Norq From Ork

Are you having yourselves a merry little Christmas yet?  Are you?

‘Today the turkeys arrived which apparently heralds the beginning of the world going feral” were the words of my friend Melanie as she braced herself for another day working in retail.  Having done it for many years I knew exactly what she meant as the shops become a bloodbath and people start to resemble something from The Hunger Games.  We ran the gauntlet on Saturday morning and whilst I’m no Alpaha shopper, I at least had a list which I cast my eye over every now and then which is unusual.  The annual ‘no you can’t eat that it’s for Christmas’ has begun and Orkney Beef was brought along for carrying the shopping and not be given an opinion about anything. At one point he picked something off the shelf and put it in the trolly saying ‘I’m not even going to ask your permission for this’ showing his more rebellious side.

As we approached the checkout I saw my friend packing her shopping. Instead of saying hello in the traditional fashion like normal people I said in a super loud voice ‘well, well, well, do we have enough alcohol in this trolley?’ my friend looked horrified as she tried to mouth to me ‘that’s not my shopping’ and a woman walks over who was the actual owner of the shopping I was commenting on. I was mor-ti-fied. I went so red and apologised profusely trying to rescue it, only making myself look more stupid. I didn’t recover well. It made my friend’s day and Orkney Beef’s. The woman was fine about it and saw the funny side but I was red for ages after much to Orkney Beef’s amusement.

Thank goodness amongst all this madness that the longest night is over.  The final few weeks up to the winter solstice are a major struggle for me as it’s just so dark constantly as I leave the house in the morning and head home at night.  Getting past the longest night does me the world of good even if it’s psychologically.  The weather has been mild recently and there was excellent solstice light. Lovely.

I think everything is sorted for the Christmas break.  I have one more day at work then I’ll be enjoying a well-earned rest.  My babies are back home, my books and jigsaws are ready for boxing day, the shopping is done, and Santa even snuck in early. No one tell my husband.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone.  However you spend it, I hope you have time to reflect and be thankful for all the good things that have been this last year.

As always, thanks for reading.