Christmas is a coming

It’s been a Christmassy week. I have brought and wrapped a million useful or edible items as presents and sought out a Christmas tree and carried it back on my bike to the flat where it is now tastefully decorated with fairy lights and a little baked dough angel that Rich’s mum gave me years ago.
On Thursday night to get into the Christmas spirit Tim and I went to John’s College to drink wine, eat warm mince pies and listen to ghost stories by candlelight. We squashed in with a good deal of other people into the Samuel Butler Rood and listened to four ghost stories including one written specially for the occasion and a cute poem by the grandson of the organizer. Afterwards we went to John’s student bar where a student of the college has to sign you in and we spent a happy hour discussing what we thought had actually happened in the ghost stories although not much was actually concluded. St John’s is lovely – especially on a crisp winter’s evening but the whole thing was slightly surreal as Christmas met Halloween in a long long candlelit room, wood paneled, low ceilinged with intimidating Tudor portraits on the walls.