Noble (Fir) pursuits

The Insider has been decking the halls with boughs of holly, well, with a two-for-a-pound plastic holly substitute from Poundland, purchased last year and gathering dust for 11 months. While some branches of the law are thriving in the economic downturn—I would assume now is a great time to be an insolvency practitioner—for the rest of us, as with the country as a whole, it has been a time to tighten one’s belt.

Now, when I talk like this my dear old mum tends to get a bit worried, thinking that I am down on my uppers, so I should clarify; this year, if it was a toss-up between expensive Christmas decorations and not having Belgian chocolates, or dusting off last year’s and getting tucked in, the latter was always going to win. While I will not claim to be laying in a side of Wagyu beef for the big day (I had high hopes when ASDA started selling it, but early reports are that it is