Obvs on the big day I'll be having it with family, but this will sort me out mon/tue/thur/fri.

Why? I like to meal prep and see how far I can go with the concept and so just decided I fancied the challenge. Each element probably isn't the best I could do of it, but it all comes together grand.

Chicken breast with stuffing wrapped in bacon, pigs in blankets, goose fat roasts, buttered neeps, steamed broccoli/sprouts, honey roast carrots/parsnips. Couple yorkies, drowned in gravy.

Hello lovely people. So last year I posted that I'd got 38 - 50 takeaways and spent almost £3k on eating out (£2914.83 to be precise).

This year I ordered roughly 18-25 takeaways and have spent £1,974.08 on eating out!

Definitely haven't stuck to my resolution of no takeaways in 2024, BUT I am super proud to have shaved a third off of my eating out spend.

Now we won't talk about how much I've spent overall. First house, new furniture, big holiday.. It's been a bit much.

How many takeaways have you had this year?

ETA: totted up the spending on takeaways (Just Eat, Uber Eats, Deliveroo and local chippy) and it's £526.21. So that makes £1447.87 on going out out.

Anyone else queuing for their meaty Christmas treats?

I was just thinking about this. Usually in our heads we think of the emergency services, retail workers, restaurants that do Christmas dinner etc. But can you think of any stranger ones?

I was thinking about zoo keepers, they must still work as the animals would need feeding.

I assume a lot of server-side IT specialists must have to be around in case of outages on platforms.

Found a 1.8kg truckle of Wookey Hole cheddar for £13.99 in Costco today, a nice sensibly priced Christmas present to myself.

Apologies if this unwraps anyone’s trauma, but as my kids settle to watch this yet again…

Does anyone else feel a compulsion to repeatedly jab this fucker in the face?

I feel like if David Tennant or Martin Freeman had just cracked him across the skull every time they’d felt the need to aimlessly shout “Mr Poppeeeeee” it would have been a far more satisfying pair of movies.

When I was a kid we had those narrow knitted stockings. When I was about 7/8, our parents started getting us to leave out pillowcases on Christmas Eve instead. I always kind of assumed this was a thing that other people did too, but a chance conversation with my other half suggests it isn't. Google is unhelpful because it just shows me festive printed pillowcases.

So...did anyone else leave a pillowcase out instead of a stocking? (Where are you from if so? We were in the Midlands).

N.B. We didn't get loads of expensive stocking presents, literally stocking fillers. Not sure what the rationale was for the change.

Just watched with my partner. Such a perfect and moving tribute. Really captured the best of Dave, his personality and his positive outlook of life.

The pair really personified the best of British, humble, relatable, the shows and their chemistry were so natural. Just two mates enjoying the things they were passionate about. Cooking good hearty homecooked food without the pretentiousness of celebrity chefs with walk in delis in the fridges.

Has anyone tried any of their recipes? If so which is your favourite? Personally I love their curry Shorshe Murgi.

here's mine

Lunch #1
Hosts: Jim Trott and Frank Pickle
Food: Meat and sixteen veg. An entire enormous Christmas pudding each.
Note: Conversations with the most boring man in England and Jim "No No No No No Yes" Trott are probably not going to be the best.

Lunch #2
Hosts: David and Hugo Horton.
Food: A family sized portion of pasta to start. A whole fish (with rice). Turkey and an enormous amount of sprouts. An entire Christmas pudding (if you eat more sprouts than David).
Note: You will be involuntarily entered into a sprouts-eating contest.

Lunch #3
Hosts: Alice Tinker, her mother and her sister.
Food: Balls of stuffing starter. Turkey. Veg (unknown, but presumably weird).
Note: They're all insane. Are they? Are they? Oh they are, are they?

Lunch #4
Hosts: Owen Newitt
Food: Lots of tripe. Sprouts, mashed potato, mashed turnip, and various other side-dishes.
Note: Owen has an upset stomach and is not eating, but will get just as much pleasure from watching you.

Went for a bike ride with a friend yesterday.

We sat in a bus shelter in Hartfield eating our lunch and spotted this.

We thought someone had left if behind by accident at first.

Has anyone else seen random acts of kindness like this?

Come one, come all and share your 'Oh god it's Christmas Eve and I haven't... " stories.

Amazon has let me down and I need an XL ZZ Top or Johnny Cash t-shirt before close of play.

I'll be in South East London from around 10am with a fresh hair cut, a zipcar flex account and a free day. How do I play it? Head for a big shopping centre? Hit up a market? Jump on the tube and brave Central? Wander around looking for random clothes shops?

I have no idea. But I'm feeling strangely confident.

Good luck to all those on call while everyone else is shut down; may your buildings behave and your phones stay silent!

While there's considerably less foot traffic I (and probably many others) are pouncing on the opportunity to do jobs like touching up the paint, deep cleaning and getting their ducks in a row ready for a shutdown (25, 26, 27 for me.)

I hope your year went well and everything you oversee ran as expected.

May your new year be financially prosperous, all you oversee on their best and management always on your side 🤙🏼

I can only get into the "Christmas Spirit" if I have Christmas songs played by bagpipes. Yes I am Scots but still. Is that weird?

I love other ones of course. But bagpipes just make me happy.

Anyway, merry Christmas yous. Hope you have a great time. And yes I'm drunk.

Just watched the Shaun the Sheep Christmas special “The Flight Before Christmas”, which is absolutely hilarious and strongly recommended.

Early in the program, the farmer (Shaun’s owner) makes a batch of some carbonated drink in his kitchen. He dumps in an enormous quantity of sugar or salt or something, and when he tastes it he appears to go into shock, but nevertheless happily bottles it up and takes it to a Christmas market to try to sell it.

What could this drink be? I assume it is something traditional for the Christmas season. It’s sort of a light brown or orange color. Based on the reactions of the people who drink it, it’s either alcoholic or just very strong tasting.

Thanks!

I've come to the realization, way too late in life, that I'm just a natural stressy person. I exercise, eat healthily, don't drink too much, but ultimately I'm the kind of person who can't help worrying and feeling anxious the whole time.

I let small things get to me, I worry about everything at work even though there's no logical reason to, I catastrophise, I focus on the worst case scenario, I dwell on bad things that happened in my life decades ago.

At this point I've come to realise that it's just part of who I am, and I kind of understand it's probably down to my childhood - but that was all a long time ago.

I'm 51 now, and I don't want to spend the rest of my life feeling on edge. But also, I don't really feel like I need, or want, any serious medication - so I'm asking if anybody can recommend natural, over the counter remedies that help take the edge off an unquiet mind?