So this is the beginning of the final week before the big day and you think I am talking about Christmas! No I mean Friday, 21st December for that apparently is the day when the world is going to end so who needs Christmas gifts? I am now not at all worried that I have not bought all my presents or food yet as, wherever we all end up on Friday, we will not be needing Kindles, skinny jeans, iPads or onesies or even any of the CountryWives’ Festive Food!
Just to put you in the picture this rumour has been started by the ancient Maya people from Central America whose civilisation mysteriously collapsed in 800 AD however before it collapsed they predicted the end of the world for this Friday, December 21st 2012! This date marks the end of the 13th baktun of the Maya Long Count calendar and so accordingly the end of the 13th cycle heralds doomsday. The Maya people were extraordinarily sophisticated in mathematics and astronomy hence they have achieved great respect in their predictions. Doomsday has been predicted many times before by others however this one has captured my imagination since it would solve the problem of Christmas for me! Anyway it is becoming my excuse for not starting my preparations for 25th December until 22nd December and when I explained this to my OH late last night in bed he seemed to take it on the chin and mumbled to himself “well that explains what I shall be doing next weekend, all the last minute shopping”!!
What will you all be doing on 21st December when the world is meant to end? If you think that I am the only one to be taking this prediction seriously then you should know that there are reports of 
panic buying of candles in Sichuan, China (no idea why only in this particular part of China??), in the Kirov region of Russia there has been a run on kerosene. Nasa has said that children have been contacting them sleepless with anxiety, this prediction has gone viral!!
If you do want to survive then a flat topped mountain near the town of Bugarach in the French Pyrenees has been identified by some cultists as the only place to be and of course if it doesn’t happen you are in rather a beautiful part of France for Christmas and I am sure you could find some friendly French people to welcome you in to share in their festivities. I do have one criticism as I do think that it could have been made a public holiday for everyone as going to work may, in the light of this information, seem pretty pointless.
In our household it already is a holiday as it is the Big Man’s birthday (of indeterminate age) or Dumpy as he is known affectionately by the children and most of their friends. This year is no less exciting than it has ever been – haha – and we are off to the opening night of Cinderella at the Kenton Theatre in Henley. As OH is Chairman he has been working all hours promoting and selling the tickets as this is the first year that the Kenton has had its own professional pantomime apparently. Professional and panto are not two words that I would normally feel go hand in glove but I do not want to burst his bubble. So we will all be in the front row shouting “it’s behind you”. We do live an extraordinarily exciting life!!!
However this weekend OH and I have been to three parties – they seem to be like buses this year i.e. none for months then 3 in 2 days. We dashed up to London on Friday evening for the first one which was extremely exotic where most people had ‘partners’ and talked about the arts and travel whilst delicately eating sushi and sipping Mojitos served by equally exotic waiters! On Saturday evening we went to a local party to celebrate with some friends their new and extremely beautiful home and there we discussed how to find the perfect Christmas tree, how our children are doing far more partying than us and this time we sipped champagne and ate deliciously hot canapes served by the family. Finally on Sunday we went to the birthday lunch of one of my dearest girlfriends (no not a CW!) and this time we ate and drank royally (read over-ate!) and laughed until we cried as there was a cabaret called Vocalarity who were a racy musical cabaret and they went down a storm! P.S. Grace, I wowed some of the guests with some of your Festive Facts !!
As you can see I feel that if we are going on Friday we should go out with a bang and have fun for all the preceding days – so Grace & Ellie I know that one of the CountryWives tag lines is Live, Love, Laugh but I am going to add to this….
KEEP CALM & LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW!!
Off to Party...ANNABEL x
Don’t panic! Read this instead:
In a video published on YouTube, the space agency sought to calm fears – triggered by the supposed end of the Mayan calendar – that Christmas was about to be spoiled by the disintegration of Earth and the extinction of its 7 billion population.
The film was scheduled to be published on 22 December 2012, explaining why the world didn’t end the previous day. “If you’re watching this video it means one thing – the world didn’t end yesterday,” runs the commentary. But Nasa is so confident in its prediction that it has released it now.
The prediction that the world would end four days before Christmas 2012 – potentially wreaking havoc with gift buying and travel plans – is a long-standing misconception, Nasa explains.
An accompanying post on the agency’s website, titled Beyond 2012: Why the World Won’t End, says that 21 December this year has been labelled as the end of all things because the Mayan calendar ends on this date.
But “just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012,” Nasa says. Instead, it just starts over again.
Another factor in the end of the world prophecy comes from claims that a “supposed planet” called Nibiru is heading for Earth, hellbent on destruction.
“This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012,” and linked to the end of the Mayan calendar, Nasa said.
As astrobiologist David Morrison puts it in the Nasa video: “If there were anything out there like a planet headed for earth it would already be one of the brightest objects in the sky. Everybody on earth could see it. You don’t need to ask the government. Just go out and look. It’s not there.”
Hope you feel calmer now Annabel…. love Grace x
You are such a spoil sport Grace – now I will have to place my Amazon order and go buy some festive fair!
My two daughters arrive here in SW France on the 21st for two days. I predict a loo paper shortage…not because of tummy troubles but they still seem to use one roll per sitting. I was tempted to remove the loo paper and leave copies of the Readers Digest instead as the articles are the right length and the paper the right size. But this may cause the end of their world and they might not visit again! Happy, happy Christmas ladies – see you in 2013!