It's never too late for a Christmas miracle it seems. Someone's decided to take down the Engineering Tree in time for twelfth night.
Last year, it stayed up for days afterwards - glinting away like a tacky beacon above the banks of desks and computers. It's currently being shoved into a box, all its mouses and old CDs and processing-chip decorations wrapped up for another year. Christmas is over.
Technically though, this should be the day for ten lords a-leaping, not three engineers a-shuffling a plastic tree into a cardboard box.
I think the origin of the song says that the ten lords were supposed to be the Ten Commandments - maybe 'leaping to memory' over the otherwise indulgent festive season. No coveting thy neighbour's new Lego Millenium Falcon! No stealing mince-pies from thy colleagues' desks; that sort of thing.
Still, there is a part of me that likes the idea of official business in the House of Lords being suspended today while old men in mink and ermine gowns have a festive knees-up across the benches. Typically those fellows seem to be either asleep or a bit grumpy, and to be honest, ordinarily I can't really blame them given the state of things.
Anyway, round these parts, the Engineering Tree is away, leaving me to wonder if I'll see it again. Though, you know I'm sure I said that last year. Then, maybe things will be different. I'm not a lord, but I can certainly jump about and make a merry old difference. And today is today, but it is technically a leap year now too, isn't it?
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