How can he be saved?

14:58

Lots of people think that the X in Xmas is a secular watering down of the word Christ. You know, “we love to celebrate the holiday but don’t believe in Jesus,” sort of thing. However, this is not the case. The X actually comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of Χριστός. Now, if that’s all Greek to you, Χριστός, of course, means Christ.
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 Wheww! What a great night! I woke thinking "What day is today? What the hell did i do last night? And then it all came clear.

The boys of the NYPD choir
Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on
a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

-The Pogues
 

Marcondes cooked a turkey. I made a big ensalada with like 9 types of lettuce. The turkey was delicious. It was well cooked, which is really the only concern (because he had never made one before.) But he had a recipe and it was great. He put a Brazilian stuffing inside which was phenomenal (we use this word in Spanish, so it has made a resurgence in my English vocabulary.) But he put the whole thing on a platter with the gravy and potatoes in a platter, before i had carved it (thank you Mum for teaching me how to crave a turkey almost 30 years ago! It has been a much appreciated skill to have throughout my lifetime, none moreso than in Madrid where i have yet to meet a single Spanish person who knows how to do it.) So i taught Marcondes. But first i had to get it on cutting board (It was hotter than Satan's balls, so i had to get under it with a large metal serving spoon). Then i had to untie the legs and take the stuffing out (fucking hysterical!). Then i snapped the legs off, which practically fell off, and carved it. It stayed moist because of the stuffing inside. I would venture that it's been at least 15 years since i carved a bird that had stuffing made inside it. You do need to know what you are doing. And cooking often seems like one of the few things Marcondes actually really knows how to do. He's great and i love him but he has almost no education at all, so he does some stupid shit. But he is a good guy so i don't have much trouble letting all that other stuff slide. 


Cara came over at 22:00. Her Spanish is excellent and we spoke Spanish all night. I am getting better, bit by bit. It's getting easier to express myself. We call her Nicole when we speak in Spanish (her middle name) in the same way that i use Jota with some people who jsut can't pronounce it. Cara means expensive or face in Spanish, which sometimes is perceived as to be cheeky en espanol. Not the easiest name to have. Spanish people all pronounce my name as "hi." And i'm like, Hola, what the hell do you want?

So, i had also bought some Ukranian vodka in a little shop down the street. I told him i wanted something i could drink on the rocks because Cara also loves Martinis. Marcondes asked to mix some in a blender with fresh mango. I had sip, but this was great vodka, so i told him i'd rather drink it straight. He had poured about 1/4 of the bottle into the blender. He then dumped a ton of brown sugar in what was left in the blender. I was ready to take another sip of the mango concoction (without sugar) when he grabbed it off the table and poured it in with all the sugar. He blended it and then taste it and loved it. He offered it to me. I had some and it was vile. "He said no problem. I'll drink it." He got absolutely hammered. He is devoid of common sense about how much to drink. He gets ripped off of two beers. I came back in the in kitchen later and saw he had made more. By now the bottle was half gone. I made myself a martini and he gestured with the blender. "More," he said. "i'll buy you a new bottle tomorrow." I told him not to worry about it but used the excuse that Cara wasn't even here yet to not give him any more. Beside, he was wasted. I didn't want him to pass out on the turkey.

Eudardo even said. "He is very content." I told him he had drunk A LOT of vodka (destroyed very good vodka actually - it was an abomination!) Eduardo said he had told him that maybe he should drink vodka when he cooks from now on. 

So, before dinner we had vodka and some salmon caviar on buttered crackers, just like teh Ukranian man had told me how to make it. It was fantastic. We had a very nice dinner and a very good time. I walked Cara home around 2:00, came home and went right to bed.


Did you ever see the faces of the children
They get so excited.
Waking up on Christmas morning
Hours before the winter suns ignited.
They believe in dreams and all they mean
Including heavens generosity.
Peeping round the door
to see what parcels are for free
In curiosity.

And Tommy doesn't know what day it is.
He doesn't know who Jesus was or what praying is.
How can he be saved?
From the eternal grave.
-The Who




Mum called on the 24th to say Merry Christmas! Always good to hear from the Mum. I swear, it's like i've known the woman forever. She also mentioned that the blog entry about Gabi was hysterical. When you and your mother can laugh about a prostitute turning tricks out of your house, you know you have a good relationship. I reinforced the idea that i really don't think about anyone having sex other than me. So if you are gay or decide to be a prostitute then it really doesn't bother me. We all do what we have to do in this life. Whenever possible, we should all treat each other with dignity, kindness and respect. And that, my dear people, is the true spirit of Christmas / The Winter Equinox.




And lastly, this is my Xmas playlist;

Christmas Wrapping			The Waitresses
River			Joni Mitchell
Utopia			Tony Levin
For Absent Friends			GENESIS
Jerusalem			Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Rivers of Light			Tony Levin
Fairytale Of New York			Pogues (Ft. Kirsty Maccoll)
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)			John Lennon
don peyote			Wayward Platypus
The Rain Song			Led Zeppelin
Christmas			The Who
Broon's Bane			Rush
The Trees			The Rush String Quartet
Xanadu			The Rush String Quartet
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town			Bruce Springsteen
I Believe In Father Christmas			Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Nude Wrestling With A Christmas Tree			Adrian Belew
Father Christmas			Kinks
Mood For A Day			Yes
Entangled			Genesis
Christmassteps			Mogwai
A Christmas Camel			Procol Harum
Easy Skanking			Bob Marley
Can't Find My Way Home			Blind Faith