>Still unpacking

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We’ve found the Christmas tree. We thought we’d lost it, and were thinking about buying a replacement, when it turned up in a mystery box in the loft. We also found the string of lights that cost £1.99 off the market 20 years ago and still has all off its original bulbs. Bargain. The tree is made of barbed wire and baco foil, but add enough tinsel and it’s a match for that one in Trafalgar Square. Really.

I’ve also found the camera. An important one this because it’s the first Christmas in the new house. The children are away and we’re having to reinvent the whole family festival thing remotely. After 17 years in the old place it’s a big deal.

It’s a bit of a late start to Christmas this year with work deadlines. I walked over to Harrow to start the shopping for the last couple of days. You forget how to be out of doors after a period of intensive work. It was only yesterday that I got my head up and slowed down a bit. It’s cold by recent standards and the fog is reinventing the area all over again – it’s great.

Normally I can see as far North as the Watford Space Needle from my office window, but today it’s just the adjacent tree tops and mist. The leaves have all gone at last, but there are still flowers blooming in the front garden.

We have installed the Christmas Penguin. I can’t find my Black’s Bible Dictionary anywhere, so I can’t tell you which of the gospels the Penguin story is in. I think it’s the one with Father Christmas and Rudolph. Probably one of the Apocrypha.