I’m discarding the bah-humbug attitude and getting a selfie with a fictional bear

There might be a chance Paddington Bear will be in St Andrew Square in Edinburgh if you drop by ...

Unlike my train, which was 15 minutes late. That’s a particularly annoying type of delay. You have the inconvenience of not arriving on time, yet you are not late enough to get any kind of refund.

My train down from Newcastle to King’s Cross on Friday was 90 minutes late, so I’m getting forty-seven quid back from Lumo. Very handy at this time of year, with Christmas just around the corner. Or, to be more accurate, coming straight at you on the same side of the road.

I suppose I should not be surprised the whole festive nonsense has come upon us so early. Because I earn my living telling jokes to strangers at weekends and writing this rubbish once a week, I volunteer in a charity shop in order to do something worthwhile with my life.

It’s a bit like the driver of a diesel SUV planting lots of trees in their back garden. Anyway, we’ve been selling Christmas cards in the shop since September when it was light until 7pm and temperatures were hovering close to 20 degrees.

Along with the dark afternoons, I suppose this week’s freezing cold weather does make it a little easier to get into the festive spirit. It was so Baltic on Tuesday morning that I decided to look out my big winter coat, which has been hanging on a peg next to the front door since I last wore it back in March. At least I thought it was there, but when I looked I couldn’t find it.

It seems my wife had accidentally packed it into a bag of her old coats which she had decided to send to a charity shop. Ironically, it was me who carried the bag containing my own coat to my own charity shop. I may even have been behind the counter when someone else bought it.

Anyway, the thing about Christmas these days is that everywhere you go they seem to put on the same show each year. Over the past week I have been in several different UK cities. Every one has a big wheel and a “German” market. Go to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle or wherever and you’ll find the same tacky wooden huts, selling the same overpriced food and drink. Walking through Princes Street Gardens, you could be anywhere in Britain. Unless you approach it from the Mound, where it’s impossible to miss the massive big illuminated EDINBURGH sign. Just in case you’d forgotten where you were.

However, one has to admit that the rest of Edinburgh does look pretty stunning at this time of year. The Mound looks spectacular, as does St Andrew Square. Kids can not only post their letter to Santa in a special postbox but be photographed sitting next to Paddington. Even I can’t resist that.

So this year I’m discarding bah-humbug attitude, braving the arctic temperatures to go and get a selfie with a fictional bear. I’m even going to post a letter to Santa. To ask for a new winter coat, of course.