Taking the tree down.

Most people have returned to work today after an extended Christmas and New Year break. I remember that feeling, having to remember to set the alarm early, dragging yourself off to work again. In fact, for teachers it's usually a mixture. It's good to see the students again but oh, how you miss those late get-ups! Can't say I miss the return to work thing! 

Our daughter has returned to work but one of her offspring does not return to school until tomorrow. Consequently, she has been spending the day with us, making herself useful by helping to dismantle the Christmas tree. Now we are simply waiting for Phil to feel fit enough to take the tree out into the garden. and we have a carpet strewn with baubles! 

 The granddaughter has spent a good deal of time watching "shows" on her iPad. These are, for the most part, episodes of a series about vampires and vampire-hunters, all done in Japanese style manga cartoon. All the characters have much bigger eyes than are humanly possible, wildly unkempt hair and strangely formal clothing. What happened to adventure stories about young people going off in boats and such like? 

At one point I overheard a line of dialogue that went something like this: "So all of the software company employees are vampires?" It almost makes a sort of sense. To understand how a lot of IT works you need to be initiated into the cult, or bitten in the neck in this case. How weird! It explains a lot about IT nerds. 

It seems that today, the first working Monday of the New Year, is known as divorce day, one of the busiest days of the year for family lawyers. All the Christmas niggles must build up over the New Year holiday and lead to action being taken as soon as three tree goes down. If you're married than there is a one in five chance at you are contemplating splitting up by now. The article where I read it suggested that if the reader wasn't thinking of separation, then maybe his/her partner was and it might be useful to sneak a look at your partner's phone. Well, if divorce wasn't on the cards before, by the time you've shown yourself to be an untrusting meddler, maybe you will be. 

My life shows signs of returning to normal. Tomorrow, Italian conversation classes begin again, as well as the first poetry group meeting of the year. Or maybe it's the last one of last year which had to be postponed because of he Christmas festivities. 

Still coughing, however!