Christmas refracted

[shewhomust]

There was a rainbow in the sky ahead of us as we drove to S's Christmas morning party yesterday: a reminder that it was also the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, perhaps? Bright, pale sky, no visible rain, but a section of arc which just clipped the wing of the Angel of the North.

Good, but select party: which is hard on the host, who works equally hard to entertain and feed a smaller number of friends, but a pleasure to be able to talk to people, and to sit down or not, and feel more leisured, less crushed.

And when all the guests had gone, we scooped up some party leftovers and S., and brought them back here where I cooked Christmas dinner. I don't know whether this counts as opting out, but I didn't make any arrangements for obtaining a spectacular roast this year, and when we went to town for the Farmers' Market last Thursday simply bought the largest chicken I could find, because I do actually prefer chicken to turkey. So there was no rush about putting it in the oven when we got home, and then settling down to watch Doctor Who.

Which was - oh, it was fine. A bit predictable, and a bit of a tear-jerker, and playing on the emotions for all it was worth - as was much of Peter Capaldi's tenure. I wanted to like him as the Doctor, and I always enjoy watching him, but I haven't been overly struck by the scripts he's been given. I had hoped for good things in casting the Doctor as older - and yesterday's episode had moments when it seemed willing to make something of that, but it never came to much. I don't know what I want from Doctor Who, but I never quite get it. I keep watching, though.

Other than that, I have a cold. "You can't have a cold," says durham_rambler, "you've already had a cold this year!" Which is true, but this is a different cold. That one was a dry cough, which went on for ever. This is a stuffed-up head and dripping nose, with sudden explosive sneezes, and I'm hoping it will clear up as rapidly as it arrived. But meanwhile, I decided I was going to spend today quietly, pottering around and doing things, while durham_rambler takes S. home, and makes a couple of other visits en route.

Comments

[anef]

I thought the handover episode of Dr Who was eminently forgettable, though the last Capaldi series has been a massive improvement over earlier ones. I completely agree re the quality of the scripts, which is shocking when you consider how good Capaldi had the potential to be. The writers will always go for easy sentimentality over actually writing something good enough to induce a real emotional reaction.

[shewhomust]

And yet somehow we keep hoping...