Christmas in the sun

I am doing totally rubbish at my Christmas planning. Truth be told I was pretty horrendous at doing Christmas in England where I wish it could be Christmas everyday was playing from about September and trees and decorations were for sale as soon as the Easter bunny had hopped off. But here without the daily reminders that the season is approaching the weather a very pleasant 2osomething degrees I have done nothing to get ready. This is particularly bad as I am sure international posting dates have now long passed and so none of my friends and family will be receiving gifts or cards.
Not that they ever got cards when we lived in England mind you; but now that I am far from their presence and cannot gift them with my delightful company I feel slightly bad about it. If I didn't send a card I could give a hug and a hearty Merry Christmas to all I met.
I now realise they probably would rather have had a card. Even if I just wrote from Gillian on it with no message. I may send something electronic if I can work that out.

We do have a tree up; a very scrawny looking artificial tree from Lulu which the kids were allowed to choose a set of decorations each to adorn it with. So it is a scrawny unco-ordinated tree with flashing blue lights. I actually love it- there is something a bit 1970's naff about it which appeals to me. I almost bought a white one for that truly nostalgic feeling. I remember my cousins having a white tree when I was a kid and I always thought it was lovely.

I am also baking some Christmas biscuits next week with Lexy for a Christmas bake sale at school. The kids have a festive concert at school next week so I should feel more in the Christmas mood then and I can dash out to Bawadi mall and get them all a few presents. Hopefully Santa will find us but it is a bit doubtful. I seem to remember one of the reasons given for how he manages to get round the whole world in one night is that he doesn't visit Muslim countries because they don't believe in him there. Do you think if we get one of those Santa stop here signs he will see it on his way to Europe?

I'm trying to come up with some more ideas to get the festive feeling flowing. We could always go to the cinema to see Scrooge although I'm a bit dickensed out with Great Expectations. We could have a card making evening and the kids could make cards to send to their friends. We could go to the carol singing evening at the Rugby Club. I could get some spices and try turning that bottle of Argentinian wine into a mulled beverage. It all still feels like we're faking Christmas as it doesn't really happen here. I'll start a piggy bank for a trip home next December and wrap it in tinsel.

Finally relaxing

This year Eid- al Adha and National Day coincided to give us a week long break. K has been working non stop since Sept and was glad of the break. We mainly chilled out and did nothing but we chilled out and did nothing on the beach in Dubai one day and chilled out and did nothing at the zoo another. We took the kids to the Hilton a couple of times where we chilled out and did nothing. I say nothing but now when I am reading I am no longer doing nothing but am intently studying as I have signed up for another course with the OU for feb. The best thing is reading for "work" feels much the same as reading for chillin'. Yet I get to feel like I am using my time wisley instead of wasting it.
My first assignment recieved a gobsmacking 94% leaving me only one way to go from there. I have submitted my second assignment and we will see how that goes.

The next course I have signed up for is Approaching Literature (A210), so in order to get a head start I am reading Great Expectations atm. It was all going well until yesterday while I was sitting in the car waiting to pick the kids up from school I read that Mr Jaggers lived in Little Britain. I realised that I had read the next two pages with that bit of the brain that reads things without having a clue what they have just read while my imagination was off thinking about the TV show little Britain and if the writers were Dickens fan and was it the modern take on Dickensian style satire of the state of our nation but mostly do those guys just really like dressing as women.
I have know idea if Little Britain was a real part of London in Victorian days or not but am glad I am finally reading great expectations as like most people I am vaguely aware of the plot but have never got round to reading the book.

I was really tied between taking the Philosophy course or the Lit. one but opted for Lit this time round plenty of time to pursue philosopy in my spare time. I have been getting into philosophy bites podcasts. they are little 15 minute interviews with various philosophers discussing a particular area of philosophy. Really accessible - I even understand what my brother was babbling about that night a few Christmasses ago when he was drunkenly trying to explain Plato's cave.

quiet house shhh

Why have I felt the need to whisper for the last three days? I don't know but since Clo went on the desert camp it was mighty eery around here. There seemed to be no sibling squabbles although Clo is not the only person the rest can fight with. Then today Lexy and TJ had a row over nothing in the kitchen. All three wanted to turn the can opener on the custard. They all must have sensed on a deep level that something is slightly adrift whenever one of them is gone for a while and teh bit of their brains that makes them cause agro on a daily basis was subdued. If you have a more scientific answer do leave it in the comments. All I know is when a quarter of the children are gone it is about a 100 times quieter.