shewhomust | Signs of approaching Christmas

Seasonal music: York Waits at the Sage, a concert titled 'To Drive the Cold Winter Away' which might equally well have been called 'A Young Person's Guide to the Tudor Orchestra': there were shawms, bagpipes (four bagpipes at once sounded surprisingly good: there was drone, but it wasn't painful), recorders of all sizes (actually, maybe not all, I didn't see anything smaller than a descant, but from there on up to one that was substantially taller than the man playing it), fiddles, something that probably wasn't a ukulele, a hurdy gurdy and a rommelpot. I liked the rommelpot, which was more tuneful that you woul have thought possible for something constructed from a flowerpot, a stick and a pig's bladder. There was some overlap with carols we will be singing at next Sunday's Carol Evening, and some music familiar from other contexts, because this is a season to greet old friends.
Wrapping gifts: The first of the presents has been wrapped and posted. If you ever receive from me a package neatly wrapped in shiny new paper and decorated with ribbons and bows, treat it with suspicion: it's probably an imposter. My wrapping makes up in sellotape what it lacks in skill. But I made up a parcel, and durham_rambler took it to the Post Office - where they quizzed him about what it contained, because even inland mail now goes by plane, and a number of things you are quite likely to regard as potential gifts may no longer be posted. durham_rambler is a skilled negotiator, and we got away with it.
Parties: other people's: A lifetime first on Monday - I called out the police to a student party. They were yelling in the back garden several doors down when I went to bed, but usually things quieten down around eleven (I used to think, naïvely, that the younger generation had no stamina; but I believe that in fact they fuel up at home where it's cheaper and then go to town). This lot were made of sterner stuff: at eleven o' clock they not only had a shouting game going, they got out the zarzuelas. At ten past I got up and called the local police. I could have called the University hotline, but I'd have had to look up the number, and I'd just as soon have the call in the police statistics. The person at the other end of the phone said they would log it as a priority, which meant that someone would come out within the hour, and did I want to be kept informed - I said no, thanks, I was going to bed. The noise stopped within half an hour.
Parties: our own: Since durham_rambler had a meeting last night, I joined my reading group for an end-of-year meal at "the Ukrainian pizza place". This turned out to offer a choice of pizza or Eastern European dishes, rather than a combination of the two - though my potato pancake with goulash bridged the two neatly. It was good solid food in good company, and I'd go there again, thouh I probably still won't order the mulled beer with rasperry, cinnamon and rum (those who did said they were glad to have tried it, but I think this was more to do with bragging rights than enjoyment).
Visiting family: And we are now on the train to London, for the carol evening and pre-Christmas visit. Internet is pretty flaky, which is why I haven't found a link for the Ukrainian pizza place, and may not actually post this until some later date. The train is delayed, because a man walked onto the line at Durham, and we watched while the police and station staff escorted him off again, but we have cheap first-class tickets, a little table to ourselves, constant offers of drinks and the country wrapped in mist flowing past the windows.