No Christmas Cheer This Year

As the more observant and long-standing reader may have worked out, unlike last year, I'm not doing a Christmas links countdown this time.
There are several reasons for this -

• I can't be arsed
• I probably exhausted the topic last time
• I'm decidedly less than full of the festive spirit
• I really, really can't be arsed

Last year, Little Miss Grumpy here managed to ruin the big day for the family, so I'm keeping more detached from it this time round. I might make some food if I'm feeling ambitious, but that's about it (I just acquired my Mum's old cooker and bid a thankful farewell to The Oven From Hell - a hideous beast with a dodgy thermostat which burnt everything that entered it - so I'm enjoying the novelty of having a contraption which actually works properly)

It's going to be a cash-strapped Christmas too (sounds like a C&W song...). I shall be indulging in some gift recycling I reckon, and if I'm very clever, I'll even manage to avoid giving someone back some of the useless crap they gave me the previous year...

On a poor at Christmas theme, the thing which has amazed me the most about the whole Farepak to-do is the amount of money people throw at one day of the year. Maybe I'm just a Scrooge (okay, no maybe about it), but it's all a bit of a waste. And just as I was wondering what sort of idiot trusts a private company with no financial protection scheme in place with all their dosh, it turns out my thick-as-pigshit sister got stung. Well whaddaya know...