Let it snow...

As I've said before on many occasions, I love snow. In fact, I'd go further and say I like cold weather generally.

So, as you can imagine, I'm in my element with the current cold snap. I don't want to sound like a pensioner, but winters don't seem to be as cold as they should be - or as cold as they used to be.

So it's nice to have consistently freezing weather which, incidentally, is expected to last well into the new year (according to GMTV, anyway) to remind us that it's December. The frost is, my nan tells me, also very good for swedes.

I just hope we get a bit of snow now. With a couple of days off work coming up, a stroll in some freshly fallen snow really appeals.

The Trap (Bridge Inn, Chirk)

As locals go, you can't beat The Trap in Chirk. The beer's great, the company's first class and the landlady and landlord - Deb and Martin - are nice, friendly people. Oh, and you can't forget Emma - probably the best barmaid around (she'd kill me if I didn't mention her).

Anyway, here's Deb and Martin as you've probably never seen them. Martin's resemblance to Peter Kay is more striking than ever, but I'm a bit concerned about his fitness. I'm not sure he'd make a genuine superhero - best stick to pulling pints.

By the way, if anyone wonders why I'm blogging at 8.45 on Christmas Day, blame Melissa. I'm waiting for her to get ready. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly quick process.

Merry Christmas

In the spirit of the season, I'd like to wish all three followers of my blog a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Who said I was miserable?

Cold shoulder

I am suffering at the moment. Not in a particularly serious way, but suffering nonetheless. The culprit is another bout of cold/flu.

I hate being ill. And I'm not very good at it - just ask Melissa. When I'm ill - which thankfully isn't too often - I just want to sleep, which isn't great at the moment considering the festive season is about to get under way in earnest. And if I can't sleep, I'm even more irritable and irrational than usual. Like most men, I also feel sorry for myself which does nothing to lighten the mood.

So, having hardly slept last night, and having been irritable and irrational in work all day, I'm planning to head home in a minute and go straight to sleep in the hope that I'll be back to my usual sunny disposition when I wake up. Well, sunny-ish maybe.

Clarification

Melissa has asked (told would perhaps be a more accurate description) me to clarify my previous entry about bathroom cleaning.

She believes it makes it sound like we have a "disgusting, dirty" bathroom. We don't. Even when I clean it.

So here goes with the apology:

I have been asked to point out that the article entitled 'You try to help...' was in no way meant to imply that Mrs Wright's bathroom was anything other than spotless at all times. Any impression to the contrary was entirely unintentional.

Now can I come out of the spare room?

You try to help...

I like to think of myself as a modern kind of husband, willing to share the burden of running a house evenly with Melissa. I don't mind cooking tea if I'm home first, I don't mind doing the shopping if Melissa happens to be working on a Saturday, I don't mind cleaning and I will, if I'm pushed, even do the ironing.

Most people I speak to seem to think this is a good thing. However, for Melissa things aren't quite that straightforward. When I do the ironing, I never put things away 'in the right place'; when I do the cooking, it's never what she fancies; and if I do the shopping, I don't buy enough yogurts.

My one trump card has always been the cleaning. It's always been the one area I was beyond reproach... until Sunday.

In an effort to get all the rubbish jobs out of the way on Sunday morning, I grabbed the cleaner and proceeded to give the bathroom a good going over. Having completed this not-particularly-pleasant-for-a-Sunday task, I proceeded to inform Melissa, thinking she would be pleased.

How wrong I was. She immediately walked into the bathroom and began scrutinising the towel radiator. When I asked her what she was doing, she replied that she was checking to see if I'd cleaned properly.

So now not even my cleaning is up to scratch. Perhaps I should take the advice of a good friend of mine who, when asked how he got away without doing any housework, explained: "I did it once, very, very badly, and have not been asked since. Whenever I offer to help, I'm always told to stick to doing what I do best - sitting in front of the TV." Nice work if you can get it.

Christmas

I love Christmas. It's not particularly fashionable to say so, but I can't help it. Every year I get excited even though, at the age of 32, I should be past being excited at the prospect of opening presents.

However, there's one element of the festive season I could happily live without - the music. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing inherently wrong with Christmas music (The Pogues' Fairytale of New York is, without doubt, one of the best songs ever recorded). It's just that listening to the same 20 or so songs over and over again, every day for a month, is enough to drive to anyone to distraction.

Unfortunately for me, Melissa doesn't feel the same way. She loves Christmas (like me) but also loves the music (unlike me). This means that, for the next few weeks, there will be a battle in the Wright household between my music (at the moment this consists largely of Belle and Sebastian's extensive back catalogue) and Melissa's Christmas CDs. Somehow, I doubt it will be an even contest.

Darkness

The winter is always a funny time of year for us editorial-types on the Leader. Why's it funny I hear you ask?

Well, we drive to work in the dark (newsdesk start at 6.45am) and we drive home in the dark. In fact, my office doesn't have any windows, so I can go for days at a time without natural light.

Now I'm not after sympathy here; I enjoy my job and, frankly, there are far worse ways to make a living.

However, it does mean that weekends are something of a shock to the system when we emerge, blinking, into daylight wondering where we are and what time it is.

It also makes you appreciate weekends all the more, particularly when we enjoy weather like we did this weekend - frosty and bright.

Without sounding too healthy, it's the sort of day that makes you want to jump out of bed and go for a walk. And call for a pint in the local, of course.