Home through the snow, straining my eyes to see despite appalling visibility, and my ears to hear if Norwich City could hold on to their 2-1 scoreline, which thankfully they did. Huckerby got a great second goal for the Canaries, and though they make life hard for themselves at the best of times, their old confidence has well and truly returned, and touch wood, this is the kind of form that took us up to the Premiership in spectacular fashion, back in 2003/4. However, there is a heck of a long way to go.

Liverpool beat Everton 3-1, and Crouchy scored again. Liverpool are now the country's second team, unquestionably so. LFC will not reach the title with a Chelsea side about to raise the stakes to an ever higher position, and I can only reflect on LFC's form, which in some previous season's would have put them in first place.

My two sides are winning again...LFC with nine in a row, and NCFC with four on the trot. I'm happy.

This afternoon, I had my blood pressure checked, and once again it was too high, and so I've been called back in to hospital at 11am tomorrow morning, because the medical team informed myself that, "we must keep a closer eye on you."

Snow touching face, delicate feel of lace
Ice forming anew, cold loss of touch
Blizzard sweeping city, your memory but a trace
Snowflakes on windscreen, laying close as such.

~~~

Colour: Black and White
Music: Cher: Gypsies, tramps & thieves
Faithless: Tarantula
Plaid: Rakimou...this song is hypnotic genius...brilliance...perfection!

And so the Mediterranean party I declare a success, with cheese, chillies, salsa, salami, sausage rolls, olives, doritos, dates, several types of nut, whisky, gin, Bailey's Irish cream, San Miguel and coke, (I chose whisky and ice, which was perfect).
I had not had English sausage rolls for a long time, but when the snow was falling, (heavilly) outside, the glow of candles amongst friends, and the smell of freshly cooked sausage rolls filled the air, they were most welcome.

Listening to Radio Norfolk this morning, I heard a discussion that us easterners in Norfolk, do not, (or did not) call December 31st 'New Year's Eve' but rather, Old Year's End. It appears to be particular to Norfolk, and the Norwich area especially. How many of you have known New Year's Eve by another name?

As for today, it is known as the third day in Christianity, Childermas, (Children's Mass) in Old English, being the Feast of the Holy Innocents, which commemorates the children being slaughtered upon Herod's orders, as part of the Bible story. This is also called the Massacre of the Innocents, or el Día de los Santos Inocentes, and has traditionally been a day of practical jokes, much the same as April Fool's Day.

This morning I received a Christmas gift, delayed in the post because the postman mistook a 1 for a 7, from my friend in Shizuoka...

~~~

Althorpe. You can't think how tired I am of snow, icicles, shivering and wrapping up, and seeing Althorp like a perturbed spirit walking off his impatience, between the window and the chimney, in silent expectation...
Lady Lyttelton, December 28th, 1808

"Einstein A Go Go" by Landscape

I loved this song when I was a very little boy, hearing it spiralling out of Norwich's Carrow Road in 1980, when it made the UK top five.

It actually refers to Einstein's famous mass/energy equation E=MC2, which helped in the eventual development of the nuclear bomb.

Albert himself constantly warned of the apparent dangers he foresaw in the atomic bomb, and this song indeed, includes the line, "You'd better watch out, You'd better beware / Albert says that E equals MC squared"

Anyone who remembers this song, or who has heard it recently, will know the memorable intro, which is actually a montage of phone calls made by the band to the Washington White House, The Kremlin and other highly important locations of the time, in an effort to learn of the situation as it was in 1980...a generation under the pall and very real fear of nuclear war.

Unsurprisingly, they were turned-away at every attempt.