Compared to the lovely Diorama at Bangkok when we left...
As I wrote the other week, I think it's lovely that the rest of the world seems to be embracing Christmas as simply a secular holiday for spending time with loved ones and spreading a bit of peace and goodwill, as the UK seems to be slightly winding back on Christmas.
My Christmas spirit extended through to Saturday when I wandered into Pontefract town centre. The weather was awful. Not a clear crispy, cold morning, but a blustery, wet and miserable one. I hate it when the temperature hovers around the 7 to 10C mark. It isn't really cold, but it isn't warm either. It's just miserable!
No worries. My Christmas Spirit was still intact. The Sally Army band was out and I had been summoned to Church for coffee with Mum where the choir were going to be singing some carols. It's Christmas, even I can get a little soft at this time of year! It's not a bad choir and so it was a bearable ordeal. It may surprise you to know that there were no forks of lightning and the ground didn't open up and swallow me, but there was a problem of a different kind.
The choir sang, and my wife pulled out her phone to record the performance to show her family back home, but after the first carol, the organist stopped playing and rushed down the aisle to where we were standing.
"You can't video here, there is a child in the choir. You must delete it immediately".
I looked around at my Mum and her old friends and I could sense her willing me not to bite back, so I said nothing. My wife just looked embarrassed and said sorry and put the phone back in her pocket, and the guy went back to his organ. We went back to our coffee and someone apologetically explained that videoing kids was illegal but the choirmaster had been very rude.
I was seething. It wasn't like she was offering 'sweeties' whilst carrying a basket full of puppies and we were in a bloody church! It says a lot about the guys' faith in God's ability to protect the choir in their own home, but more than that, it was just so absolutely sad.
When we went outside, I noticed the strange Christmas lights in the town centre looked like candies, and that's exactly what they were as the whole display had been paid for and erected by the town's largest employer; Haribo.
It dented my Christmas spirit slightly, but only until this afternoon in the pub when I watched Leeds come from 2-0 down to beat Villa 2-3 and go back to the top of the championship!
Two beers and a box of mint Matchmakers and life is good again :-)
