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Never rely on predictive text!
What do Leona Lewis and my lovely Dad have in common? Well up until this week I would have said “absolutely nothing apart from a surname!”. That was before I heard the story about a tweet sent by the ubiquitous Simon Cowell last week.
Telling his 8.5 million Twitter followers about X Factor alumni Leona Lewis’ new Christmas album, he fell foul of dreaded predictive text and the message went out as Leonard Lewis instead – I’d like to think that Dad would have found that quite amusing, particularly since the Cowell and my Dad actually attended the same school in North London (albeit quite a few years apart!).
The story was also covered on the ITV2 show, Celebrity Juice, on Thursday night and was met with much hilarity from the studio guests and provided a laugh out loud moment for me in my living room too!!!
Cheap Flights?
So now that the Christmas period is over and we’re all gradually returning to work, the thing we normally look forward to is the next holiday. If you’re thinking of looking for a good online deal, remember – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is! Take a look at this video and you’ll know exactly what I mean if you’ve ever booked to fly with one of the budget airlines!
A word of warning though, some readers may find some of the language offensive!
Merry Christmas one and all
IT’S CHRISTMAAAAASSSSS!!!
As we prepare to sit down to our festive meal, I’d like to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year – let’s hope it’s not an unlucky number for all of us and Santa left you something nice in your stocking!!!
Eat, drink and be merry – but everything in moderation of course!
The answer is blowing in the wind!
So the annual sprout-eating ritual approaches. Every Christmas, this one vegetable divides opinion – some of us love them, some of us hate them, but eating them can have some, er, embarrassing consequences…
Sprouts, along with onions, beans and dairy products, are hard to digest in the stomach and small intestine because our bodies can’t produce the enzymes needed to break down some of the chemical components they contain.
However, the presence of flatulence seems to be the least of our worries!
Last Christmas, a man from Ayrshire was hospitalised after eating too many Brussels sprouts! The reason? Well this controversial vegetable contains Vitamin K, a chemical the body uses to promote blood clotting and while it does this, it also counteracts anticoagulants (used in blood-thinning medication).
This poor man was prescribed anticoagulants after suffering heart failure in 2011, and his dose was monitored weekly to prevent blood clotting. However, when his blood started to clot close to Christmas last year and he was admitted to Hospital, the doctors could not understand why his medication was not keeping his blood thin until he told them he’d been eating lots of sprouts!
So there’s your excuse … if you don’t want to eat sprouts with your festive turkey, instead of saying you don’t like them, just tell your host that they’re bad for your health!!!
Jesus v Santa
As if to prove that the commercialisation of Christmas has definitely moved a step too far, a recent survey has found that many people struggle with the storyline of the birth of baby Jesus. Over 2,000 children and parents were polled on behalf of the Bible Society about their nativity play knowledge, and the results showed some major holes in the story. Here are just some of the hilarious results:
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A majority of Britons appear to be unaware that Jesus was born out-of-wedlock
- Only 26% knew that Mary and Joseph were betrothed
- 2% thought Mary and Joseph were ‘on their first date’ when they found out she was pregnant
- A further 37 people thought Santa Claus was the first person to visit baby Jesus
- A majority believed he was sleeping in a Moses basket, not a manger
We hear a lot about “the war on Christmas”, but the true seasonal struggle is the war within Christmas, a single holiday shared by two deeply antagonistic religions.
Religion 1 is the religion of Jesus Christ, the figure whose birth the holiday commemorates. This religion emphasises universal grace and forgiveness.
Religion 2 is the religion of Santa Claus, the holiday’s most visible representative. Santa upholds a much sterner creed: “You better watch out / You better not cry / Better not pout / I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is coming to town / He’s making a list / And checking it twice / Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice …”
So even though Christmas began as a celebration dedicated to Jesus, this holiday has become increasingly commercial, most people being more interested in gifts and parties than the religious side of this holiday. Although they are tied to the same day, December 25th, Santa Claus and Jesus’ birth don’t have much in common, because each one promotes other values.
It’s funny how many people teach their kids all about Jesus and God (something that can’t be proven), while there are others that wait to introduce ideas of faith and religion to their kids when they’re old enough to decide for themselves (very enlightened!) . And then there are those who have had no problem telling their kids about a fat guy sliding down the chimney with a sack full of gifts and eating the cookies and milk, his elves, flying reindeer, and somehow doing this at midnight in every home all around the world (WTF?).
It truly is a time of year when there is something for everyone it seems! So, whatever you believe, a very Merry Christmas to one and all!!!
Poor Rudolph
Is it me, or does the Christmas fanfare start earlier and earlier each year?
It is still only early November, but casually strolling along Argyll Street in Glasgow yesterday I came across this rather lonely (enormous!) reindeer, stationed outside Debenhams Department Store and the St Enoch Centre. Is he waiting for the stores to provide the presents, and will Santa be along soon to take him on his journey around the world to deliver them? Maybe I’ll pop along on 24th December to check – he’s looking a little sad there at the moment!
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