It's leftovers and re-runs for us tonight, the last of our Xmas celebration. TOmorrow early Barky and Co., head Nawth again, bound for LA and San Jose, to wqhich they know the way, tumtumtumteetumtytumtytum, and we head to the offices for a couple of days. Then the New Year week looms and we head for LA and thence up to Mudlark's in the central Coast region, where the vinyards groan with their burdens and the wine flows all year around.

One of the nicver things I got for Christmas was a final stainless-steel-cased compass from the Dalvey company in the Scottish Highlands. The instruction manual goes to the trouble of pointing out, however, that it is not suitable for use in the Southern hemisphere. So my wife wanted to know what they use in the Southern hemisphere, and I told her they used a Tates.

"What's a Tates?", she said, all innocent, like.

"It's a special compass for use in the southern hemisphere," I explained. "You don't see them up here, where they don't work. Up here, he who has a Tates is lost...".

There was a moment's thundering silence, while three female brains clicked and whirred, and then I was overwhelmed by flying Christmas wrappings, some of them still containing hard objects.


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