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On Curtailed Christmas Holidays
Jan. 10th, 2022 05:02 pmI booked three weeks off over Christmas and New Year. What have I with that time off.
Mostly work, in fact. An important thing needed to be done and there was a window to do it over the Christmas. Of 15 days of annual holiday and bank holiday I booked I managed to be off for about 10 of them. So that was less than awesome. Particularly as, even having taken off three weeks I was still carrying forward 12 days of holiday in to the new holiday and calendar year. The CEO called me and pretty much told me to make sure I took two weeks off before Easter - at least. So I'll be in Bristol for February half-term.
On the days when I wasn't working we had family visits, co-hosted with my dad.
My daughter and her boyfriend for the week before Christmas.
My sister, brother-in-law and 4 year old niece for Christmas.
My aunt and her partner for the week after Christmas, including my dad's birthday - but not actual Hogmanay as they, being teachers, thought it would be prudent to be back home in case anything needed to be done to get the school ready for re-opening.
So that's me pretty caught up in person with all of my UK family except my mum but I have a plan to see her before Easter.
Usual Christmas things, ate too much food - specifically ate too much porkpie and herring.
Listened to Christmas concerts by Voces Eight and Friends. One of the ones by the Friends was very exciting - Il Fagiolini (sp?)
Tried out my new project for movie nights and some streamed theatre. It was impressively good. Genuinely like having a small cinema in the house. Things watched on the big screen; Frozen - still a modern classic of the frozen kingdom, mental health breakdown vs evil usurper genre. The Globe's Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry (very good, I think I prefer the National Theatre production with Tamsin Greig, but my preference is based on the directorial choices about Malvolio's treatment being a bit rawer rather than any problem with the Globe's production. They are different, very good, versions of the play.) We must also have watched a film with Dwayne the Rock Johnson in, as that is the Captain's favourite but I'm damned if I can remember what it was - probably Jumanji or the sequel Ju Juman Ju Umnaji - I think the sequal because it had Awkwafina in, and I remember her popping up in something else I watched over Christmas)
In fact we watched Ocean's 8 on the Big Screen too. Part of the continue Dad and The Captain vs the Lock Stock and 13 Italian Usual Suspects caper and heist film journey. That was pretty good. Loved the acting, pretty good caper. Liked the twist. All very good.
Watched several Ashes Test Matches. Sceptical about the wisdom of having a fast bowler as Captain. Still sceptical about Steve Smith's moral character, not his batting. Sceptical about Hobart - I've been there and even I'm not sure I've heard of it. Otherwise the Ashes is going pretty well. May have jet lagged myself - definitely preferred the timing of the Adelaide Day Night test.
Spent a bit of time on Ancestry.co.uk research my family tree with my daughter. So far the most interesting thing about my family is that it's profoundly ordinary and very, very English. One branch of the family, the foreigners -(probably foreigners, probably Hugenots but the dates don't quite work) has lived in the same small hamlet outside the same small village in Cotswolds since at least 1600, possibly as far back as 1540 (which would make them not Hugenots I think).
I managed to please my dad by finding some pictures of his dad and his uncles. My dad's dad died when dad was only a small boy. Six I think and my grandma reacted badly to the loss. He was pleased about seeing those and me finding out what happened to some of his uncles.
The most noteworthy thing that seems to have happened to my family is that one of my great-great etc grandfathers was a tenant of the Tyldesley family but two generations after the famous Thomas Tydesley.
There's more poking about to do - in particular I want to get in to the war records of some of my great-uncles and see what the truth behind a particularly romantic story of First World War love involving an Irish-Canadian.
It's been quite cool and the access to records is impressive - I've been able to see a copy of my great-great-greatgrandmother's Canadian immigration papers after she left the Cotswolds to live with her daughter in Canada. However, so far I am not the long-lost heir to an Illyrian dukedom.
Mostly work, in fact. An important thing needed to be done and there was a window to do it over the Christmas. Of 15 days of annual holiday and bank holiday I booked I managed to be off for about 10 of them. So that was less than awesome. Particularly as, even having taken off three weeks I was still carrying forward 12 days of holiday in to the new holiday and calendar year. The CEO called me and pretty much told me to make sure I took two weeks off before Easter - at least. So I'll be in Bristol for February half-term.
On the days when I wasn't working we had family visits, co-hosted with my dad.
My daughter and her boyfriend for the week before Christmas.
My sister, brother-in-law and 4 year old niece for Christmas.
My aunt and her partner for the week after Christmas, including my dad's birthday - but not actual Hogmanay as they, being teachers, thought it would be prudent to be back home in case anything needed to be done to get the school ready for re-opening.
So that's me pretty caught up in person with all of my UK family except my mum but I have a plan to see her before Easter.
Usual Christmas things, ate too much food - specifically ate too much porkpie and herring.
Listened to Christmas concerts by Voces Eight and Friends. One of the ones by the Friends was very exciting - Il Fagiolini (sp?)
Tried out my new project for movie nights and some streamed theatre. It was impressively good. Genuinely like having a small cinema in the house. Things watched on the big screen; Frozen - still a modern classic of the frozen kingdom, mental health breakdown vs evil usurper genre. The Globe's Twelfth Night with Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry (very good, I think I prefer the National Theatre production with Tamsin Greig, but my preference is based on the directorial choices about Malvolio's treatment being a bit rawer rather than any problem with the Globe's production. They are different, very good, versions of the play.) We must also have watched a film with Dwayne the Rock Johnson in, as that is the Captain's favourite but I'm damned if I can remember what it was - probably Jumanji or the sequel Ju Juman Ju Umnaji - I think the sequal because it had Awkwafina in, and I remember her popping up in something else I watched over Christmas)
In fact we watched Ocean's 8 on the Big Screen too. Part of the continue Dad and The Captain vs the Lock Stock and 13 Italian Usual Suspects caper and heist film journey. That was pretty good. Loved the acting, pretty good caper. Liked the twist. All very good.
Watched several Ashes Test Matches. Sceptical about the wisdom of having a fast bowler as Captain. Still sceptical about Steve Smith's moral character, not his batting. Sceptical about Hobart - I've been there and even I'm not sure I've heard of it. Otherwise the Ashes is going pretty well. May have jet lagged myself - definitely preferred the timing of the Adelaide Day Night test.
Spent a bit of time on Ancestry.co.uk research my family tree with my daughter. So far the most interesting thing about my family is that it's profoundly ordinary and very, very English. One branch of the family, the foreigners -(probably foreigners, probably Hugenots but the dates don't quite work) has lived in the same small hamlet outside the same small village in Cotswolds since at least 1600, possibly as far back as 1540 (which would make them not Hugenots I think).
I managed to please my dad by finding some pictures of his dad and his uncles. My dad's dad died when dad was only a small boy. Six I think and my grandma reacted badly to the loss. He was pleased about seeing those and me finding out what happened to some of his uncles.
The most noteworthy thing that seems to have happened to my family is that one of my great-great etc grandfathers was a tenant of the Tyldesley family but two generations after the famous Thomas Tydesley.
There's more poking about to do - in particular I want to get in to the war records of some of my great-uncles and see what the truth behind a particularly romantic story of First World War love involving an Irish-Canadian.
It's been quite cool and the access to records is impressive - I've been able to see a copy of my great-great-greatgrandmother's Canadian immigration papers after she left the Cotswolds to live with her daughter in Canada. However, so far I am not the long-lost heir to an Illyrian dukedom.
