DC

Hope everyone has been enjoying whichever midwinter festival they celebrate, even if it's just the chance to not work and slob out in front of the TV. I ended with with more in the way of presents than I expected, including something I wanted but wouldn't have bought for myself, and four Doctor Who DVDs (Colony in Space, Day of the Daleks, The Sun Makers, and The Two Doctors). That's not a bad haul. Oh, and not forgetting the M*A*S*H box set and Castle S3... It's nice to be able to slob out in front of TV without being dependent on the vagaries of the broadcasters. The special edition of Day of the Daleks is pretty well done, by the way.

Cooking dinner yesterday for mother and me went basically OK — it was the first time I'd used that oven, so its idiosyncracies were an unknown quantity. The roast was 80% perfect despite that. Mother's quite tired, but she seemed to enjoy it, and she did have a good appetite. I suspect I will be spending New Year with mother, too.

For those who are doing Christmas, have a merry one; for those who are doing Yule, Wassail!; for those doing any other festival, enjoy; for those sitting quietly on your own with a pile of DVDs and some beer (or whatever) — that’s probably very wise of you.

I am looking forward to this weekend, thought that’s got more to do with “The Christmas Invasion” on the 25th (the first time Doctor Who has been broadcast on Christmas Day for forty years) than anything else. I do know that one of my presents is the Eccleston box set — you just can’t disguise that shape.

I don’t know: Doctor Who on over Christmas — and good; two power cuts last week; a right-of-centre PM who is increasingly looking embattled...

It’s beginning to look a lot like 1973.