must be a real relic of a bygone age, and certainly one of the oldest words in our language.

[That's enough about words! - Ed]

But back to Lucy! 

Throughout the country, lords of the manor used to distribute the "dole" in the form of food parcels to the local peasants: usually 2 loaves, a bit of ale, and 2 chunks of meat.

But back at the palace, that boar's head - yuck! Lucy really struggles to eat bits of that, a dish traditionally boiled for 7 hours in red wine. And Lois remembers singing the Boar's Head Carol in her school choir, long ago. Christmas carols in those days were mainly secular songs, sung not in churches, but in the streets, and in the markets.

The real fun started on December 26th (the first of the Twelve Days of Christmas), with the start of "Misrule", under the management of local "Lords of Misrule", whose job it was to make sure that the traditional drunkenness, merriment and devilry of those 12 days didn't get too much out of hand. And actual proper games, like tennis, quoits and bowls had been made illegal by Parliament, in case they stopped the menfolk practising their archery - the threat of French invasion didn't go away just because it was Christmas, needless to say. 

What madness !!!!

December 30th marked the start of "mummery", when participants dressed up, sometimes "cross-dressing". Mummers wore masks and weren't allowed to speak: they could go "mum-mum-mum", which is the origin of our expression "Mums the Word", and "keeping mum". 

And if they called at your house you had to invite them in.

Once inside your humble abode, the mummers might challenge you to a game of dice (usually loaded), so they always won. And they could also have a go at another game, that of "fondling the maiden", if the "vibes" were right!

The mummery customs eventually died out, although historians believe they may have been the origin of the trick-or-treat shenanigans of Halloween: going door-to-door, dressed in scary costumes, misbehaving etc etc.

I wonder.....!!!!

Lucy doesn't refer to it in the programme, but Lois speculates that the mummery tradition may also have lived on in South Wales, in the customs of the scary "Mari Lwyd" tradition, which used to frighten the living daylights out of my dear late mother, Hannah, growing up in Bridgend, Glamorgan in the 1920's.

But back to Lucy (again!!!) !!!

On December 31st back in those days, there were no New Years Eve parties, as the day wasn't looked on as particularly significant, and in any case parties were forbidden until Twelfth Night (January 5th). And New Year's Day, January 1st, was set aside for gift-giving, and may have been the origin of today's custom of tipping your milkman, window-cleaner  or 'paper-boy' etc at Christmas.

Back in Tudor times your 'lord' would give something to all his peasants, but the peasants also had to give their lord something back, which must have been a pain, because your 'lords'  were often guys who already 'had everything' . Most peasants "played it safe" and just gave that old cliche, one of their hens. 

But what a nightmare !!!! And what a crazy world they lived in, back in those far-off days !!!!!

[That's enough madness! - Ed]

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz!!!!!