Mike's Random Muses

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat, so is coffdrop, but that's enough of that....

The diet will have to wait now until the new year.

So at this point I'd just like to wish you all A Very Very Happy Christmas.

After 2 years of slog, phase one of our project finally went live on Friday. I'm feeling a little sloshed at the minute, as the team celebrated with the customer, by partaking in a long lunch at a local chinese restaurant today. The customer is happy because the project went live a day earlier than planned. The boss is happy for the same reason and the company chairman is declaring it the best Christmas Present that he has ever had.

Now I'll just ask you to keep your fingers crossed for us all, as the boss is demanding a pay rise for all of the team. Nobody in the company has seen sight nor sound of anything resembling a pay rise, in the last three and a half years.

As with any project that has just gone live, this is when we expect all the real problems to creep out of the woodwork.

On Friday we had an unofficial day off work to travel down, with our partners, to attend the Company Christmas Bash. It was held here and those travelling from up north were allowed to stay the night at company expense. It has to be said that the hotel was fantastic, though as with all Christmas dinners the meal was nothing special, it looked pretty but was the usual "let's rip of the customers at Christmas" sort of affair, but I think we all expect that these days.

Thankfully the five couples travelling from the north were placed on the same table, at least we knew each other as we knew none of the other people there. We had a laugh, Mrs C and I tried a bop but the disco kept tripping out the fuses, at least the drinls were free until the bar closed at midnight. Checking out was a dream, it's a nice feeling to be told by the reception staff that there's no charge your company are picking up the bill, especially when you know the cost of the rooms are £155 per night for B&B.

We stopped off in Windsor for a few hours, to do a bit of sightseeing and shopping, before wending our way homewards on Saturday afternoon. I'd forgotten just how big Windsor Castle was.

Tomorrow is my Uncles funeral, hopefully I should be back on Thursday with the Singapore review.

Yesterday, my father became the only surviving sibling of his family. His eldest brother died peacefully in his sleep early in the morning. We knew it was coming, he had been suffering from prostate cancer for the last few years.

Only last week my cousin had phones my father to say that my uncle had probably wouldn't last another week, so dad managed to travel over to see him one last time, to talk about old time, before the fateful day. It's at times like this that memories come flooding back, in my uncles case they are all good ones; he never had a bad word to say about anyone, well not when he was in my company anyway, he was always what you might call smart and well turned out, he was even smartly dressed when he was relaxing in his own home, I don't think I've ever seen him without a tie.

But there is one over-riding memory that keeps popping into my mind, it's from over 40 years ago, I think I was about 9 at the time. Just after Christmas in 1964 I think it was, he and my father took me to a football match at Newcastle where our team Middlesbrough were playing the Geordie outfit. It was the first away game that I had ever attended, the ground was packed out, Newcastle were storming their way to the 2nd division championship that year and had beaten us 2-0 a few days before, on Boxing Day, at Ayresome Park. Middlesbrough opened the scoring in the first half with a 35-40 yard shot from Arthur Kaye, Along with many others my uncle threw his cap in the air in jubilation. It was like a scene from old film footage or often seen in a boys comic book. Obviously he never saw the cap again but he claimed that he didn't care, well that was until Newcastle scored 2 goals in the second half to win the game 2-1. We'd outplayed them but they had won 2-1.

As we started to leave the ground a couple of Geordie lads shouted over "hard luck lads, your lot played well but were beaten by the future champions."

My uncle quickly retorted: "Hard Luck, Hard Luck? It's no wonder your team are nicknamed The Magpies, they not only stole the points but they nicked my bloody cap". I suspect that's how I'll remember him, ready with a quip but with no real malice in him may he rest in peace.

I'll be attending the funeral on Wednesday and will be meeting cousins I've not seen for many a year.