Hokey Cokey season

I have been endeavouring to secure reviews for my book over the past few weeks with varying amounts of success but yesterday Matt Frost from French mortgage Xpress told me that he had lunched with one of my contemporaries (he would not reveal which) who has described my book thus; “as intellectually challenging as reading The Dandy with a hangover”.

Has anyone ever heard of this book, ” A Dandy With A Hangover”? or who wrote it? I am afraid I have not but if it is that intellectually challenging, then I must seek it out, even if it has as its subject a gay chap with a drink problem.

Today could have been described in those terms as well. A lovely day, fine and dandy but the inevitable Monday hangover spoiling the splendid if rather cold weather. The problem with a hangover is that one does not always enjoy the day as much as one would without it and one tends to  begin to question ones very existence, a fact summed up beautifully by this picture that I nicked from old friend LindseyWesker’s Facebook page.

Well, is it?

Robert Degan, who is credited with writing the Hokey Pokey or the Hokey Cokey as it is known in England died about two years ago in USA.  In the funeral parlour as the undertakers readied the coffin they tried to put the left leg in, and that’s when the trouble started.

Last night to Nice to a very nice Italian restaurant called La Favolae in the Cours Soleya in the old town to meet up with the Currencies Direct team and the new Managing Director for the first annual company Christmas dinner, preceded by a wallet raid by fellow Currencies Direct Regional Controller Christine Bryant who is also the French agent for Miche bags, a hand bag phenomenum that is consuming USA at the moment so now there is a gaggle of girls coming around on Friday to see a bigger selection of these items with changeable magnetic exteriors. Anyway, as a nod towards the fast looming festering season I dug out a sparkly black tie that I have not worn for over ten years to go with my black jeans and my black dominatrix shirt and thought that I was looking quite good until our Currencies Direct leader in France, Pippa Maile described my outfit as “Madonna meets men In Black”. I had not realised just how god I looked, I should have taken photographs for my style guru Mr Humphreys to see (if he was free).

Before arriving for dinner, each of the nine diners were asked to wrap up a present with a value of not more than 10 euros to exchange on the night, so what better than a copy of my book, autographed of course, which in on seasonal offer at exactly that price? The tell-tale shape was spotted by almost all delegates who were all understandably keen to get their hands on it, but in the end the lucky recipient was the new Managing Director of Currencies Direct whom I know was delighted.

Just five more shopping days until Christmas which means that if you are the average man you will spend four days thinking about what to buy and then a mad scramble to buy it all on Christmas Eve. I o not feel like the average man, no, I am somewhat below average, so all my shopping will be done in the afternoon of the 24th. The shopping list will include all those vital items to ensure Christmas goes well, cigars and good wine, nothing else matters.

Chris France