Christmas Eve 2012 at The Sleaze

I have to tell you that spending the early hours of Christmas Eve drinking whiskeys with beer chasers, (known, I believe, in the US as a 'boiler maker', unless old John Wayne movies have lied to me), and eating mince pies whilst watching The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour is one of the most mellowing experiences in the world.  The whole thing almost makes sense under such circumstances.  The reason I spent the early part of the Third Day of Winterval, (Christmas Eve to you), mellowing out like this was that I'd spent the larger part of the previous day feverishly putting together the Christmas edition of The Sleazecast.  By the time it was completed and posted, it was Christmas Eve. 

Actually, I have to say that things got really surreal after I'd finished watching The Beatles.  One of the Freeview shopping channels has recently taken to calling itself a movie channel, despite the fact that it still shows teleshopping programmes all day, except for a couple of hours between 3am and 5am, when it shows some obscure movies.  These are never the movies it has listed on the electronic programme guide.  Anyway, out of curiosity, I tuned in, to find them, to my delight, preceding the film with some 1960s vintage adverts.  The film itself turned out to be the incredibly obscure 1960s George Montgomery action movie From Hell to Borneo.  I lasted less than half an hour into the poorly-transferred, jerky and incredibly scratchy print.  It was like having an out of body experience, the whole thing was so disjointed.  But don't worry, I've recorded it and hope to bring you a full report in the near future!

So, here we are on Christmas Even evening.  I'm pleased to say that I'm feeling the most relaxed and festive than I have for many Christmases.  I think it helps that I have no unrealistic expectations of Christmas this time around.  Right now I'm happy and determined that nothing is going to spoil that.  I still haven't decided whether I'm even going to bother going out this evening, as I usually do on Christmas Eve.  I'm perfectly happy here on my sofa.  Besides, last year my local was packed to the rafters, making it impossible to have a conversation with the friends I met there, let alone get to the bar.  The truth is that I'm too old for that kind of shit.  Whatever I end up doing, I intend enjoying myself, be that in a hot sweaty pub or here on my sofa, watching old movies.  I hope you'll be doing the same,  A Happy Winterval to one and all.  I'll be back when it is all over!