Tails From Provence

I’m kinda cheating with today’s Christmas Spirit video, because I’m using two videos.  If you’re not Irish (and of a certain age) you won’t have seen the first one, which was a long-running ad for the Irish electricity company back in the eighties.  It always gives me goose bumps, because for the four years I was away at college, that was ME getting off the train from Dublin, being met by my Dad and being driven to our family home.

Oh dear, I appear to have something in my eye… hang on…

Sniff.

The second one is a joke version of the first one and it cracks me up every time I see it.

On the LSH’s advice, I’ve decided to include a translation for all non-Irish readers.  I know one or two of you found the turkeys a little difficult to understand!

Alan: I’m back, Dad!
Dad: Hooray! How are you, son?  Are you long on the train?
Alan: Nine hours.  How’s Mam?
Dad: Herself?  She’s gone clean mad for the electricity now.  We’ve the lights and the kettle on day and night and that f*cking washing machine never stops at all, I can’t get a wink of sleep!
(Alan: My hair is so lovely the way it goes off to the side there.  Oh, I hope I don’t have to have a bath now when I go home.)
(Mam: Right, I’ll get the Manchester United towel out now for Alan’s bath and the immersion on.)
(Alan: I know, I’ll tell Mam I had a bath on the train, that’ll be gas.  Hope she puts on the electric blanket now, UP TO NINETY!)
Alan: Will Mam have the blanket on, Dad?
Dad: She will of course.  And the feckin’ lamp.
(Mam: Oh, he’d lovely hair when he was younger, I hope he hasn’t it cut short now, ‘tis lovely long.  God, I’d better turn down the heat a bit or Frankie’ll kill me!)
Dad: Do they have phone boxes over in Australia now?  They do, I suppose.
(Alan: I love cabbage.)
(Mam: A bit of cabbage now will be lovely.)
Dad: The ould town is gone to shit now altogether, you can’t get a good pint in town anymore.
(Mam: Where did I put the brown bread? Ah, I’m gone doddery!)
Dad: See the lights of the hotel? You’d swear t’was Las Vegas we were in!  Right, here we are.  Christ, she has every light on again.
Mam: Hello, son.  God, you’re looking great.  Go straight up now and have a bath.  I’ve the immersion on above.  Good man yourself.  I’ll be up to wash your hair in a minute.
Alan: I can wash my own hair now, Mam.
Dad: You can in your hole, get up now out of that!

I’m dedicating today’s post to Margaret over at A Year in Redwood.  I found Margaret’s blog via Blog Awards Ireland, and we stalk check out each others posts regularly ever since.  She blogs about her life since she left Dublin to live on a farm/B&B in the wilds of North Tipperary – check her out!  Wouldn’t it be a nice place to stay?

It could possibly be argued that today’s video isn’t Christmassy but hey! there’s flashing lights, shepherds and their sheep.  Sounds Christmassy to me!

This one has to be for Jen, over at Cob Jockey, just because these are Welsh shepherds (and sheep and mountains) and she has a Welsh cob, the lovely Connor.  Check out her blog to read all about the progress she has made (and continues to make) with her lovely little horse.