It was lovely to have snow on my birthday, really it was. I had a lovely day and felt really special. I’ve had gifts that showed me that the giver had thought of what I’d like and shopped accordingly.
I even got a couple of texts from two people who know reminding me that it was snowing on the day I was born!
We had bucks fizz followed by a full English breakfast, and after a quiet but enjoyable day we went out and had a meal at an Italian restaurant, which was really nice.
The journey home was a bit of a nightmare, my train broke down, so I had to wait over an hour for the next and missed my connection, and only caught the next train to my destination by virtue of the fact that it had been delayed by 5 minutes.
I walked to work 3 days last week, and my hips and knees protested for the next 4 days, I really could do without any more snow now til spring, but no, there’s more falling as I type. Wonderful. Hopefully this batch will only be a thin layer and will melt away soon and leave is with the crocuses and snowdrops we like to see!
Now, right this minute, I’m going to collect a cup of coffee and hang up some clean washing, probably in the reverse order, but that’s next!
Take care and stay safe.
It’s a bit hard to think about it now, but I’m leaving the Lincolnshire quiet behind tomorrow and going back to the wilds of Bedfordshire with my cats.
I have to because work starts again on Monday and while I could leave it til monday morning to return, that cats will be very unsettled and I want to be there to make sure they are ok. Still, it’s not nice having been in small village that feels like home the second I set foot in it to have to return to somewhere that has always felt a bit temporary if I’m honest.
Oliver has made the lounge windowsill his home here and he’s going to miss the chance to sit and watch the world go by with only glass in front of him and a hot radiator close by. Jewel is finally (after 10 days) leaving the bedroom under her own steam but is still very unsure of being in a room with 3 or more people in it. Poor girl, I’m guessing she’ll relax a bit, but will definitely have to get used to it when we move permanently in April.
I say gentle day because it’s been productive. The cats gave us a quiet night and so bolstered by more sleep than usual we’ve got a lot done on some work that Dan’s been trying to clear out, as well as work out things like where all my stuff’s going to go when I finally arrive, literally bag and baggage! It’s not been hard, some might call it a drifty day. Not getting lots done, but then not doing nothing at all.
Never mind, there’s a three course roast beef dinner tonight!
Dan and I went out for a New Years Eve do last night into the early hours. We started off going to the neighbours’ house before going to the village pub for drinks and a chat with some of the other villagers.
Later on we went back through the village to Colin and Karen’s and played games around drinks before watching the fireworks and popping party poppers and drinking champagne to welcome the New Year in. We had a great laugh and finally headed for home at 2:30 in the morning through falling snow to settle the cats and head for bed.
When we finally woke and had a full cooked breakfast a la Ted; Dee and I suited and booted and went off down the road get a breath of air and a little exercise. Generally we’ve had a quiet day but it’s been good, we’ve all needed to rest after the holiday.
Jewel is finally settling down, although she seems to be pathologically timid. Oliver is the confident one here, comfortable with the much larger house and larger group of people in a way that surprised me a bit, but I know that he is a good judge of people and that we are among good people.
Right. Time for another nap and maybe some food too. Dan’s cooking tonight!
It’s New Years Eve and I suppose that means it’s time to have a bit of a summing up of the year before the new year arrives and we all look ahead to what’s coming next.
First and foremost, although I haven’t said much about it, the year was very much overhung by the impending site closure at work; no matter how much we at work all tried to lift ourselves out of it, the stress and the depression have taken their toll and people have been ill and we’ve had to really be there for each other. Just before Christmas my department was notified that basically almost all of us had been selected for redundancy. The relief at knowing that the end was coming after almost two years was incredible.
The other big thing that happened, which was as big as dealing with looming redundancy, was meeting Dan. After living alone for 4 years, focussing on being happy as I was and not doing very well at it, a gentle man came along. He turned on a lamp in a lfe that felt like dusk, and helped me learn how to live and love and be happy with me again. Just to be clear, if you’re my personal friend and are reading this and thinking “huh! What about me?” Don’t worry. I love all my friends dearly but Dan has brought a dimension to my life that was absent and I hadn’t realised. The best analogy is the mobile phone one. You never had one before and a few weeks after getting one you have to ask yourself “how did I survive before this?” [More]
Christmas morning was everything I’ve ever wanted a Christmas morning to be.
We had Buck’s Fizz (actually I did – everyone else had straight champagne!) while Dan sat by the tree passing around gifts to people. There were some amazing things and also some “it’s Christmas, that means it’s traditional to recieve socks!”
We had breakfast after gifts and then began the task of getting the turkey ready for the oven and the beers in the fridge.
Paul and Pauline arrived around midday while the turkey was cooking and we had a few more gifts and some more drinks.
Dinner was ready earlier than expected and we set ourselves around the table and feasted until we could hold no more – lobster bisque a la Ted, turkey with homemade stuffing, pigs in blankets, dishes and dishes of vegetables, roasted potatoes, boiled potatoes, gravy, to say nothing of the home made Christmas pudding with homemade brandy sauce!
When we finally finished eating, we moved over to the sitting room and played Trivial pursuit, which was fine until I lost by a country mile, at which point the alcohol kicked in and I cried my little heart out!
As expected, while it ws really cold, there wasn’t a white Christmas here for all that there was snow on the ground.
The cats did hide away all day as I’d expected, but Oliver did show his face later in the evening to say hello to his public!
Now that it’s the day after I have a little headspace to be able to tell you what happened over the last couple of days without needing to think about what’s got to happen tomorrow.
Christmas Eve was very busy.
For me it’s a working day and a day shift at that. I had to get up, get dressed and feed the cats and myself before charging to work through ice and snow to work.
It was terrifying. The ice had started to melt the day before and then refroze in the night and everywhere was an ice rink. I fell off the bike and landed on my back just trying to get to work over a patch of ice that looked fairly safe.
We had our traditional indian feast mid-morning and then finished off and went home midday, again, as is traditional here. More ice. I walked the bike home knowing the ice wouldn’t have gone in four short hours, and sure enough it was still there. This time I fell on my knees across the bike at a point where it had looked really safe.
I got home and warned Dan and Ted about safe parking and proceeded to bundle two confused moggies into carriers, make a flask of coffee and shuffle together the final items of food that had been stored out of cat reach and then sit witha drink til the Bongo arrived to take me away for Christmas.
For all the snow and ice it was a smooth journey. The roads were busy but not gridlocked and we got through in only slightly more time than it normally takes. The cats cried as expected but they calmed down and just waited to see what would happen next.
We got things unpacked and then let the cats out in Dan’s room and left them to settle while we had a traditional Chinese takeaway dinner and set the last presents under the tree.
I did develop a bug that turned into a cold and as a result I’m really tired, so this is going to be more than one post to sum up the weekend.
Take care one and all
I’ve been going crazy lately, fighting with crises and migraines, but I can report that six days ago I started the Christmas mincemeat.
I’m almost finished with the shopping. To be totally truthful it’s not hard to finish, my budget is fairly tight and I have a per person price limit, with one or two exceptions.
My decorations went up on Advent Sunday. I suspect a couple of eyebrows went up in the neighbourhood, but who cares; it’s the closest I could get to the first of December and I’m too busy from now on to fit it in any other time! [More]
Yep, it’s that time of year again. I’m collecting glass jars and the like for mincemeat creation later, and I’m preparing to do wonderful things with oranges and spices.
However, back to now. I made my Christmas cake on saturday. I was a bit stunned that it took 5 hours to bake, but it’s baked and ready for feeding with brandy over the next few weeks before marzipan and icing just before Christmas itself. If you want the recipe I used, it’s Delia’s; and you can find it here. I’ve used it before and found it’s a good one, and being Delia the instructions are detailed enough to make sure you have a good chance of yours being right.
Just for once, it’s nice to report something good. I’ve not posted so often lately because I didn’t want the world to believe that my life is eaten up by the stress of redundancy. It isn’t, but often I find that it’s the over-riding thing on my mind when I have time to sit and think about a blog post!
At the end of a cold and damp week, Ted and Dan come down to Bedford to pick me up for the weekend. I only just got home in time because I thought I had time to make one final trip to Tesco before they arrived, and I did, but only just! We threw my bags of goodies including mulled wine in the car and left, just as it started to really rain! We made reasonable time and got back just after nine including stopping for chips on the way.
In the morning after bacon sandwiches, Dan and I washed up while Ted and Dee went shopping, and then we sat on the riverbank and watched the tide – until it started to rain! Dan managed to aquire a headache during the morning, so he was sent to bed with tea and paracetamol. Dee and I entered “major bonfire build mode” which entailed finding loads of scraps of wood and a few pallets and other bits, putting them together in a big heap and then packing them with newspaper, odd offcuts of wood and any other garden prunings we could lay our hands on.
Karen and Colin the neighbours came over with their firepit, Ted located and wiped off a load of garden chairs and set them on the bank ready – all while Dan slept off his headache! We got everything sorted just as the sun really started to go down, then went in to warm up and get ready for a big evening by the river.
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I spent last week staying with Dan and his parents at their home by the river Trent.
I couldn’t have timed it better really, there was a phomenon on the river called the Aegir. It’s the Trent version of the Severn Bore, and it was running on the river while I was there, and I managed to watch it twice. (out of 5 chances, but hey, it’s nature!) It was amazing to see that nature can provide an experience that is almost surreal.
Basically, at almost low water, the tide turns abruptly and a wave of water rides up over the outgoing tide, turning the tide and raising the water level significantly. The first evening I saw it, there was a wind blowing and the wave was a little harder to see as it came round, but it was still great. The next evening, the wind had dropped and the water was as smooth as glass, the wave came up and it really looked quite surreal as it came past. [More]