I got back from my last Tour of 2025 on 09th December and after a couple of days to recover from jet-lag, got sick. It’s what tends to happen when you’ve been working hard for an extended period of time, and then finally take a break. It’s as if your body has been storing stuff in the wood shed out back, just waiting for the right moment to bring it all out and dump it on the carpet of life. Since then throughout the festive period, I’ve remained in a constant state of sneezing, coughing, spluttering, drooling and sleeping. This is all fueled by the presence of grand-children who are mobile petrie-dishes for all kinds of bugs. They catch something at nursery, pass it to their parents, who in turn, spread it to us; we refine it further before passing it on back to them and so the circle stays unbroken, and I’m now ready for the next bug to be delivered. I’ve been living in a Lemsip coma for weeks. It’s wonderful stuff. There is a nuclear variant of Lemsip involving honey, fresh-squeezed lemon and microwave warmed whisky. Made properly, this devils brew could bring Buffalo to their knees and is the best way to get through Christmas and New Year without sobbing.
I’m writing this in the afternoon of New Years Eve. On the TV there is the annual choice of “Zulu” or “The Great Escape” lining up for a sofa session. Christmas was as usual, a strange time. I cook the turkey and Mrs TimOnTheTrain does the vegetables. Marks & Spencer do as much as possible of the rest. I have to say that my turkey is rather good, soft and juicy, although it takes as much round the clock attention as if it was in a hospital Intensive Care Unit. For me, Christmas is all about that one brief moment, no more than 5 minutes long, usually at Christmas lunch, where you sit back and soak up food and family. Up to that brief time, and afterwards, it’s never quite what I might wish. If I’m honest, I’m relieved that the 02nd of January is nearly on us, and life can begin to get back to normal.
This year was my first festive period as a pensioner. For no apparent reason, the government gave me £10 as a Christmas present, enough for a coffee and a mince pie at Costa. There are 13 million pensioners in the UK, meaning that the government just spent £130 million on Christmas presents to the nations old folks. I gave mine to my kids, who actually need it. This is insanity. Time to relax with a Nuclear Lemsip and try not to think about it too much. It’s the path to madness.
TimOnTheTrain 