Rumpole and Christmas lunch

I finished reading John Mortimer's latest Rumpole - 'The anti-social behaviour of Horace Rumpole'. It was great fun as usual with Rumpole taking swipes at the stupidities of the establishment. At last he has the support of Leonard Bullingham the judge usually referred to as the mad bull. There is an uneasy truce between them because the bull plays bridge with Hilda - she who must be obeyed. Rumpole decides to try for silk - but fails at the last hurdle because he will not listen to a Government Minister. There is also a Civil Servant who is accused of murdering a Russian prostitute and one of the Timson clan with an ASBO. Add to this mix a spot of people trafficking and you have some very up to the minute mayhem. A good read as ever, if rather short. I think I prefer the books of short stories, but any Rumpole is better than none at all. His love of the simple things in life and a certain sense of fair play make these books multi-layered reading. There are serious points beneath the humour and the beautifully delineated characters.

I went out for Christmas lunch with the team I work with today, and really enjoyed it. I prefer socialising with small groups and there were 8 of us which was perfect. The small restaurant/bar we went to was pleasant and the food was good and good value. In the main we do not talk all that much at work, and it was lovely to find that we could talk about other things than work. I was going to write that we have a wide range of ages, but actually now our youngest member has moved to another office we actually don't. We're mainly 40s and 50s with one over 60, who could retire and doesn't want to. We had our manager with us as we all get on well with her and it was nice to relax and just chat. No one got too drunk especially as several people had to drive home, but we all had enough to be slightly merry. One of our number has only just come out from a messy divorce and it was good to see him enjoying himself. The whole thing actually made me feel a bit Christmassy at last and I went home feeling definitely unstressed.

Off to find something I fancy reading in my to read pile and chill out.