Christmas Eve 2011 at The Sleaze

Well, the sausage rolls are baked, the whiskey cracked open and the last seasonal greetings delivered (via text) to absent friends, so it must finally be Christmas. Mind you it was a close run thing - for a while yesterday I thought it might all get called off this year. When I saw that Prince Philip had been admitted to hospital with chest pains I feared the worst - a Royal demise would surely usher in several weeks of mourning during which we wouldn't be permitted to enjoy ourselves. It would certainly have left the BBC with a dilemma: whether to continue with its Christmas schedule of frivolity, or switch to its contingency plan of wall-to-wall respectful mourning on all channels? I must admit, I was sufficiently worried about the situation that when I woke up early this morning, I turned on the radio and went through the BBC national stations - none of them were playing mournful music on a loop, so I assumed the Duke of Edinburgh hadn't died during the night, heaved a sigh of relief and went back to sleep. Christmas wasn't cancelled. Yet. There's still time, of course, for him to pop his clogs yet, but I think we should be OK until the New Year.

But enough of world events. What about me? Well, I'm still clearing up after The Sleaze staff Christmas party (as recorded in The Sleazecast: Christmas Special, below), Little Miss Strange's empty beer cans alone have formed a pile four feet high. Next year I swear that I'm banning alcohol, or her, whichever's easier. The only real question remaining now is to decide whether I'm going out for a couple of pints, or if I'm going to stay here and work my way through some of my own booze. Of course, these days I at least have the option of the short walk to my local pub for a civilized seasonal drink, since we got rid of 'Deke', (not his real name, but close enough), the landlord from Hell, a couple of years ago. We'll see. Before I go, an interesting seasonal fact, checking my web stats I see that the main search term bringing me traffic today has been 'Christmas cock', (mainly landing on the story Robbie's Christmas Cock). It's brought a steady stream of visitors all day. Quite what that says about people's seasonal expectations this year, I'm not sure. Anyway, all that remains is to wish you all a happy Winterval (or whatever you celebrate). I'll see on the other side folks!