It is Christmas Eve and in homes throughout the land the preparations for the big day are underway. It is the exact same here in Casa MacLeod. She who must be obeyed has relayed her plan for the next 48 hours. My tasks or is it orders have been issued. Preparing veggies and general dogsbody is the instruction for today. I am only to enter the kitchen when ordered to do so and when that order comes I better be sharpish! Sobriety is to be maintained!
The presents are wrapped and under the Christmas tree awaiting the arrival of the weans tomorrow. The latest fad toys I believe have been purchased over a period of months. There is too, of course, the sensible presents of clothes and jammies which are quickly discarded by the bairns as soon as the wrapping paper has been ripped to reveal what lies within.
My wife is Polish and so Christmas Eve dinner is of greater significance than Christmas Dinner tomorrow. No meat is to be consumed on this day. Tonight we will eat a meal beginning with borscht soup, followed by fish and dumplings. Rounded off with poppyseed cake. The downside in all this is that no alcohol is supposed to be consumed until after midnight! The joys of being a gin drinker and having a water bottle container!
Tomorrow it is my turn in the kitchen. The traditional Scottish Christmas Day fayre is not replicated in Poland or Spain. This then is one of the rare times I am allowed to use the management’s kitchen. I will make my soup tonight, and tomorrow I will cook the chicken and beef with all the usual accompaniments. None of us like turkey and besides hard to come by here in this part of Catalonia. Beloved is making from scratch sticky toffee pudding to finish it off. The Spanish do not embrace the same foods as us, hence the reason they live longer! Sourcing what is required has been a task.
Christmas Day for us won’t get underway until the kids arrive. This time of year is all about them. The look on their wee faces as they open their presents is worth all the stress and worry that precedes their arrival. We will eat too much, I will drink too much and we will all bask in each others company. It is my favourite time of the year.
I am well aware not all Scots or people’s on earth will enjoy tomorrow. Many will be waking hungry, scared and cold, millions to no presents. However, I wanted to end this year not writing about politics domestic or foreign. I will get back to that soon enough, Boxing Day to be precise when I will do a Prism Show with my good friends, Eva, Phil and Yvonne.
Today I just want to convey my thanks to all of you that have supported this blog and Through A Scottish Prism. I have been humbled that so many of you have expressed your appreciation of our efforts this past year. Since I opposed GRA and the Ukraine war in February my Twitter and FB accounts have been deboosted and censored. To the extent that even my friends on Through A Scottish Prism have to go looking for my tweets. Likewise my blogs, some subscribers no longer get the emails that alert them to a new posting. So much for living in a supposed democracy and having freedom of speech and belief.
Unlike some, I will not abandon my principles or beliefs to accrue followers or to get the restrictions lifted from my accounts. I believe in independence, Women’s Rights and Peace. Nothing will make me deviate from those causes. Sadly, too many of our independence representatives have abandoned all three! For the rest of the year and next year and beyond Barrheadboy.com and Through A Scottish Prism will continue to agitate for Scottish independence, speak up for women’s rights and oppose war and oppression wherever it may be.
For now though, I just want to wish you and yours a fabulous Christmas and a wonderful new year. I truly believe it will be a defining year in our quest to break free from the corrupt British Union. I look forward to us all being on that journey together.
Saor Alba gu brath.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. Many thanks for all you do for the cause of Scottish Independence, Womens Rights and Peace on this Earth of ours. I appreciate the non political post today but just a wee nudge for those who haven’t seen it…Please sign and share to #RepealTheGRA https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/628382
Awe the best tae you and yer family Roddy fir Xmas, and tae awe oor fella Scots men and wummin n weans. God bless us awe.
Thank you Tony awra best to you and yours,
Best festive wishes to you and yours Roddy, you do a great and necessary job, Geoff
Thank you GeoffmI appreciate that.
Thanks Roddy. What a lovely informative and humourous message. I personally don’t see Tweets as I left the bird site hoping for sanity in Mastodon.Scot. It is better but came across a scathing anti Alba supporters post today. Oooft. Couldn’t keep my mooth shut n gave my response. 😡
Have a Braw and ‘Merry’ Christmas and a happy n healthy New Year. Be happy. Be safe. Be healthy. Be determined 😉. xx
Thank you all the best to you and yours too.
Veggies are people. You are preparing veg – as in “meat and two veg”, please.
Felice navidad!
From Scotland with love!
To our families and friends living elsewhere in the world. A song (slightly adapted – with independence at its heart), sung by the “Indy Choir”, from a rehearsal in Scotland’s capital, Edinburgh.
Now available for all those who wish to SHARE with their family and friends living elsewhere in the world.
https://www.facebook.com/IndyLiveStream/videos/1294827687743367/
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Scotland’s song is Independence! Is that true for you?
If it is true for you and the wider Yes movement, perhaps there is an important lesson we can learn from a choir.
So a thought …
The human voice is also diverse – it can also be sorted into different types and they sound very very different from each other – soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
We are a diverse movement, and hey, do we sometimes have very different opinions, you bet we do!
That is not wrong, it is exactly how it should be.
But NOT when we sing Scotland’s song. Not when we sing for Scotland, for Independence.
A choir, when it is formed, builds on that very diversity of voices, it binds them together as one, and seeks harmony.
Scotland will always, and should always have, differences of opinions.
It is who we are, and who we should be. And … Lang may our lum reek!
But when we as the Yes movement come together to regain our country’s independence – to sing Scotland’s song – we should act and sing in harmony.
It will always be a choice, our choice, yours and mine.
No matter the issues on which we disagree – a Scotland if it is to regain its independence asks only one thing of us – that we choose wisely.
Let’s hope we do!
Have a wonderful Christmas Roddy, to you and yours. Much love and gratitude for all you do. ❤️🏴❤️🎄
I hope everyone has a great Christmas and here’s hoping for a free Scotland in 2023 xxx
Thank you for your very kind words and support. Merry Xmas to you and yours,
Thanks Roddy – I don’t do the whole celebration thing. I always say I’m neither a Christian or a Capitalist and so it holds no attraction for me. As a realist and a rationalist I see no point in celebrating the passage of another 365 days for any ocassion – although I might make an exception if we ever get independence. Sadly, I no longer can envisage that happenning in my lifetime.
Hope you and your family keep good health over the next 365.25 day cycle of the earth rotating the sun and will look forward to reading your blogs as well as watching Prism – just wish I knew how to join in the chat as I’ve tried and my posts don’t show.
The most comforting thing to me is to know that there are still some rational peole out there – it’s just a pity that they don’t apear to be among the majority in our parliament.
Best wishes to you and all on the Prism show – the highlight of my week. Lang may yer lums reek.
Wait till Prism begins then hit Live Chat that should do it.
Merry Christmas to all my fellow Scots where ever you are on this planet and if you’re like me and dream of Indyref2 here hoping 2023 is the year for Scottish Independence.
In the bleak midwinter we need writers and bloggers like yourself to keep our sprits up. A new uncertain year beckons and it’s comforting to know you’ll be leading the way for independence.
Happy holidays to you and your wife.
A magnificent contribution again this year by you and other indy bloggers Roddy. Collectively you represent the intellectual base of the movement as well as the activists metaphorically standing on street corners handing out the anti-colonial truth to an impoverished and enslaved mass, while state police look on from dark alleys; twas ever thus.
The good news this Yule is that the compromised SNP tanker found to be carrying only sewage and sailing under a foreign flag failed to turn around, and has now has hit the rocks and is taking on water rapidly. I think I hear the cry ‘abandon ship’!
Thanks for all your hard work, Roddy, you’ll never get paid for it, but I realise that was never your aim or your motivation in the first place. All the very best to you and yours; I wish you all a happy and productive 2023!
All the very best for Christmas and the New Year Roddy, for yourself and the family. Here in Germany it’s much the same story as in Poland with Christmas: tonight’s what it’s all about, although I’m in no way religious.
I’m the one that normally cooks but at Christmas my wife would always take over the kitchen, but for the last three years I’ve been caring for her, and so I took over, but last week she passed so tonight it will just be a pizza and a beer.
You’re doing all of us committed independentistas a great service with the Prism and the blogs. Sunday is not Sunday without TASP, but I can be patient until Boxing Day.
Enjoy Christmas with the weans while you can. All too soon they grow up and it becomes a different sort of Christmas.
Our Grandweans are in their late teens and early twenties. It’s great to see them and we can still buy them toys, though more likely to be video games now. On the plus side, the clothes are not discarded as long as we’ve taken the hints and got the right ones.
Have a great time. Slainte Mhath and Soar Alba.
The dangers of autocorrect. Saor Alba.
Thank you Roddy for all the work you have put into your blog and Through a Scottish Prism. Enjoy the festive season and l look forward to next years instalments.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Cheers to ye Roddy, Prism crew, guest writers and ye all.