Christmas is coming...

Sssh! Don't tell anyone but it's very nearly Christmas.

Oh, Joy! I hear you all cry. Or is that weary sigh only my own jaded response? Try as I might I can't seem to get in the spirit this year. But I did force myself to buy some pressies today so that's some kind of start.

I remember Christmas as a child - squeezing into a packed Woolworths, the smell of hot roasted peanuts in my nostrils, the jingle of carols piping through the public address, to spend my Christmas money on the usual gifts; stockings for Mum, Old Spice for Dad and who-knows-what for my sisters. Most of all I remember that giddy thrill of excitement - the eager anticipation that made time slow to a standstill as the day approached. Christmas eve I'd be too excited to sleep, even though I desperately wanted to so Christmas morning would come quicker. I'd lie awake in the dark, listening to the sounds downstairs and trying to work out what those odd noises might be - could that repetitious tapping be my longed for typewriter? For years I'd jammed a pencil into the side of metal paint box to get that sound, but could I at last be about to get a real one?

As a matter of fact I did. It was very cheap and ropy, and the square plastic keys always stuck, but it thrilled me anyway. Kids are like that - or at least back in the pre-PS and Wii Sixties they were. We were glad to get anything.

I don't remember what happened to that typewriter, but it's odd the memory has stayed with me. Maybe that's what Christmas is meant to be about - a moment to remember. Actually, thinking about it is getting me in the mood...