There are few things that please quite so many senses at once as a warm cup of, deep red, spicy smelling, Christmassy tasting mulled wine. It's a shame the thing doesn't make any noise - then it'd have all 5 senses covered!
Portsmouth historic dockyard was so full of Christmas this weekend that whatever your trigger, you couldn't help get into the Christmas spirit. Rosie, Cara and I went round the Christmas market buying ill advised Christmas presents (Cheese - What a terrible idea! Now I'm going to have to keep it in the fridge (which I share with 3 others) until late December. Probably gift wrapped); we were buffeted by flurries of fluffy white snow (which ranged from a light dusting to an intense blizzard depending on how near to the snow machine you were); we also listened to some sea shanties; saw all sorts of characters attending the fair in Victorian dress, including street urchins singing songs from Oliver and a couple of French sea admirals swanning about (it was as if there were a finite number of costumes in the box and all had been used on this occasion including the 'Scottish orchestra' outfits). Come darkness we got lost in a maze of aromatic Christmas trees beautifully adorned with fairy lights which led us to the ships.
It would have been foolish at this point not to take the opportunity to walk around the Mary Rose (which I was disappointed to find isn't actually fit to be trodden on as it sunk in rather a spectacular fashion a long time ago in not the kind of way that can be restored). However by the time I left I was quite convinced that the recovery of said ship may have been the most significant archaeological find since the pyramids (although it's questionable whether these were ever lost in the first place). In particular I was fascinated to learn about the process by which we can work out who someone was based on examining their skeleton - apparently we can recreate a facial likeness good enough for friends and family to recognise in 60% of cases (which puts Bones into perspective for any fans of the TV series). I was considering the way in which the likeness of one reconstructed man was felt to be particularly good because he had an outstandingly distinctive nose, which is silly because skeletons don't have noses, when all the screens in the museum shut down in a not-so-subtle hint that it was time to leave. What a shame, now I'll never know where reconstructed noses come from.
This disappointment did not last long as we were distracted by the prospect of a ride on the merry-go-round. apparently Rosie had never been on one before. It was all a merry-go-round should be, only maybe brighter, faster and generally better (or possibly I just went to lower budget fairs as a child).
As I left it was getting dark. So for the first time I noticed that someone (horrendously brave and good at climbing inadvisable objects) had arranged fairly lights in the shape of a Christmas tree in the rigging of the Victory. It looked beautiful in the dark night. Portsmouth 1, Oxford Street 0.
All in all, I've decided that Christmas should start as soon as possible because it's the best part of winter. Nowadays I've come to realise that the run up is more fun than the day itself and so should be embraced as such. Also, no one serves you mulled wine in January, even though it's cold, so you have to make the most of it when you can get it. Let's all throw ourselves into the Christmas spirit now!
What marks the start of Christmas for you?
It was all a merry-go-round should be, only maybe brighter
Someone had put Christmas lights in the rigging of the Victory
No comments:
Post a Comment