This Starts a s a Rant but Calms Down and Gets almost Jolly.....

Everywhere you look Christmas trees and decorations are springing up - it started even in November!!! I think its a sign of the times, people are looking for some joy and colour in a world which feels very hard and austere at the moment... and its true - life for a lot of people is hard, and I worked for many years in a social welfare setting that often sent me home appreciative of what I had - especially at Christmas time. The television is still full of adverts for luxurious presents and supermarkets showing tables groaning with food - totally unrealistic even in a good year - but this year, while every bit of press scaremongers us into thinking the world is ending- we will all die of hypothermia or starvation - we are still encouraged to buy buy buy.. and celebrate this festive season with greed and gluttony - it feels obscene - yes this is a rant - and I am well aware that many - too many- people are in fuel poverty and food prices have escalated beyond commonly acceptable levels - and I want to go out there and riot but nothing changes.. I don't know what the answer is or what to do about it.

This video go kart is doing the rounds and its real - its a tear jerker, sad, but I know real families living like this and not just at Christmas - we are a fortunate family - we have each other and are canny - we are not too materialistic, but we still told the grandchildren that Santa was finding presents expensive this year and goodness me what must the heating bills be like at the north pole - and for that reason this video broke my heart... but well done Sam Teale for bringing a real side of Christmas on show. I'm pretty sure we all have people we wish could sit round the Christmas dinner table with us - worse still its hard to believe that in a first world country some people cant afford a Christmas dinner - let alone presents....

So, on a lighter note although I never start Christmas too early I have decided to be a bit less bah humbug and embrace a little bit of Christmas cheer - starting with a visit to the Neapolitan Nativity at Auckland Castle. It was a good start - even Dr Fred who is bah humbug all through Christmas without fail - was impressed. Displayed in the soon to be Faith Museum next to the castle this giant 4'5m x 2.5m tableau showcases the Adoration complete with trimmings, cherubs, animals, troubadours, inn keepers markets, and general life in 18 century Naples/ Bethlehem. It is absolutely fabulous. Made up of over 400 figures, animals and objects it depicts town and life scenes in incredible detail. Each piece is hand made from wire, hemp, straw, and clay - all hand painted beautifully.

From the toothless hag sat trying to warm herself, the children dancing in the inn to the chap hidden in the wine cellar its a glorious riot of colour and energy. There are fine ladies and gentlemen, musicians, hunters, street sellers - food, rocks, cacti, and much much more. In the middle of all of this explosion of life sits the heavenly family - Baby Jesus in a manger and mum and dad surrounded by the wise men and shepherds who visited this new born king.

You don't have to be a believer to enjoy this story and the fantastic art portraying it - it really is worth a visit. I have spent at least an hour just finding amazing details to look at. There are only a few such enormous Nativities in the world and we are lucky to have one right on our doorstep in Bishop Auckland.

Then we went to look a the 'O Little Town of Bishop Auckland' lots of local buildings cleverly made out of gingerbread on display in the Auckland Tower - a really nice idea put together in a interesting unusual way. We finished our visit with a ginger bread man and mulled apple juice and headed home to a cosy fire and some Christmas card writing - Christmas is on its way - a time I hope for joy and fun - laughter and friends - and while I know this will not be possible for everybody I'd like to think that most people will find a way to maybe leave the worst of the world behind for a few hours...

Scotland part 2

The second half of the week continued in much the same vein. We had one rainy afternoon which was actually quite nice to be holed up in the house with the rain lashing the windows. It probably wasn't quite so nice for the two visitors that came on their bikes but they're tough cookies - and its only water- but I did feel sorry for them having to cycle six miles back down the track in the wind and rain, but given Scotland, it wasn't as bad as it could be. The big quest for the 2nd half of the week was to find some deer antiers! The chap that owned the house dropped in to visit - he was a very friendly fella and was chatting about how this was the time of year when all the Stags lost their antlers (he collected them and sold them) so after that we were on the serious lookout. It's always been Fred's mission to find some dropped antlers.... The Monro baggers continued with the mission to bag the remaining three Monros... there is discussion as whet...

Vigo

We left the ship to explore Vigo. Its a much larger place then we expected... although tbh I hadn't given ut a lot of thought. Its a real mish mash of old and new and having got a map from tourist info we decided to follow the walking trail to the Monte Castro... the highest point of the town. Most of the town was pretty much as everywhere else... lots of traffic... lots of people... one or two interesting buildings and a lot of shopping. We headed to the art gallery - this has been a year of gallery visits so we we seen o reason to change now. The Museo de Marco is housed in the towns ex prison building and its very grand. In fact, I think that on this occaision the building might have been more interesting than the art.... Although the visiting exhibition by Susanne S D Themlitz was strangely compelling. It was a huge varied collection of eclectic items... found, salavaged, manipulated and arranged in lots of ways - weirdly inspiring - and mostly enjoyable to look at...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty b...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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