Christmas Preparations!

Not medical preparations, not preparation H or anything like that, and nothing herbal either, just generally getting ready for Christmas.

Having got up at the (for me) fairly late time of 9am, (having spent the past hour or so turning the alarm off every ten minutes - what is the point of having an alarm clock if you turn the thing off??) I looked out of the window to see a typical winter's morning landscape - EVERYTHING absolutely covered in thick frost, but an incredibly intense and bright winter sunshine already beaming down on everything.

First Christmassy job? Put the presents that have already been wrapped into the loft again. The loft ladder stores the cold from the night, almost cold enough to burn my hands in our otherwise warm house. The presents now in the loft, I go downstairs to chat to mum who's still wrapping boxes and boxes of the things - I've got another 3 that need wrapping too.

It looks like she's really made an effort this year, even more than usual. Now she's putting a sparkly garland round each present, and with this, a little christmas cracker. It looks really nice and I have to admit, seeing them all stacked up in their shiny wrapping with the little crackers and cards and nametags and everything, I seem to enjoy a private thrill of childish excitement, unbecoming for someone my age.

So what's on the agenda for today? Well, my sister is coming round with my nephew, sans doggie (I believe) and we're off to Kelham Island christmas exhibition thingie which they have every year I think, nothing spectacular but a nice family christmas morning out - imagine an English victorian Christmas market set in what used to be an old industrial complex (is now an industrial heritage site) and you're pretty much there.

Once we're back, I imagine it's at that point that we're gonna start getting on with the Christmas decorations.

10:23 well, it looks like my sister and nephew are here, and they are not sans doggie, they are mit hund! or avec un chien or whatever the other one is.

Hmm. How's that going to work. Dog's don't like Don Engines. This one would probably go and try to chase the crank wheel round and round and round and round and...

Well I'm off to say hello to them, I'll be back later!

10:29 Yep, it looks like we're off out :).

10:48 Well, due to my mum misplacing her keys, we've now had 25 minutes of my dad laying down the law to all and sundry, regardless of their role in the matter, and generally having a go at anyone who isn't on his side.
It's all finished now though, the arguing has stopped, and the keys are found. But, now I don't feel like going anywhere, particularly not with him.
He's quite good at that you know, he finds any bit of joy there is in the house and kills it quickly and expertly. You'd think Christmas would be different, but no, it never is, he has to be right, even then.

Oh well, my nephew and the doggie are here I think I'll go and enjoy their company for a bit :).

11:11 Right, my dad seems to have begun to grasp the fact that there's no point being "right" all the time if it sets everyone off against you, so he's calmed down somewhat. So it looks like we are actually going after all.

Lola, her cute self, is generally wandering around quite happily, eating magazines and having her tummy rubbed.

Still, I spose I'd best turn the computer off and get ready to go out :). Later.
14:41 Right, We're back, and we've had a pretty good time. I will go into more detail, but right now I have to go and walk the dog with my sis. We ended up leaving her behind.

Back soon!

16:05 Right, I've spent the past 20 minutes processing my photos from our trip, which turned out to be pretty nice. I'll stick them up when I'm done. Right now though, I'm dying for a cup of coffee so I'll go and get one and be back with you in a few minutes.

16:14 OK I was more than a few minutes, because I've been detailed to do some christmassy cleaning in the dining room, which I'll do shortly. Soo, where to pick up from.

After a short but uneventful trip we got to Kelham Island, and I noticed that what was once a lonely little industrial museum in the middle of a run down industrial complex, was now surrounded on all sides by gleaming (well they would be gleaming if they weren't built out of those reddish orangey stone coloured bricks that everyone seems to find so fashionable these days) new residential buildings, giving the entire place the vague air of that restaurant out of Batteries Not Included (the bit where this tiny restaurant stands in between two huge skyscrapers). I noted on the way in that the river had completely frozen over, which doesn't happen often here.

What can I say? If you like Industrial History then go for it, it's a fascinating place. What I will say, is that it made me proud to be from Sheffield.
"How can you be proud of something you have no control over?" Asks Mr A. Nobhead, director of joe public's stupid questions committee". I have to admit, it is a fair question, even while simultaneously being a trite overused platitude. I don't have an answer, because I'm not a psychologist, so there. Sod off.

We had a wander around, looked at all the exhibits, and bought some sweets for my nephew - these bring back memories, flying saucers! There was a brass band (if three people constitutes a band) playing christmas carols, which added a seasonal air to the proceedings, and the place was full of impressive machinery.

An internal combustion engine with a piston over 20 inches wide, driving a flywheel over 6 foot across, was one of the exhibits that had a room to itself, but there were even larger machines powering the industry, one of which, the main attraction of the museum, lay elsewhere on the site. We managed to hurry into the largest room of the complex, which contained the Don Engine itself, to watch the hourly demonstration, and while the demonstration of this huge machine was markedly short, I was still amazed, as I am every time I see her, by the noise, and sheer power of this machine.
Fifty-plus tons of flywheel flying round at 70 RPM doesn't sound like a lot, but when that flywheel is, at a guess, ten feet across, it's fast. The three huge pistons powerered up and down, and amongst the hissing of compressed air (the machine was powered by steam at 160psi but is now powered by compressed air at 6psi if i remember correctly) and the grinding of huge gears, was the rhythmic thump-thump-thump of the engine, that was more felt than heard.
Altogether, it was a noise that I've only ever heard while standing in the presence of that thing, and as it's officially the most powerful steam engine in Europe, and 40% more powerful than the more modern machines that do its job in today's industry, you'll not hear that noise anywhere else.

See a video of the engine in steam here. (Not my video)
Read more here.

So we had a nice time all in all, I bumped into a mate of mine, and although my ickle nephew started feeling a bit sorry for himself (a bit of a cold or something), we managed to have a pretty nice day.

Well, now it's 16:54, and I'm off to do some christmas tidying. We've got the decorations to do!
I'll add the photos later.

23:19 Right, I'm going to try to make this brief, because I'm going to Manchester at 6am tomorrow, and I'm very tired indeed.

I've been carried off by my mum to a concert I knew nothing about two days ago. It was one of those christmas classical things, with a choir and a classical orchestera and stuff, and I have to admit, while being incredibly different to the last time I went to town (and danced like a loony to very loud music) this was also actually very good. The lineup featured six very very good soloists, who in the manner of soloists everywhere, seemed exquisitely happy when they were performing. I don't know why.

But yes, a good night was had by all, and it was actually rather good, so maybe I'll go again sometime.

I'm not going to put the photos up tonight, sorry I'm too busy/tired, but don't worry I'll put them up at some point :).

Laters!