A Breath Of Fresh Air.

I have just finished watching 'Noel's Christmas Presents' and it has been a complete breath of fresh air. It has reminded me of all the brilliant people which live in this world who give their time, money and sometimes lives to benefit other people.

For people who don't know the programme Noel Edmonds surprises people who have done alot for their communities and families with gifts just in time for Christmas. From a teenage boy who has looked after his grandmother, three younger siblings and mother since the age of six because of his mother's cancer and rescued five young children from a house fire to a man and his two sons who have raised in excess of £70,000 for a hospice which looked after their wife and mother during the last few months of her ovarian cancer battle. This programme rewards their efforts with many different types of presents including family holidays and mini buses or house refurbishments for their charities.

This programme always makes me think of the wonderful people which inhabit Britain and the rest of the world ands shows me that people are not all terrible. Many of them are extremely good. The media pelts us with images of people who rape, people who kill, people who con, steal and hurt and we should be reminded of the good which people are doing all the time. Many people aren't nasty or cruel. Many people go a great deal of work for charities and take alot of time out of their lives to help other people. I'm not saying that everyone is nice, especially not all the time, but the majority of people are.

The work which people do for free and often at their own expense astounds me and I can't believe the lengths people will go to help others. The strength and positivity which radiates from these amazing individuals is overwhelming and a humbling lesson can be learned by all.

Another recent example of human kindness has been shown because of all this snow. People with 4x4s which are able to drive in these conditions have flocked to the local hospitals to ferry patients, doctors and nurses around. People have been helping their elderly and infirm neighbours get around and they have been driving people to important appointments, train stations and airports.

These things really have restored my faith in the human race. And it's all just in time for Christmas, the season of family, friends, loving and giving.

MY FIRST FOLLOWER.

Hurrah! My first follower. I feel now that people are actually looking at this rubbish which is spilling out of my brain, down to my fingers and tapping out onto the keys. It is partly unnerving but mainly reassuring. So thankyou to Treebytheriver for being the first to follow me :)

I don't know why this is theraputic, pouring out these words and booting them off into the realms of cyber space. It's a little bit like writing a diary but enabling other people to read it and comment. Why do we do it? I'm not entirely sure. But it feels pretty damn good.

'Its kind of fun to do the impossible' - Walt Disney

Bah Humbug.

With only eleven days to go until Crimbo I made the decision to try to disperse the feeling of 'bah humbugness' which has descended upon the household. Today I lit a cinnamon and clove candle, dragged the battered boxes of Christmas decorations (there are now four boxes and a bag full, I swear they multiply without us knowing!) from the basement, brushed off the surprising amount of dust which they accumulate over the year and got to work whilst listening to the familiar Christmas tunes blaring from the TV.

We don’t have a tree yet but I certainly went to town on the masses of fairy lights and tinsel which were in giant tangled balls. The two windows are now dripping with Christmassy, twinkling bulbs and almost every surface holds some sort of Christmas paraphernalia interwoven with gaudy, glittering tinsel. I maybe went a bit overboard but the room certainly looks more Christmassy and made me feel a little better. I think Mum had a nice surprise and I seemed to lift everyone’s mood for a little bit but it just doesn’t feel the same this year.

Twinkling Fairy Lights

Tinsel Donned Fireplace

Mum and Dave are really worried about money, like almost every person in the United Kingdom, but I think that things are much worse than they let on. We aren’t getting any presents this year but it doesn’t really bother me. None of us have any money and I think the main thing that’s getting me down a bit is the fact that I can’t afford to get anybody any presents.

I’ve bought a few but I usually love getting them each a stocking and filling it with nice little bits. I know everybody says that the giving is better than the receiving but I really do believe it. I’m always the last to finish opening my presents because I’m too busy seeing what the others have got and watching them unwrap the presents which I bought them. So this year is going to be a bit… I don’t want to say disappointing but that’s the word which seems to fit. I’m sure it’ll be all brilliant on the day and I’ve said that I don’t really care about the presents as long as we have a fun day with some good food and booze but I have to admit that not getting any presents will be a bit strange.

Well, the countdown has begun and pretty soon everyone will be panic buying milk and bread because, God forbid, the supermarkets will be closed for one WHOLE day and there will be no parking spaces in the towns because people will be buying every last item off the shelves to carry them over the Christmas period. I know I sound rather Scroogesque but the Christmas spirit has seemed have deserted me and I’m not quite so excited for this day which is usually my favourite time of the year as I should be. I don’t want to sound completely self indulgent or boring and I’m sorry if this post has turned into something of that nature, my mission over the next eleven days is to truly get into the spirit of Christmas and shake away my Ebenezer alter ego. Its not all about presents and money but about being around family and having fun together…this is what I’ll have to keep telling myself!

'Its kind of fun to do the impossible' - Walt Disney