Hello, I'm Your Groupie Godmother...

Sleeping at odd hours again, and of course it's that time of the year again, the start of the two or three Weeks Of Hell(TM) so it'll probably be a case of working and sleeping only for the next half moon or so. Which is a bit pif, to be honest. Especially since there's a lot of other stuff I'd like to right now. Still, I've worked out I only need to show up for work twice between December 25 and January 3 so I can probably catch up with life then. Assuming I make it that far...

Anyway, yesterday I was up early so I could meet GroupieGirl and her dad and take the train down to Angus, about three quarters of an hour down the east coast. They've got family down there, and we'd been invited to the "blessing" of the latest arrival. A blessing is apparently like a christening, but not quite as religious - there was no water in the font, for example. Anyway, Groupie's always complaining there's nothing to do on a Sunday (with good reason, I might add) so it was a nice change, and it was nice that I got invited too.

We found ourselves in the local church at 11.00 that morning, the first time I'd been in a house of worship for many years - I used to go to my local one in my teens, with long hair and dressed entirely in denim, but that's probably another story... The blessing took place as part of the regular Sunday service, and things have been updated since my last time in a church, clearly - a screen projecting the words we had to say on the wall!! Although let me say for the record that Comic Sans has no place in a church, or indeed anywhere outside of a comic. Just say no, kids...

After an hour's worth of Songs Of Praise, it was time to head back to Groupie's aunt & uncle's house and get stuck into the buffet of food that was on offer - strange alien delights including kebab meat shaped into spheres on a stick, amongst other things. I also got a glass of champagne which was nice :)

Groupie had been chosen as the little one's godmother...rather ironic considering her atheism, but there you go! As I said to her "I've heard of fairy godmothers, but groupie godmothers?" Neither of us have any interest in having children, either with each other or anyone else, so this sort of this is the closest we'll get. And her new little god-daughter was fascinated with the "Frosty The Snowman" ringtone on her phone - sitting quietly in wonderment as it played. I found myself spending a lot of time chatting to her uncle's guide dogs - and that's pretty ironic as well as I not a huge fan of our canine friends, but these were really nice.

We did run into a little problem with our train home, though - it had been delayed for 45 minutes due to a fault, so we were stuck on a cold, draughty platform in the dark in a little town with nowhere else to go for a while. Not much you can do about that though, and it was a great excuse to warm up with a little red wine when I finally got back chez Zaphod.

Right then, what the hell do I choose as a track here? How about Groupie's ringtone? It is the season, after all...

NAT KING COLE - FROSTY THE SNOWMAN
(from the album "Christmas For Kids - From One To Ninety Two", 1950)