I have to say that Christmas is probably my least favourite time of year!
It's not that I'm a total Bah Humbug, but there are a number of reasons why I feel this way.
Firstly I'm not religious in any way shape or form, personally I think they (Religion) are very much the fault of why we as a society are the way we are today - No one can dispute that as a society we are all pretty much messed up!
The true meaning of Christmas has been totally lost, all wrapped up (excuse the pun) in a splurge of commercialism that almost makes me physically sick!
This time of year, people spend too much money, that they don't necessarily have, on people who they don't necessarily like, on items the recipient either doesn't want or dislikes!
It's all a bit of a recipe for disaster!
Anyway, why wait till Christmas? I am of the opinion that if you want something now, then I will buy it now, (as long as I can afford it).
Christmas seems to start mid October, this year I saw a pub in August advertising it's Christmas menu! Bloody ridiculous!
In general I find that people on the run up to Christmas are short tempered, stressed out completely because that can't find the right scarf for Uncle Bill. The fact that Uncle Bill has 10 scarfs all ready, has nothing to do with it. He is in a nursing home, rarely goes out and to be honest would rather like a set of bibs as his dentures don't fit that good anymore and he tends to dribble his tea!
Christmas cards! Another great waste of time, money and natural resources! Yes it's nice to hear from Aunty Beryl, but you only saw her last Thursday and she wished you Happy Christmas then! The fact that another couple of hundred hectares of forest have been destroyed to make the amount of cards we send each year is immaterial!
Just to redress the balance a bit as it sounds that I am a real Grinch over Christmas I got my step daughter to decorate my Ural - I would like to think when people see me now at least they may stop, smile, point and say - look at that fat bloke on the motorbike!
If I can make just one person smile a day as a result of looking daft, then I feel I have done my bit to lighten the mood.
The journey continues..........
With a day off today and with the prospect of having to paint the bathroom ceiling later on what was needed was an hour on the Ural!
I had to go into Lymington on an errand, so decided to take the scenic route along the coast.
We really are blessed with some amazing scenery in this part of the world.
However, it did not take long before someone decided to pull out of a junction right in front of me. I narrowly missed him, but had to hit the brakes pretty hard to avoid a collision.
I reckon that if I was on two wheels instead of three I may well of been off at that point as the roads were still slippery from the heavy frost we had over night.
Leaving New Milton and heading for Milford and some fine views across the Solent towards the Isle of Wight I could see up ahead a couple walking on the pavement and they had a dog with them.
As I was about to pass them the dog decided to take a leap at me, the owner not being in control of his dog by having it on a long lead could do nothing to stop it.
I swerved and thought I was going over but managed to hang on, I also thought I had hit the dog as I heard a knock as I passed. I immediately pulled over, I was shaking like a leaf.
I switched the engine off and looked back to see that the dog appeared to be fine, the woman came running up to me and asked if I was ok, where I pointed out to her in no uncertain terms that they could of killed me!
She did apologise, but the bloke who had been holding the dog and who's fault it was said nothing, so I'm afraid I ripped into the pair of them for being so irresponsible.
I rode off and had to pull over in the next car park where I sat for a few minutes gathering my thoughts, it shook me up.
Into Lymington, jobs done, (unsuccessfully) then decided to head home via Keyhaven.
The sun was shining brightly but the air temperature was only just above zero.
The tide was just on it's way in and was about to creep over the road, another hour and the road would be impassable.
Home, where the painting started, but at least I had a blast out on the Ural.
The journey continues........
