Month: December 2021

Advent #4

by andrewcurnow1971, posted in 1980s, Christmas, Family

A staggering forty-one years ago, my Mum and/or Dad was given ABBA’s Super Trouper album for Christmas. This was an LP of course, what we now for some reason call ‘vinyl’. Vinyl has had a revival in recent years, and I can only assume that’s because it’s been long enough since its heyday that we’ve forgotten what annoyed us about it in the first place. Because, never mind all this “it’s a warmer sound” nonsense, records are so annoyingly fragile.

Super Trouper got a lot of play ergo within a very short time a lot of scratches, possibly (though unproven) due to some inexpert pre-teen handling of the stylus. So it was literally decades before I unravelled the baffling lyrics of Happy New Year (Side B Track 1, Pop Pickers) and discovered that the opening line isn’t actually “No more champ fire through.”

‘Literally decades’ was, to be more precise, a gap of 39 years because in 2019 I was gifted the same album, also for Christmas, but now on CD. More resilient than its larger, vinyl-ier ancestor, nevertheless the CD’s reputation has suffered since it was first introduced in the mid-80s with claims of being indestructible – and it felt entirely appropriate to discover that although I can now hear every word of Happy New Year, for some reason Super Trouper itself (Side A, Track 1) skips and stutters as if it’s been covered by Norman Collier.

I’m hoping to get the new ABBA album for Christmas this year (I’d certainly better after all the hints I’ve dropped). I don’t know whether it’ll be on vinyl, or compact disc, or even (and to be honest this is a nostalgia trip too far, even for me) on cassette. But I look forward to thanking them for the music one more time.

Advent #3

by andrewcurnow1971, posted in Christmas, Confused, Family

As we head towards Christmas and the chance to finally do something with the duck that’s been taking up valuable real-estate in our freezer since before the clocks changed, I’m faced with the usual dilemma: when it comes to Christmas dinner, and with only four rings on the hob, which vegetable(s) do we sacrifice?

The philosophers among you (when not busy not listening for trees falling over) may have taken part in the sort of light-hearted debate where you imagine yourself on a balloon ride needing to lighten the load. The point of the debate being, what value we place on different people and roles in society – so, for example, you’d have one person arguing as a lawyer, one a farmer, one an actor, etc. (Incidentally, my uncle once told us he had debated as ‘Balloon Pilot’!)

In similar vein, my wife and I recently had a provisional discussion on the vegetable issue – and I must say I was rocked to my core when she nominated boiled potatoes, rather than carrots, as the most likely to be discarded.

Vegetables are a bit of a sore point with us anyway, afflicted as I am by Cornish Vegetable Blindness. The turnip/swede debate was one of the early features of our married life; and it subsequently emerged that what I’d always called broccoli was wrong too, and was actually (and even now I have to check) cauliflower. (I’m not sure I could pick cabbage out of a lettuce line-up either, while we’re on the subject.) Not that any of the ludicrously over-populated brassica mob is getting a look in while I’m in charge of the cooking (well, except sprouts). Frankly, never mind throwing them out – that dull and duller pairing, broccoli and cauliflower, aren’t even getting ON the balloon.  

Advent #2

by andrewcurnow1971, posted in Childhood, Christmas

Maybe I’m just a cynic, but I’m never convinced that ‘this year’s Must Have toy’ is actually a thing. Much more likely, I suspect, it’s shrewd advertising by the toy company in question on the basis that (a) suddenly your kid will want it and therefore (b) there’s bound to be a huge increase in demand from parents leaping in early to buy one, thus ensuring they’re not (c) in for a long, grumpy Christmas.

I certainly don’t remember hearing the phrase in my youth when it could be said I was in the key toy-buying demographic (well not so much ‘buying’ but, you know, nagging…). If it DID exist back then, presumably the Palitoy cardboard Death Star was 1978’s ‘Must Have’ and 1980’s was the Kenner Millenium Falcon. (Much as I loved the Cantina Playset I got in 1979, I would be reluctant to put it in the same league.)

The first time I can really remember hearing about ‘must haves’ was Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear in the mid-90s, but it didn’t bother me because I didn’t want one. (Er, I mean because we didn’t have any children who wanted one.). A few years later it was the Teletubbies, by which time we DID have a child. At the risk of sounding smug, without having to wrestle anybody to the floor of our local Woolworths we managed to get all four.

Within twelve months the fad had changed, and I can’t honestly recall my daughter playing with her Teletubby toys for very long. But then I guess we’ve all been like that, obsessed with something one minute, only to lay it aside and never play with it again the next.

I’ve certainly done that, and I surely can’t be the only one. Come on, admit it: you must have!

Advent #1

by andrewcurnow1971, posted in Christmas, Family, The C-Word

That Was The Year That Was (if you’ll excuse me going a bit Millicent Martin-y just for a moment). An unsettling one, full of uncertainty, dominated, like 2020, by Brexit and by Coronavirus. I have to admit I’m not really sure of the current state of either (although I know you can’t get a jab against Brexit).

Less globally, it was the year I turned fifty, my Dad turned eighty, and my Aunt turned… er, turned out, um, also to have a milestone birthday. (Phew.)

Not that 2021 is all done with yet, we’re only eleven-twelfths of the way through (or 91.67% if you’re not vulgar enough for fractions). This time last week we seemed to be heading towards a ‘normal’ Christmas – and then suddenly, out of nowhere, up pops a new Covid variant!

I’m sure there are perfectly valid scientific reasons for naming it after one of the Transformers but frankly, whatever you call it it’s put a bit of a damper on things. If nothing else it shows that, even this close to Christmas and as last year made very clear, there’s still plenty of time for the Government to channel the spirit of Margo Leadbetter and declare that Christmas is Cancelled.

Unless or until that happens though, I guess we stick to plan A and even I, unprepared and humbuggy as I am, felt a little tingle of excitement when I turned over the calendar this morning to discover, as indeed I had suspected, that it is December 1st again. So here we are, and here we go, Christmas is on the way…

…which will, of course, be my fifty-first Christmas, my Dad’s eighty-first, and my Aunt’s… er… and my Aunt’s, um… and my Aunt’s probably looking forward to it as well!!