The quiet after a busy weekend. Family get togethers. Parties and reactions.

It’a all very quiet again at our house now. Not that it’s been extra noisy over the weekend but it has been extra busy with both our offspring and their offspring here, doing a kind of pre-Christmas get-together with an pre-Christmas exchange of presents for the smallest members of the family. Not the fifty-strong family gathering thatvthe queen has chosen to can el, but quite big enough when you don’t have a staff to do the cooking and cleaning.

The two small girl cousins (ages 5 and 7) spent maybe 15 minutes eyeing each other suspiciously and then went off to peruse the older one’s encyclopaedia of fairies - not the actual name of the book but that’s more or less what it was. It could have been called “All you need to know about fairies” for all I know. But it worked its magic. From that moment on they never stopped chatting, giggling, playing with Sylvanian family animals. If they weren’t doing that they were involved in craft activities, making paper chains to decorate the kitchen, learning how to make origami flowers, painting pictures. As my;daughter-in-law and I chopped up vegetables ready to cook a meal for the multitude, they just got on with it, only disturbing us occasionally to ask us to cut another couple of sheets of paper for the easel. Amazing!

My son had decided to come along no before Christmas in case things go seriously pear-shaped in the immediate post-Christmas period. He may have made the correct decision, given recent news reports. There’s this from today’s Guardian:

“What new measures are thought to be under consideration in England?

The prime minister is understood to be considering three options to curb the spread of Omicron. The least restrictive would be asking the public to limit social mixing, without legal enforcement. This would bring England into line with measures in place in Scotland, where people have been advised to reduce their socialising and limit gatherings to three households.

A step up from this would be mandatory restrictions on household mixing, the return of social distancing, and forcing pubs and restaurants to close at 8pm. The third option is a return to full lockdown, or something like it, with a two-week “circuit breaker” rumoured to be on the cards. Boris Johnson said on Friday he was not “closing things down”, but increasing pressures on the NHS may prompt a rethink.”

Anyway, i’s all quiet again now. A good time was had by all. We were quite careful to keep socially distanced. We don’t want anyone posting pictures of us quaffing bubbly, after all. That kind of scandle has been going on quite enough in Dowling Street.

Here are some of Michael Rosen’s “Boris Johnson” messages:

“Dear Mogg

Check this over as a press release:

'I don't have a clear recollection of the work meeting (and it was a work meeting) in the number 10 garden. The baby was there, working. Doing a lot of work. All the time. It's a working baby. And it works.'

Infanta laboris

Boris”

‘Dear Mogg

To tell the blooming truth, if it WAS a work meeting, it's pretty bloody amazing I was there, eh? I mean how many Cobra meetings did I miss? Hilarity all round. Hope the press team can go on massaging this stuff.

Manipulato veritaso.

Boris”

“Dear Raab, 

You may be a twat but at least you’re my twat. I love the way you go out there and talk total bollocks but it’s loyal bollocks:sticking to the line that the post-prandial bibendum was ‘work’! Shame you can’t count tho!

Uno duo quattro 

Boris”

“Dear Raab

Terrific that you and the equipage are going on about us working in 'gruelling conditions', and that we were the 'fulcrum' in the crisis etc etc. It presents us as if we are intensive care nurses in the furnace of the plague. As if!

Relaxo cabinetto

Boris”

“Carrie, he who laughs last laughs last. (Is that how it goes?) Anyway, good news is: a) no one wants to be PM and b) Covid is getting lethal again. QED: I stay in the job. Yes, I will drop it asap, dearest one, but this is the game I've alway wanted to play.

Mortem plus

Boris”

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is still PM for the time being. liz Truss is now on charge of Brexit negotiations. Is she about to make a bid for leadership. We shall see.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!