I surely can’t be the only person who finds it irritating when supermarkets decide to turn themselves into obstacle courses by bringing out every roll cage, pallet and cleaning trolley from their warehouse and abandoning them in the aisles…! It’s especially annoying when they line pallets along one side of an aisle, blocking access to all of the shelves on that side.

In an apparently litigious culture, it’s a wonder these retailers aren’t sued every five minutes by shoppers tripping over the unattended cardboard boxes that are frequently found littering the aisles.

Wendy bought me the second season of The Killing on DVD for Christmas, and I’m already fairly well into it…! I loved the first season; it was truly superlative TV. If you haven’t seen it yet, then you really should find the time! I’m very much enjoying this second season too.

I came late to The Killing, only catching up with it a couple of months ago when it appeared on Netflix… which meant that I devoured the whole series in no time at all! I then got such strong withdrawal symptoms that I started watching the US remake… which was truly awful!

Iain Dale blogged about Borgen earlier today, which is another series I’ve heard consistently brilliant things about, but haven’t yet found the time to watch. Perhaps it should be my next box set…!

My brother and sister in law kindly bought Wendy and me some Pizza Express espresso cups for Christmas, and this was my attempt at a homemade espresso macchiato. It was really rather tasty, even if I do say so myself!

As Wendy was working yesterday, we had our Christmas dinner today. This was our almost fully-prepared table!

Here are some presents, under our tree! Merry Christmas everyone… I hope you have a brilliant day!

I attempted a 6.30am trip to M&S for Christmas food this morning, reasoning that I might avoid the crowds. Unfortunately, it seems the crowds had the same idea…! I can’t believe how busy it was at that time in the morning! I’m now recovering in the cafe.

This Christmas tree at Newcastle Airport leans to an even greater degree in real life than appears to be the case in this photo…! But it made me smile with amusement, and I guess Christmas trees are, after all, supposed to make people smile!

I went with my sister and nephews to see some reindeer at a garden centre today… not a typical Saturday morning, but it is Christmas, and I think we all had fun!

I received the paper copy of the Christmas BMJ today featuring the article I wrote with Dr Jean Adams and Prof Martin White spread over three pages…! I’d assumed they’d pack it in to a single page, so it was quite a surprise to see it spread out!

I think I’ve talked more about this paper in a single week than I have about any piece of work I’ve ever previously done…! You can hear me talking about it on this week’s Pod Delusion, or you can listen to some of the radio interviews I did below.

It’s all been a very exciting week for me, having never published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal before, and having done very little media work before… though I’m now very well ready for a rest! And I’m sure that applies even more to Jean and Martin, who did far more interviews than me – and far more challenging interviews than mine! I definitely got away quite lightly…!

Alfie and Charlie on BBC Newcastle, 18th December 2012
[audio:http://sjhoward.co.uk/audio/bmj/newcastle.mp3]

Mike Parr on BBC Tees, 18th December 2012
[audio:http://sjhoward.co.uk/audio/bmj/tees.mp3]

Julia Hartley-Brewer on LBC 97.3, 18th December 2012
[audio:http://sjhoward.co.uk/audio/bmj/london.mp3]

Simon Hoban on BBC Radio Merseyside, 18th December 2012
[audio:http://sjhoward.co.uk/audio/bmj/merseyside.mp3]

Ian Timms on BBC Radio Cumbria, 19th December 2012
[audio:http://sjhoward.co.uk/audio/bmj/cumbria.mp3]

I’m struggling to think of a photo for today… so here’s a bottle of Synergi, the contact lens solution that both Wendy and I use. I’ve no idea of the relative merits of solutions or whether using something like this is the ophthalmic equivalent of wasting money by buying branded paracetamol… I’m really totally clueless!