Christmas top 10 (part one)

It's starting to get cold here now. I'm trying to keep the Canada Goose in mothballs for as long as possible, but it was -20 today, which felt distinctly chilly even given my short journey to school. Still, in little more than a week I shall be back in the relative warmth of of the south, although with impeccable timing Gananoque is in the midst of its first winter storm warning of the season. Better now than next week, I guess.

Now, a few posts ago I talked about my penchant for Christmas music and I threatened to give you a rundown of my top ten. Well, it may be somewhat self-ingratiating, but it is my blog after all, so we will start today with numbers ten and nine and hopefully work our way up to number one before Christmas day itself.

10. Stan Freberg - Green Christmas (1958)
Not really a song and will be completely unknown to virtually everyone except my family, but I've loved this track since I was very small. We had it on 7" vinyl and the record always got stuck when it got to the "All right, Abercrombie" part, and even though I now have it on mp3 and CD I'm still always surprised when we get past that bit without me having to shove the player or weigh down the needle with coins. Ah, memories...




9. Johnny Mathis - When A Child Is Born (1976)
Whenever I hear this song I must be the only person on Earth who thinks of Subbuteo; the table football set I got for Christmas that year was just about my best present ever, and the warbling voice of Johnny Mathis serenaded my plastic players as they took the field (well, green baize) for their first game.

Ribs, Roddick and Ross

It was the annual ribfest in Gananoque this weekend, and after what was a pretty sedentary week last week I took a stroll into the town park this morning to sample what was on offer. I say this morning, but it was actually well into the afternoon by the time I left the apartment due to the length of Roger Federer's fantastic victory over Andy Roddick at Wimbledon. I like Federer so I'm pleased he won, but I was also looking forward to Andy Roddick's victory speech had he emerged on top after that titanic fifth set. Roddick was a guest on the Jonathan Ross radio show in the UK last month, and he'd promised to mention Ross on court had he won, thanking him for all the 'advice' he'd offered during the show. Maybe next year...

Going back to my ribs (which was also the title of Odyssey's poorly received follow-up to their 1981 smash hit Going back to my roots), I enjoyed a rather nice half rack for my lunch, provided courtesy of the Kentucky Smokehouse, which has won the 'Best Ribs' award at the festival for the last four years. There was a long queue outside the Smokehouse, and I felt rather sorry for the other 'ribbers' on site as nobody seemed interested in their ribs, although my sorrow didn't extend to giving them my trade, I have to say. I think I've just about digested all that meat now, and it's my intention to be far more active this week so I will hopefully be able to work off the pork over the next few days.

Maybe I can talk Melanie into a game of tennis when she arrives next week; Melanie doesn't normally like playing, but perhaps I can get her a copy of the Jonathan Ross coaching manual.