Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

My plans for Christmas changed a lot over the past week. I was looking forward to a very quiet, easy going Christmas hanging out with my lovely girlfriend. Unfortunately only one of those words now describes her accurately. And it’s not the word girlfriend.

So rather than making do, I decided to cancel Christmas altogether. Presents, Santa, turkey? balls to all that crap. On the other hand, consuming far too much alcohol is probably a tradition I can honour. So I’m quite surprised that seeing as I’m being such a grinch that it’s been quite a good Christmas.

Kicking off in Le Delice last night with the usual crowd getting plastered at the bar, Christmas Day started with a hangover and a drive down the valley to my friend Katy’s new place in Servoz for a big English fry-up brunch with bucks fizz with a group of 10 other no-kid-having 30 somethings. Feeling far more human I went up Les Houches for a ski with a few mates in the afternoon, got a beer in at the Vieux Luge restaurant in the woods. Not the most taxing afternoon’s skiing, but good to blow the cobwebs away.

Seeing as it’s a special occasion, I’m even going to change out of my ski gear and have a bath before dinner up at the farm. Some of the girls are making Canadian slow-roasted ham and a pretty large party seems likely.

So it’s not all bad. But on the other hand….. plan A would still have been my first choice.

I’m going to take a short break from writing this blog. Just a week or so probably and I’ll be back very soon.

I listen to a lot of Radio 4 while I work, and I’ve been working a lot. Lately I’ve noticed the phrase ‘carbon footprint’ much more. Everything I listen to has some arsehole banging on about the evils of cheap flights, food packaging, energy waste, blah blah blah.

Now it’s not that I’m against changing the way we live & addressing global warming or anything like that. Quite the opposite - my personal impact on the environment is considered and as small as I can be bothered to make it right now. It will become more so as I get older.

What bothers me is the way that the media jack-boot is starting to stamp down on the face of our collective attitude and change it with such ease. In no time at all only chavs will talk openly about flying on easyjet, drink bottled water in public or buy vegetables grown in Africa because they’re cheaper and look better. The rest of us will add these things to our growing list of dirty little secrets.

Of course it’s a good thing, that’s why it takes hold so quickly. It’s just so depressingly predictable. People are such sheep. Not because they follow the herd around blindly. But because they bleat on and on. And on.

So I designed a T-shirt. Perhaps I can get expedia to sponsor a competition here on the blog. The first person to send me a picture of them wearing this t-shirt whilst sitting in a Hummer could win an all expenses paid trip to the arctic for a relaxing week of watching ice melt.