The Organ Grinder's Monkey

Today, well what’s left of it, is -

“The First Day of Christmas”.

I am reliably informed, as I am no expert on Church matters,

that these “Twelve Days of Christmas” represent

the ‘Coming of Men to God‘.

The culmination of the Twelve Days was the arrival of the Three Kings at Epiphany.

Try as I may, I have been unable to trace the origin of the famous song by the same name.

You know the one - ‘What my true love gave to me’.

Try, as I also may, I was unable to find neither the words,

nor the music in my modest collection of Carol Books,

even though they span a period if 150 years!

What you will find though, from searching the web, is that there are dozens of different versions.

I expect that figure will get into the hundreds,

if you include all those from around the world and in different languages.

So, today, all you Lucky Lovers, you can expect, in addition to all those boxes you received earlier, ‘A partridge in a Pear Tree’.

And on Tuesday,

just when you thought you had seen off the last of the turkey,

you can expect to have to sign for the delivery of ‘Three French Hens’.

As I didn’t have the words and music -

and as I’m sure you don’t want me to go all through them anyway -

here is an unusual version for all you foodies.

If it sound a bit ‘Double Dutch’, you’re not far off.

The original song was in French!

Me? Well as they say in ordering a Chinese take-a-way.

“I’ll have a number four, a number ten and a double portion of number eleven”.

Hazel was sorry about the spelling mistake (at the end) -

but she said her paws were cold,

after being forced out into the snow for a 'photo shoot'!

She said the proof-readers should have corrected it,

but they seemed to have had a bit too much Christmas cheer!. :)

What do you call a woman who stands between two goal posts?

What goes yellow, blue, yellow, blue?

The ultimate in Christmas crackers.

From Harrods - 'Very Gold'.

Luxury gifts include MP3 player, £599 for six.

I’ve never shopped in Harrods.

In fact I don’t ever recall going into Harrods, but,

I’m told that their Food Hall stocks virtually everything.

I am, at the moment, a Sainsbury’s man!

I went right off Asda and Tesco many months ago because of all the queues, blocked aisles, general hassle, and in the case of Asda, that awful piped excuse for music.

I venture into Waitrose these days, mainly for a warm and to have a poke around.

It’s nice to see how the other half live.

No. I’m not joking.

You can ‘bump into’ some very entertaining people in Beaconsfield Waitrose.

And I’ve also been told by my Post Lady friend,

that Cilla Black has just bought a mansion in Beaconsfild,

although I have yet to discover if,

and where, she does her own shopping.

But I digress.

Some weeks ago I noticed that Waitrose ‘own make’ cat food was not all that expensive,

so I tried Hazel and Wesley on a couple of packets for a treat.

I was fully expecting “turn-up nose” time.

You know, a dirty look, a flick of the tail and a slink back to bed.

But, no, they showed their good taste and polished off the lot.

What usually happens next -

- is that when you buy the next batch (usually half a dozen packets),

they suddenly decide to go orf it!

Not this time. They have decided that - Waitrose it is.

So, for the first time, this year I found myself doing my Christmas shopping in Waitrose rubbing baskets (I couldn’t afford to fill a trolley) with all those ‘retired’ stars of ‘yesteryear’.

I’m sure you don’t want to see my ‘weekly shop’, but here are a few unusual items I came home with.

Have you ever noticed how some TV programs go on and on,

well beyond their ‘best before date’?

The one that springs to mind straight away is

“Last of the Summer Wine”.

It dragged on and on even though members of the cast had long departed.

I think it would be far better if these program had ended on a high note,

rather than lingering on and painfully dragging things out.

It was two years ago that I started blogging

and I have over that period mustered up a staggering

(to me at least) 650 posts,

that’s almost one every day for two years.

I was also amazed to read from my ‘stats’,

that over that period I had received

an amazing total of 3,342 comments across these two blogs.

This was also staggering to me,

until I read that quite a number of those were mine!

But never the less,

it was kind of you to leave me,

not only a comment but also encouragement.

I would on this anniversary, like to thank you all.

I had thought of showing a sort of table as some blogger’s do,

and an award to the person for the most comments,

but decided against that.

You have all been very kind for any comment of any sort.

So,

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Lavender

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Three here.

"Golden Marjoram",

"Pink Mullein" or "Rose Campion" - Lychnis coronaria

"Coneflower" - Rudbeckia

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Two very hardy favourites.

"Red Valerian" - Centranthus ruber

Not to confused with the not so hardy Pelargonium!

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A white version of Valerian - Centranthus albiflorus

and a nice "Mock Orange".

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BAA Glasgow plans to invest some £200 million over the next ten years at Glasgow Airport on new terminal and airfield infrastructure, delivered at no cost to the Scottish taxpayer. Recent developments include the first phase of Glasgow Airport’s £31 million ‘skyhub’ terminal extension, offering state of the art security, more space to relax, and a wider choice of bars, shops and restaurants. Planned developments include further refurbishment of the airport, and a new rail link by 2013.

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I am more than willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder,

united with our Irish brothers, sisters and cousins.

BUT instead of helping the Irish people,

which is the right thing to do,

we are bailing out her politicians

from the consequences of their euro folly.

"We do not want to have to bail out the Irish economy."

"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" is a popular song. The music is credited to Harry Carroll, although the melody is actually adapted from Fantaisie-Impromptu by Frédéric Chopin. The lyrics were written by Joseph McCarthy, and the song was published in 1917 and introduced in the Broadway show Oh, Look! which opened in March, 1918. The song was sung in the show by The Dolly Sisters and was subsequently featured in a movie entitled The Dolly Sisters, released in September, 1945.

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the

'Story of my life'.

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