yes, indeed, this is coming to you as most of you, the people, still celebrate Christmas. but, look you see, time for one of them "throwback" things here to as far away as earlier this very month. assuming, of course, to be sure, that you are reading this in that month, which is December.
it is a month which gets formidably busy for us. on top of Christmas there are birthdays. two here in my immediate family, and one extra special one across the seas. here, then, is a look at the first two of them, with some more snow thrown in for good measure.
mostly, indeed, this is all for the benefit of family and friends around the world. random strangers who for some reason find me interesting and rather like my family a great deal more than they like me are of course welcome, so long as you are not some sort of weirdo.
yes, the above is as point of fact the most recent of the two birthday celebrations. James, to be precise. that just looked like a lovely picture to begin all of this with. and i can assure you that no, our house does not always look quite so neat and tidy. it is frequently absolute chaos and disorder with the two of them.
it would be fair to say that friends and family around the world are probably more interested in celebratory pictures than my writing. to honour this, then, forgive me if the words are slender. also, i have uploaded a stack of images - video too! - and probably don't have all that much to add for each, for i trust you to work them out.
like, for instance, this one here above. indeed yes, that is me, wandering around in the snow. no, actually, i am not wearing the "legit and not a bootleg, honest" Levi jacket. the one what Zama got for me off the back of Jozi taxi rank and assured me would work splendid in English snow. it doesn't, as it happens, and so that's why i have a hardcore waterproof warm one on.
the beanie is just a pretty standard one. no more than £2 or £3 in cost off of Primark, i think - a lovely find as it is one of the few things what they sell in my size. a dream would be to own a beanie with a barcode on it, like what Edge out of U2 wears sometimes. that or one of them splendid "Thug Life" ones, like what Spiros wears to top level meetings.
every now and then you get lucky with pictures. taking dozens, if not hundreds, of them with a camera what has been welded onto a phone means you, by default if not design, can get one which looks special. like, to be sure, this one above, with delight from William at what he has found under some wrapping paper.
reports what i have had suggest that most, perhaps all, of you are now able to play back the video what i add here from time to time. with this being a given, then, i invite you to enjoy the smart birthday card what we got for William.
that, to be sure, is a Minions one, as in the Minions off of the Despicable Me films and, for that matter, their very own Minions film. you open the card, tickle the Minion illustrated within on his / her / its tummy and there you go, some splendid laughter.
away from cards and onto gifts. William got a few things which we thought might interest him. this was done as, surprisingly, he has given little away in terms of hints as to what he might want. for the most part this then amounted to magic and magician sets. this is because he has taken a shine to doing magic tricks, and i figured that if he had his own sets then he may well cease destroying my few decks of playing cards as he perfected his art.
but also the above, a dapper waistcoat, tie and fancy shirt set. William is quite fond of his fashions, so he is, to be sure. this is evidenced frequently in the amount of time he spends doing his hair on any given morning, and his love of smart clothes. every now and then i shall put the celebrated Night Fever sequence out of Saturday Night Fever on, so that William may see how John Travolta prepared himself for a night on the lash. William, without any knowledge or understanding of what a night out on the lash is, is nonetheless suitably impressed with this.
some more snow? well sure, why not. i mean, kind of. here's a view of a street from my travels, with by some mercy much of the snow cleared away from the road and the pathway.
at my time of writing this we are, splendidly so, free of snow. there is, alas, more forecast for the next couple of days ahead, and for all i know there might be more as and when i select a date to publish this post, or if you like when i mark it to "go live".
one of the great myths of life in England is that idea of how we always used to have a "white Christmas", which is to say one beautified by snow. not so. whereas i imagine our friends to the north in Scotland get them frequently, not so much south of the border. without resorting to doing one of them google things in the subject, i think we have only had snow on Christmas about 10 times in the last 100 years, or if you will once every ten years.
America, of course, gets them a lot. they tend to dominate mainstream media on a global scale, too, so their perpetuation of the idea of a "white Christmas" in film and television shows is why, arguably, many in England think they can remember experiencing more than what they probably have.
but, back to birthdays and one of the most integral parts of any birthday celebration. actually, one of the most integral parts of any celebration, or life. cake. yes, cake.
above you can see William's cake, made to order by my (considerably) better half. indeed. it is a sequence of cupcakes, baked with crushed Oreos in the icing and whole Oreos in the cupcakes, styled in a shape of the number reflecting is age. the candles were a most splendid find off of Poundland. considering the limited stock what they had it was wonderful to find that they had William's name available to purchase.
no such luck, alas, when it came to finding similar candles for James. i did, however, select something which he found to be most agreeable.
yes. my choice of candles what said "cool dude" seemed to impress James. this was particularly all the more so when i said my choices were that, or "congrats", or "it's a girl", with the latter in pink.
the specifics of James' cake? an interesting one, with it once again being made to order by the celebratory one and created by my (considerably) better half. this one comprises of 3 flan cases, each beautified with a thick layer of caramel, with the whole thing encased in whipped cream. smart, it is, to be sure.
some more snow, then. and William expressing his jolly, merry love for the stuff.
i think i mentioned this in an earlier post, but as we are here, fine. both James and my (considerably) better half do not care for being in the snow, as lovely as they find it to see. instead, when it snows, they can be found indoors. not so William. when there is snow, well, it is quite difficult to persuade him to rather be inside out of it. and why not.
me? i tend to go out in the snow mostly as and when i am required to be out and about. but also to get all of you, the people, a photograph or picture or two.
yes, sorry for the frequent appearance of moi in the pictures here. whilst this may very well be my blog, this is only ostensibly so, i suppose. there is an appreciation that your visits to this all does not mean you give the expression of a tacit wish to actually see me on it.
back to birthdays, then, and a skip ahead from William will find us finding James celebrate.
James, it must be said, did not spend nearly as much time as his brother did reminding us that his birthday was imminent. still, though, somehow we remembered not only that it was coming up, but also when exactly it was. which was recently.
indeed, James' birthday was a source of double celebration. perhaps you can ascertain this for yourself, but if not then it was also the day that his school elected to have "Christmas jumper day". to clarify what that is, this pretty much does what it says on the box as students, or if you will pupils, are encouraged to attend school wearing jumpers of a Christmas theme.
one would imagine that "Christmas jumper day" is not particularly a thing south of the equator. for many on that side of the world Christmas falls during "peak" summer, and so wearing a jumper would be a very silly thing to do. unless you really like getting hot.
some video of James and the card what we got him for his birthday? sure.
if for some reason the video still does not play, well, there is a picture below. in effect this is a 3D birthday card, of sorts, with a replication of the Old Trafford stadium "popping out" when one opens the card.
yes, James is most partial to lending his support to the team that is Manchester United. depending on how you feel about that team, i am indeed either a bad parent or a good parent for allowing him to have such support. it was always the wish of a very good friend of mine that James would grow to support this team, and so i have no complaint.
oh yes, that is indeed William "assisting" James with opening up birthday goodies. the same was true when the situation was vice versa, or if you like the other way around. it is absolutely no bother or trouble at all for one brother to offer "help" to the other as and when it comes to opening up exciting gifts.
more of me in the snow? sure, why not.
that is indeed me off up, out and in the fields. yes, the paths to get there were slippy, as the crisp (hello, Faye) snow had hardened into a sort of solid white ice thing. no, sorry, i did not fall as such, but if it causes you amusement to think of such things yet i lost my footing once or twice.
i like the above as it makes me hum to myself, indeed singalong in my own mind, One Tree Hill by U2. even though, lyrically, it's wildly inappropriate to do so in snow. and also i was not really on a hill as such; more a slope. also, there was more than one tree. but still, you know.
but, yes, once more,back to birthdays. in order to enjoy that most splendid cake exactly as he wished, James requested that we wait for representatives of the sensational Harlo family to come and visit, paying respects as they would in terms of good wishes to him. and so it came to be.
oh, indeed yes, you can as point of fact observe some 75% of the immediate sensational Harlo gang in the above picture. and once again, yes, no, normally our house is not quite so neat and tidy.
what, other than a splendid cake and some superb cards, did James get by way of gifts for his birthday? he was kind enough to compose a list for us. a list which was impressive in size and composition; and one which he instructed us to "stick to" but delete as appropriate.
to this end, then, we got him a number of items pertaining to the realm of WWE, that mostly American but ostensibly worldwide well known brand for 'entertainment wresting' concerns.
it is not all that much of a surprise that James quite likes that whole WWE business, or if you like finds it wildly entertaining. let us not forget that, in godparent terms, no less than Spiros, the greatest legal mind of his generation, is one of his godfathers. with this in mind, it is little surprise, then, that James found a fondness for muscular, well oiled gentlemen who like to grapple each other and occasionally dress up as sailors.
moving on, then, and the cake all lit up with a most pleased James looking on. with the lights off.
celebrations of things such as birthdays and, well, birthdays are most wonderful. they can also prove to be, evidently, rather tiring.
late one evening, actually after we had spent much if not all of the day celebrating James' birthday, the boys were off to bed. i thought that things were somewhat quiet in terms of a lack of sound coming from William's room, so off i went to investigate.
and there i found him fast asleep, yet clutching hold of his tablet computer thingie, which he had clearly been watching as he dozed off.
yes, indeed, i prized the device from his hands, leaving him to carry on sleeping without the fear of it falling to the floor.
one more picture of me? out in the snow, as the sun falls early in the afternoon on another day? yes, sure. and from what i remember this was quite an exciting picture to take, for my phone started ringing as i did so.
phew. that would be just about all of everything which is that for this post, then.
hope all is most splendid wherever you are in the world, whenever you are reading this!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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