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...

RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

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 backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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