We haven’t sent any Christmas cards. Our excuse being that Christmas came so early this year. I mean, I might have been complaining here –by way of not posting, mostly– about being busy, tired and unmotivated all of December, but it does feel like November was yesterday and May only last week. Have we really arrived at the last Tuesday of the year? Well, we have it seems, as the shops are closed, trains don’t run and I’m typing this wearing an apron, while the oven is taking further care of the food.

To treat yourself with some fine non-Christmas tunes for Christmas, you should hop over to Cloudberry and download the songs by The Occasional Flickers and The First Division (and, if you feel like it, the 71 other songs too). The former is the band of Greek-turned-Scotsman Giorgos, whose Rucksack might be his best song to date and the latter by the band who played their first and only gig during Exeter Goes Pop!, back in April and whose Cloudberry release is their debut EP.

And then you should browse to All That Ever Mattered. That is a brand new mp3 blog, which took its moniker from a Shop Assistants song, and blogs about the likes of Henry’s Dress and the criminally overlooked Girls At Our Best. And, most importantly perhaps, it is written by a compatriot of mine.