FESTIVE LIGHTS

More festive lights are up today.

In typical engineering fashion, Ian has sellotaped a row of flashing, colour-changing Christmas bulbs to the back of his monitor, the line of which trails mid air over the desk and is then sellotaped rudely at the other end, to the corner of Pavel's screen.

Between them they have a sort of mid-air, fairy-light, rope bridge.

Meanwhile, Chris has just sort of unravelled his out along the desk. A green thread of lights trails across the back of his desk like some sort of jumbled runway.

I'm on a bit of a subtle quest to find out what people think Christmas is all about.

My first conversation, with Marie in the kitchen, started with her telling me about her cats' advent calendar. I asked her whether her cats were using it to look forward to Christmas, or whether it was just an elaborate catnip dispenser. I think I might have offended her.

Meanwhile, and as next week's predictable party will surely demonstrate, a number of others seem to think it's about this newfangled idea: having fun. And by 'having fun', they mean easing into the art of social relaxation and tribal bonding by use of inebriation. And by easing into the art of social relaxation and tribal bonding by use of inebriation, they of course mean, fun, but the kind of fun that turns out not to be that much fun after all, the next day. But while it's happening, I admit, it probably does seem like fun.

I admitted that I don't even feel like putting my decorations up in my flat, let alone here. I got called Scrooge. But I don't want to get into that.

The reason for festive lights in the first place of course, is to illuminate the darkness.

Well. That's the reason for any light, not just these flashing little gimcracks of course, but at this time of year, that's literally the whole reason for the season! Even Hanukkah celebrates the hope that a little light can bring to the darkest of worlds.

It seems ironic then than I'm sitting here not feeling like lighting up my corner. I ought to be a champion of light in dark places, a fire-starting hope-bringer, a spark, an ignition of something good.

Maybe I'll look for some Christmas lights in Sainsbury's later. Maybe I'll also look a little deeper.