It's been another lovely year of #yayadvent and #yayswap. Thank you all for participating once again. Same time next year?

@emgeekay.bsky.social hello! I'm the person who does the #yayadvent swap, and yes! Please join us! I emigrated to Canada after I ran it in the UK and I'd love for more people to join it here - we have a few but the more the merrier!

@goldenknight-s.bsky.social Pointless following me. I've ditched your team. Have a bar for player standards that isn't below the ice and I'll come back.

#yayadvent and #yayswap matches have gone out. Please let me know if you didn't get it!

@artefactual.bsky.social hello! Can you confirm you got your yayswap email? I've had a bounce notification from you!

Last couple of days for Yayadvent/Yayswap sign up. If you're a nice, normal person and interested in an advent calendar and/or Christmas ornament exchange and want more info let me know!

#yayadvent and #yayswap signups are now live. Though I'm around, this account is not actively monitored so please get in touch via the contact form on the website if necessary. yayadvent.weebly.com

D has never heard of "I Don't Like Mondays" and I don't know how to process that. Like, it's not a cultural difference, I hear it here, he just has never registered the song.

Watched Macbeth for Burns Night, and translated it for D who hates Shakespeare. "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..." "Err, YOLO?"

Yesterday I bought a plugin air freshener that looks like a duck in a raincoat with wellies. Today D was musing the smart plugs, and asked me "what was your plan for this?" My plan was to buy the cute duck, David. I didn't think beyond that.

Just had a completely new experience at the theatre. The woman next to us, who was engaged and clapping all through the show, pulled out her phone and completely ignored the curtain call. In 40 years of attending and working in theatre I have *never* seen someone ignore the curtain call.

Not played darts in a while - what does this score again?

One of the best things I've done is make mirepoix ice cubes, they speed up cooking so many things. Except when I use the last one and forget so I go to grab some and the freezer is empty 🤦🏻‍♀️

Every time I get my fringe trimmed the hairdresser feels the need to point out I have a cowlick. 1. I currently have a fringe, so yes, I'm aware of that. 2. I'm 42. I look at myself daily. If I haven't noticed by now I probably am not going to realise even with you pointing it out.

Made D carry my Christmas present up to my office because I was too scared of dropping it. But now the MLP nursery is officially open for business. Clearly need more ponies.

I'm 12 pages into a new book and this is so egregiously wrong I'm considering DNF.

Trying to decide if I should leave these up through winter. Maybe change the ribbons to be all the green/gold?

Regretting starting the year with this. I do not have the attention span after Christmas to be following all these threads.

Saddest part of the year - taking all the batteries out of the Christmas animals so they can get packed away safely.

How do you mute words on here?

Just seen a Burns Night supper advertised. One of the dishes? Scallop tempura. Not one of the dishes? Haggis. Vancouver can fuck the fuck off and keep on fucking off.

So with today's Meta announcement I am once again trying to make Bluesky stick.

Today's advent magazine is from 2003, and had a perfume ad that had never been peeled, so I got to smell 20 year old special edition Calvin Klein. Nice little bonus there.

STRONG entry from my vintage Christmas magazines advent calendar today. Year of my birth, weirdass angel, first of a special series.

My colleague planned a huge work project for 20th Nov. I warned that was dangerously close to our 'no big projects in Dec' rule, and we'd be scrambling in Christmas season. "No, no, that's the end date, it's fine". Guess who's got pulled in to help with the project this week?

Tree.

Why do I dream up stupid projects for myself?

We have a tree! Going to the farm is always the best day of the year, and this year was even better because our friends delivered the tree in their van so we got tree and lovely people!

#snagvent day one. I never would have picked this colour but it's so cute once on! And I've just ordered the botanical fishnets so I can layer, and this is the ideal colour for a base.

And so it begins... #yayadvent

So having neighbours who are inconsiderate dicks and misophonia combined has me on the hunt for new noise-cancelling headphones, as they're going to be a 24/7 necessity. Can anyone recommend from experience? I need something I can lie on my side with.

The #yayadvent train has rolled into town...and by that I mean I've gone south to use the post office there as ours is out of bounds!

Ooh, #yayadvent feed up and running! That's exciting!

Preparing for a "bomb cyclone" later today. Which seems like a really alarmist way of saying "a storm is coming". My hatches are battened nevertheless.

Poinsettia!

Am stuck at a desk in case trouble tickets come in. You know what that means. CHRISTMAS CRAFTING.

Made good time on work yesterday and now waiting on a response. I should do a deep clean...but the urge to tinsel all the things is stroooooooong.

Why are grocery store bagels always cut, but not all the way through?

This was the weekend of bedecking the house. I have to work instead.

Okay, I'm going to try and give this another go in the hope that #yayadvent helps me find the good stuff. So tentative wave?

Hello! I'm not here, it just doesn't work for me. I'll keep my account so we can have a presence here for #yayadvent, but in the meantime, find me on Threads or Instagram. Hope you're all okay!

Changed phones and now BSky says I have no notifications. So if you've been trying to reach me, ugh. This place really isn't clicking for me.

Whether you've seen this, or not, it is a thing of real magic.

Downloading last night's Dr Who so I can basically watch it on repeat the entire flight back and unpick it all.

Leeds friends! I am in town for one night only on 2nd Dec. If you want to see me hit me up!

The great thing about being in your mid-40s is that some mornings you wake up and a random body part is hurting, and you think "Why is that hurting? What did I do?" and look at that! Now you have a little more mystery in your life! Isn't that fun?

@monkeyson.bsky.social hello you! (I'm assuming it's you. Quick check. Who's the sixth doctor?)