I bought a Russian advent calendar. Every time you open a window an oligarch falls out.

In September, I made a post about Russians dying in strange circumstances. This has continued and the latest deaths are of Dmitry Zelenov who became unwell, fell down some stairs and sustained critical injuries while in a costal city in France. Alexander Buzakov, a shipyard chief died with no cause known at present, Vladimir Bydanov died in his room in India surrounded by empty wine bottles and his travelling companion Pavel Antov later fell out of window to his death. 

 

Also, General Alexei Maslov, 69, a former commander of Russian ground forces with close ties to Ukraine died “suddenly” the day after Vladimir Putin abruptly cancelled a trip to the tank enterprise where he worked.

It maybe that the issue with Putin being surrounded by ‘Yes Men’ is that anyone who says no meets with an accident.

I suspect that I have missed a few others who have died, but I am sure that there will be more to come, sorry fall, while Putin remains in power.

Father Christmas Is Back

While my wife and my daughter like this film, I hate it. It was not completely terrible, the chemistry between the characters of Peter and Felix, played by Kris Marshall and Ray Fearon was good. It was also filmed in a beautiful setting.

Otherwise, despite an amazing cast, the acting was over the top on too many occasions and it was directed terribly. I have watched worse films on streaming services, but not too many. The only reason that I can see Netflix having this is to make us appreciate other films. 

When it comes to the family, my wife and daughter spent time shopping in Chelmsford, I had taken the dog for a walk and after several walks yesterday and today, she is knackered. My son has a new Pokémon game for the Switch and he is busy playing that right now. It has been a relaxing day which has allowed my batteries to get a much needed recharge. 

Eddie Nketiah steps up

First of all, Arsenal. I was nervous about this game, mostly because it was a derby game, and I went to watch it with some friends, one of whom said that we were certain to win. He has predicted a score of 3-1 and he was right about that. We showed resilience to come back from being a goal down, but most importantly, with Gabriel Jesus out injured for at least two months, Eddie Nketiah stepped up. I had hoped that the team would pull together and they did.  

The kids are enjoying the days off that they had. I fed them leftovers for lunch and they enjoyed what I made, I had better not mention this too much to them as normally they do not like it when I feed them, though that is changing.

Last of all, I have been suspended from Twitter, again.  In a recent debate I have stated that I am a misogynist, transphobic and also an against the rights of women because I do not think that anyone with a penis, who is guilty of sexual assault or rape, should be allowed in a female prison. This happened with Karen White, a man pretending to be a TransWoman who had raped two women outside prison and went onto sexually assault two more women when in prison.  Hopefully my suspension will not last too long.

I hate middle lane drivers

I hate middle lane drivers. They make driving less fun. Today, I picked up my mother for Christmas.

My youngest brother was to go over to her, but he tested positive for COVID and so I collected her from London, drove her back to Colchester and in the evening after lunch, drove her back. I was surprised at the numbers of cars on the road and the drive at times was congested, mostly because of my pet hate, middle lane drivers. 

The Highway Code is simple. The inside lane is for driving, the lane outside to it is for overtaking and there can be additional lanes, again for overtaking. Failure to obey these rules causes traffic to build up. And that meant for me, a longer time on the road.

Anyway, lunch was great, my wife pulling off another masterpiece, the kids enjoyed most the presents, I am not sure about the one I got them, and I am now fat enough to be harpooned. 

Merry Christmas all!

Christmas Eve 2022

We returned to our local church today, probably for our last Christmas Eve service. We used to come before the pandemic, the children being younger then accepted it as part of what we did. They had been to playgroups when younger, also attending Pre-School there and going to after school clubs there as well. They had school events there, one where my son played the part of Joseph. 

 

Christmas Eve there involved a play which would include children from the audience who would have dressed up, terrible jokes and poor acting along with singing by the audience. But times change. We were last here for this in 2018, being in Sri Lanka in 2019 and not attending over the last two years of the pandemic. Since then, the vicar who used to run it has left. It was always going to be hard to fill his shoes, but the new vicar has not. Also the children are a lot older and this has no appeal to them. In fact my daughter coped with the experience by winding me up throughout it! 

 

I am glad we went, as now I have seen how it changed and I have no desire to keep up this old tradition. Saying that, both kids took a sleepy biscuit which was something they always have done each time they have been!

Single All The Way

We watched this as a family yesterday after the football. I have to say that this was an enjoyable film. It is not a masterpiece the way other films are, but when it comes to Romcom's, in general, I can enjoy them, but rarely love them.  

It is a shame that this film will be banned in many parts of the world because of the main characters being gay.  On this topic comparisons to Happiest Season will have to be made.  Overall, I would say this is the better film due to its balance.  Happiest Season was funnier in places, but was a bit too cringe at times.  But the best bit about this film was us all watching it together.   

What a game

What a game. My son was given updates on this by friends and would come downstairs after a goal had been scored. My daughter watched bits, commenting on the good looks of Kylian Mbappe and Emmanuel Macron while she waited for the end as she was to meet up with a friend who is part French.

I was supporting France for several reasons. One was that I have had a soft spot for them since the 1982 finals when a player was knocked out by the West German goal keeper. Also, being an Arsenal fan, there is a French connection thanks to Arsène Wenger, Olivier Giroud being a former player. In addition to that I had France in our sweepstakes at work. Sadly, the game ended as it did in 2006 when I was cheering on France when we were in Italy and France lost, again on penalties. 

It is a shame that France had been hit by a virus before the match, but I guess in future, teams may take more precautions against this. Anyway, back to the league soon..