Brighton Pavilion at this time of the year is a magical confection of colour and ice. I took a walk down on Friday night just to catch a glimpse and its like Disney dropped in right out of context, just for the fun of it. Maybe one day, when Abbi isn't playing tennis anymore and can take the kind of risk that comes with ice-skating we could go down and put it through its paces. In fact I might go anyway. Of course we have ice skated before, when she was little - and if I am honest, I was ok, and I did enjoy it a great deal. Though I have a different plan for this coming Christmas day - Dan has given it over to Crisis at Christmas and we will be working but I have bought a collective Christmas present (yes already) which we can take down to the beach... have I got you intrigued? It will have to be better than the four ukeleles I bought last year (I thought they would have gone down better). But this is a great distance from the Black Friday/Cyber Monday idea of what this time of year has become. Me, I love it, the lights, the sparkle, the music, the build up. Its because it was my Mother's favourite time of the year. Sixty years ago she was in the last days of her pregnancy with me and all through my childhood we would dress the tree and switch the lights on, on my birthday - and what a special birthday treat it was. Even when I stopped living with her she would call me and sing happy birthday down the phone, then we would talk about the tree coming down from the attic and the lights going on. I have her singing one 'happy birthday' on my answer machine because that year I was in the USA. I still can't bring myself to erase it (or her mobile number on my phone - sigh) - pinch and a punch for the first of the month (no returns). There is only one ice skating song worth posting here:
