All I Want For Christmas is A Dukla Prague Away Kit

That, for the uninitiated, is only one of two pop songs to refer to Subbuteo Table Football...a pastime I enjoyed as a kid and would still if the wifey hadn't made me sell my teams - for a lot of dosh mind you as they were all 70's heavyweights - if you have no idea about Subbuteo I won't explain here...the song was by Half Man Half Biscuit by the by...

The Undertones 'My Perfect Cousin' was the ONLY pop song  to ever mention Subbuteo by name by the way...

Anyroad...

Christmas is coming and I can almost taste my roast parsnips already.....bugger the turkey...give me roast parsnips any day of the week.

Odd how we can get emotional around this time of the year don't you think?

I watched 'The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader' for the first time last night on Sky.

When I was a kid I read all the Narnia books and loved them.

I burst into tears around the age of 9 reading 'The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader' when Reepicheep the heroic mouse - who had also played a major part in the previous novel 'Prince Caspian' chose to travel on to 'Aslan's Country' which basically meant he died.

My mother...aka The Dragon...snatched the book away and threw it in the bin...she didn't approve of books affecting people in that way.....I rescued it a few minutes later....

Watching the movie on Sky I was startled to find tears trickling at the scene were Reepicheep, as per the book, selects to travel to Aslan's Country at the end of the movie.

Must be something to do with Christmas....or possibly too many Buds......

Interestingly...well it is to me...I'm slightly puzzled why I adore these books so much given that they are clearly Christian and I'm agnostic at best.

Aslan is Jesus. Even at the age of 9 I realised this from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. He sacrifices himself for humanity - well, Edmund Pevensie mainly - and is then resurrected again. Ring any bells?

Still. Maintaining my trasdition of being, according to my wife and daughter, a walking contradiction, I love everything about Narnia and recommend it to all who've never had the pleasure.

The three movies available are well worth a watch - although I would most strongly recommend you read the books - not in the order they were written mind you but in the order they should be read -

The Magicians Nephew heralds the very beginnings of Narnia.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe introduces the Pevensie children who become the High Kings and Queens of Narnia.
The Horse And His Boy is an adventure set within the reign of the Pevensie children.
Prince Caspian sees the Pevensie's return to rescue Narnia again.
The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader brings back the two younger Pevensie's along with the terrifically obnoxious Eustace Scrubb.
The Silver Chair returns Eustace to Narnia to rescue an enchanted Prince and...
The Last Battle is just that.

Go read them for Christmas.....Go buy them as a Christmas treat for yourselves or someone else.

Right. I'm off to ask the wifey's Vicar why she doesn't read The Chronicles Of Narnia in church.

Be a damn site more interesting than babbling on passages from the Bible that's for sure....

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Rather worrying when my greatest hero is a mouse.....

If I don't get around to another post...have an excellent and drunken Christmas and be careful out there!!!

4D x