Ten lords, eleven pipers, twelve drummers and so to the end of Christmas

The tenth day of Christmas is Chaz'z birthday, and he nominated The Producers as his birthday outing. It had several fine performances and many funny moments, but ultimately didn't quite work for me. Maybe some day there'll be time to explore why...

On the eleventh day of Christmas we went to Darlington to see Les Barker: how to describe him? He's a performance poet, in the sense that he writes and performs poems, but he does this in folk clubs rather than poetry venues, and he has a hard core of fans who join in with the chorus of all the old favourites. He writes "strange poems" (according to his own web site), both serious and funny, but performed - when we saw him - only the funny ones. Standing on stage in a lop-sided cardigan, beaming like the mad uncle at the wedding, he announced "I'll start with the third one; so that's ten minutes we've saved already". That's typical of his humour: silly, surreal, and verbally extremely clever. The tale of a doomed love affair, for example, has the recurring refrain:

For he was an armadillo
And she was a concertina

(and "Sex with a concertina is rarely accomplished discreetly.").

( More Les Barker )

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Helen and Olwen came to dinner, and I baked a galette, which came out rather well (i.e., better than last time I tried). And I found the bean, which must augur a good year.

But we didn't take down the decorations until the following morning, which is less good. On the other hand, that was yesterday, which was also Chaz'z excellent birthday party, and Gavin argues that since Chaz'z birthday fell during the Days of Christmas, his birthday party must likewise be within the Christmas period.

All over now, though...