It occurred to me today that we are getting close to Christmas.

This may not have been much of a revelation for other people, yourself included, but for me it came a as a bit of a surprise. The few presents I have bought have been done so with the help of others, which has partly taken out the associated stress of shopping at this time of year, however it also means that so far I’ve not really drunk in any festive spirit.

I did fetch the tree down from the loft a number of weeks ago, and also think I saw some tinsel recently too. Other than that, exposure to truly Christmassy things have been missing to date. Even this year’s Christmas number one is not very Christmassy, but then again, I can’t remember the last time one was.

For the most part of this week I’ve been grappling with proposal documents, long days in London learning tag-based codes, eating pies, drinking in Stourbridge, spending hours getting a bulb fixed, and picking up my new chair from Rotherham, which gave me an excuse to see folks in Sheffield. It could have been any other week in the year.

My todo list in things has become far more static than it should be, and I’m now finding that although I’ve reduced the number of items ever in my inbox at any one time, these have simply been translated into list items.

But this isn’t a moan, more an observation. I’m now quite looking forward to a few days off and all that excess - I just wish this weekend had been a bit longer.