h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's December, and this year Advent conveniently started on the 1st of December too.

(I'm not religious, so Advent doesn't have any special significance for me. For most people, it is merely the time you open the boxes on Advent Calendars.)

We'll be doing two musical performances within the next 7 days: on Sunday singing Evensong in St Patrick's Cathedral (rehearsal tonight) with the small choir. I sincerely hope my fellow 1st Bass turns up as I've been on my own for the last two weeks. I'm happy enough with the part, but my voice sounds a bit less musical when I have to sing louder to be heard above the other 20 or so singers. It'll be easier with two of us. On Monday the big choir are doing a concert of Christmas carols in the National Concert Hall. This will be a lovely event with children's choir, brass ensemble and an excellent jazz soloist. Our biggest worry is filling the hall, as there's huge competition at this time of year.

Once that's finished, all our singing engagements will be complete for the year, although Mrs G does a piano performance on the 14th, and of course the daughters have their various performances.

We're planning on going to see The Hobbit Part 2 on the 14th in a late-night showing (starting 11pm) as it's the only time we're all free. I think this will be the first film I've seen since The Hobbit Part 1 which we saw in Florida last year. Looking forward to it.

Christmas should be a relaxed affair. We've been invited to the brother-in-law's for Christmas Day. I'm his official odd jobs man, so I have to make sure all the pictures, mirrors, curtain rails etc are in place before the day.

Today is supposed to be the biggest day of the year for online orders. Good luck to all the people working in that industry.

I celebrated advent by bringing Marks and Spencer mince pies into the office.

Hope you enjoy the singing

December is a good time for sitting indoors, keeping warm and eating things like mince pies. One of my projects at the moment is photographing Irish high crosses, which involves driving around Ireland. I've put it on hold until the days start getting longer again.

I'd say a weekend in late January might the best time to resume.

Yay, my midi illustrations for the Mozart Clarinet Concerto entry worked. And thanks to Pastey (who I'm pretty sure isn't reading this) for uploading them.

Ooh, we've been warned that there aren't enough entries in Peer Review. Time to dig out a few more small ones and put them in.

Other people have been bringing sweets in, and I've been eating them. Must bring some mince pies in. Excellent notion.

TRiG.

Nice to hear your news - and so glad to see you've noticed the lack of current entries in Peer Review.
I'm even challenging myself to write a few things. Currently it's going to be about making mincemeat from scratch. Which seems quite a current topic.

I've been looking through my half-finished entries, but all the good ones are either in Peer Review already, or are awaiting some further research, which means I can't finish them quickly.