Merry Christmas

Well, it's Christmas ...

D eventually got home safely (although he is now spending Christmas Eve - Boxing Day with his kids and ex wife and I miss him terribly), we got Mum down here safely, my brother battled the elements to get here from Sweden (text: "I've landed ... in Bournemouth!") Gatwick was closed but reopened in time for them to fly back there and he got the last train down here.

The spuds are peeled, ingredients for the nut roast prepared, stockings filled, everyone but me in bed. Two large vodkas imbibed (got to save the wine for Christmas dinner!) so I'm shortly off to bed.

I guess there are parents all over the country still waiting for the kids to be asleep so they can do the Father Christmas thing.

Funny to think that over in India my family there are probably already opening their stockings etc and for the ones in Oz they'll have done all that and be getting lunch ready. Those in the States are probably just going to the evening service at their church.

I can't help reflecting on my worst Christmas ever two years ago when my father died suddenly on his way here and thinking of all those other people in similar situations whose Christmases will never be the same again. Then there are all those who have no-one with whom to share Christmas. I count my blessings.

Merry Christmas everybody xxx

Snow stops play

Ho hum. Pi**ed off, but probably not as pi**ed off as D, on a train somewhere between Clapham Junction and here having been delayed by the weather, having had very little sleep, no English money on him, a nearly flat battery on his phone and no warm clothing.

Next stage

Well, I suppose it's getting there, but it's got a long way to go yet! (Household emulsion and acrylics!)

Snow!

All around the country kids are sitting hunched over their radios listening to the schools closure list "Please let it be mine, please let it be mine..." while parents are frantically phoning round to see whether someone can look after little Johnny so they can struggle in to work - or finish Christmas shopping without inquisitive little people trailing along.

I am just praying it doesn't really set in until my O.H. gets back here; his plane was delayed because of the weather so instead of us both now being on trains to meet up in London I am still here eating porridge and he is still trying to sleep off his jetlag. (something that never affects me). I am trying to be patient... It is annoying that I had prebooked our tickets, which we now can't use and it will cost him a fortune to buy an on-the-spot ticket.

On the plus side, my mum is now out of hospital and brimming with energy and the docs have said she can still come down by train - snow permitting!

I have to say that this is the perfect snow though, light, fluffy, sparkly and just made for scooping up into snowballs or making snowmen with. Just not much of it yet, a couple of centimetres at the most around where I am.

By the way, listening to Heart f.m., local radio, I am puzzled by the "Jeffries Farm unbeatable car" advert. What have the words of the jingle got to do with anything? It's always puzzled me. Can anyone enlighten me? ("take care of those you call your own and keep good company" ???)

Condensation!

Every morning now I have to mop up puddles of condensation from my windowsills, my curtains are going mildewed from it - any ideas how to combat it? Of course when I was a girl (quavering old lady voice again) we didn't have that problem as the ice on the windows didn't melt because the house never got warm enough. I kind of miss those pretty patterns on the windows though. When I was at boarding school, the glass of water by your bed would freeze in the winter, that's cold! It's not as if I have the heating on that high - usually 16 degrees (don't know how to put a symbol in here!) , I'm one of those people who layers on extra clothing first. Does anyone know whether I am saving the planet (!) more by having the curtains open and using natural light or keeping them closed to conserve some heat? I always struggle with this one.

This is really badly put together, isn't it?!

Oh no, not again!

The last time my parents were coming down for Christmas (2007) my dad had a fatal stroke on the way and never made it. We have just about come to terms with his death and Mum was about to make the same journey to Kings Cross (where we would meet her) but she has suffered a mild heart attack and is now in hospital in Lincoln. The curse of Christmas? She will apparently still be o.k. to visit, but we'll have to go and fetch her in our old diesel-fume-belching Volvo - and snow is forecast. This must be the first time I've prayed not to have snow at Christmas. D flies back from the States tonight, with a 7 hour wait in New York; last week planes were grounded there because of the snow. I don't want to be stuck on an icy road in a traffic jam with my poor Mum either.

Not so much of a moan as a sob escaping from a not-very-stiff upper lip:-(

Attempting art...

Not sure about posting these: the preliminary pastel sketches for a portrait of Hendrix (my hero) for my NCFE class.The guy is such an icon it feels disloyal to paint a crap picture.

I'm using unstretched canvas and could really do with a board to pin it on (Freecycle let me down this time!) but have had to make do with pinning it to the picture rail.

Today I'm starting to paint it so I'll probably ruin it!

I've been putting it off for ages - I even cleaned my bedroom from top to bottom yesterday, displacement activity or what!

At least I've got daylight today to paint in for a change!

Random stuff.

I am a prize pillock!

Following "Martin's Money-saving tips" (well worth subscribing to, by the way, and no spam) I spent £2.00 on a Sunday paper to get a £5 Body Shop voucher with no minimum spend; unfortunately I got the Observer instead of the Telegraph, which would have been, I believe, only £1.90, so no Body Shop voucher and some pretentious muck such as:

"...a taster of tuna loin, seared to within just millimetres, leaving a dark red eye, alongside an avacado cream. His lobster raviolo (obviously you get only one then) starter with a butter sauce and caramelised cauliflower is the very essence of rich, indulgent neo-classical cooking. A fricassee of snails and bacon, with darkly caramelised vegetables comes with a curl of mashed potato embedded with more snails (sounds like my garden) and silky dots of an exquisitely balanced garlic cream. A main course assiette of veal - a beignet of the sweetbreads (and you know what those are!!) , darling little rounds of the loin, a rosy red piece of the tongue (oh my God, it gets worse!) - is smart and detailed without being overwrought. Best of all are two expertly cooked breasts of grouse, the right shade of crimson on a lightly acidic blackberry sauce. All of this sits on a fritter densely flavoured with the liver, but with a curious though not completely pleasant grainy texture. We forgive him this on account of the fabulous breasts."...(? insert your own lewd comment here)

Kathryn Flett also writes about "Random - on sea" - I'm not going to quote it all - it's on guardian.co.uk/Observer magazine. See whether it sounds a tad like somewhere you know...

On another note entirely, our neighbours at the end of the garden have decided to continue their tree-timming activities. As my son said, it's an accident waiting to happen: There is a guy standing on a branch half-way up a huge tree ( I think it used to be part of a leylandii hedge - be warned!) with a rope round his waist, looped over another branch while he uses his chainsaw. A moment ago he just left the chainsaw dangling (still running) while chucking branches down to his mate. My son said we should be filming it - either for You've been framed or evidence in a manslaughter/accidental death case. Not sure I'd want to be seen filming though, they've got an England flag flying in the garden and a pitbull-type dog.

Typos

I love Freecycle, not just for useful stuff, but for entertainment value:

"I have a Single Bed with slide out Single Guest Bed (with mattresses) in good clean condition to give away. Collection from B... Road as soon as possible please. Ideal for family & fiends at Christmas time. Thanks"

The one that got away!

He sat on top of the fence for ages while the others seemed to be egging him on, then once he got out he didn't seem to know what to do, and tried to get back in.

More sun?

I think I saw it again today - then it started to get dark! I'm p***ed off with this weather.

Sun?

Oh My God! Is that the sun I can see out there? I'm not absolutely sure, it's been so long since I've seen it! I can even see the sea again.

What a difference a girl makes.

There was a time when the response to "don't you think it's about time you had a bath or a shower? to a nameless teenage boy was "But I only had one less than a week ago". This morning he's already been in there over half an hour.

What do they do in there?!

Actually, don't answer that, I don't think I really want to know.

Gone with the wind...

Well, there goes (went) the last of the roofing felt from the shed - there are nasty bits scattered all over the garden among the leaves that I keep raking up.

I am getting really fed up with this weather - it's boring! Wind, rain, a little bit of sunshine, then a storm... and the cycle continues...

"He who hesitates is lost"

I never seem to get the right balance beteen being cautious and just going for it!

My brother lives in Stockholm and Ryanair have been offering £2.00 flights inclusive of all taxes and fees for January, i.e. £8.00 for me and my O.H. I thought, should I just go ahead, at that price it doesn't matter if we have to cancel, or should I check the timings with my brother when he returns from his present trip. Caution got the better of me, so I texted him last night and was awaiting a reply. I checked the flights this morning and they have quadrupled in price since last night! It's still a good deal so I have booked it anyway, but now I'll probably get the text saying those dates are not convenient...

Not relevant to anything, but I just think it's the cutest pic ever!

Nitpicking

The small ads in the local paper are such fodder for a nitpicker like me... The same ones keep coming up: "chaise lounge" for "chaise longue", "dinning table" for "dining table", "stall" for "stool", "slimish" for "slimmish" , "swede" for "suede" ... and how many different ways can there be to spell "mahogany"?!

There! Told you I'd find something else!

Wasted food!

Why don't I ever learn? It's really not worth buying "fresh" veg from Morrisons unless you can eat it all in a couple of days. Surely you should be able to keep carrots for a week! No, they have gone black and grown fur already. I remember...(adopt quavering old lady voice)... when we didn't have "sell-by", "use-by" or "best before" dates and food used to last longer - and I only remember getting food-poisoning once, and that was from dodgy king prawns at Kuala Lumpur airport.

I so hate waste! And it winds me up that all the "bargains" are "buy one get one free" rather than half price, which is essentially the same thing but you don't have to be a family of four to benefit from it. Surely the supermarkets would still gain, as they would get more customers buying less rather than fewer customers buying more...?

O.K. rant over, I'll find another one soon!

Why our phone didn't work!

Incidentally, the last time we had this sort of weather (rain and wind for days on end) I had problems with the phone - first I could only make but not receive calls, then nothing. When the engineer showed me the piece of cable that had had to be replaced I was just amazed we'd had any phone or internet at all as it had obviously been like that for a few years!

Trains and stuff

I'm actually quite getting into this sorting out your train tickets on line business. It's like one of those challenges. From originally punching in my mother's train journey from Lincoln to here and it coming up with £53 odd as the cheapest, very restricted return fare, I've managed to get not only hers but two of us to go up to meet her in London on the day she arrives and to accompany her there when she goes back for around £48. Result!

Southern have got some bargains at the moment if you book in advance and buy on line - you can get to London and back for £3 each way. You can also get a Daysave ticket for £10 which lets you travel anywhere on Southern for a day off-peak. (Don't believe the website when it says you can only buy it on line 7 days in advance - you can get them at the Tourist Info centre in town the day before.)

Had a generally rewarding weekend: picked up a carpet for my front room for £25, along with the free underlay I was given from a decorating job that I did earlier in the year, so managed to fit that, and in having to remove all the furniture also managed to have a bit of a clear out.

Got rid of the old carpet really quickly (I love Freecycle) and also acquired a breadmaker. (I love Freecycle...) If only it had instructions. Still, how hard can it be...?

Our poor pier

The last apple.

Still holding out against the wind!

Well, the train ticket couldn't be simple, could it? All was going well,working out a complicated, money-saving strategy, only when I clicked "check fares" it told me that service was unavailable! Got it sorted around midnight last night ...

God, I hate this wind!

A couple of years ago in this sort of weather half of our apple tree just disappeared! However, it gamely struggles on, producing masses of fruit each year.

Mind you, it's not a patch on the 1987 "hurricane" - and I was out in that!

I was going to put a photo here but I can't work out how to upload them!!

Smiley face

Well, how about that?

I managed to park within the college grounds, the shop was open, they actually had what I wanted and the student-card-printing-machine was working. Now I can get my student discount. Whoopee!

There was even a parking space right outside the house when I got home and my teenage son had vacuumed as asked. What more could I want out of life? (Other than some work and my other half to return home from overseas).

Now to try and organise my mother's train ticket for Christmas ...

I'm sure I'll soon find something to moan about!

Packaging/recycling

Another moan:

I get really p****d off about this rubbish/recycling business when I find that 99.9% of what goes in my bin is non-recycleable, unnecessary packaging that I never wanted in the first place!

1: Why can't the government come down harder on the manufacturers instead of the end user? Fine them for using non-recycleable or unnecessary packaging.

2: Why can't they implement a country-wide recycling policy? My mother in Lincolnshire can put just about anything in her recycling bin; here we can't put any plastics with a number higher than 3, and then only bottles, nothing else.

Public Inquiry

I belong to a Community Farm. We are growing organic fruit and veg and a lot of people have put a lot of voluntary work into it.Now they want to put a road through it. So much for trying to reduce our carbon footprint.The Public Inquiry starts today.

My son commented this morning that all attempts at trying to reduce CO2 output from vehicles are still centred around modifying the internal combustion engine, but shouldn't we be spending more resources looking at an alternative to that? I have to agree.

How do you get funding for that sort of research?

Mispronunciations

The one that gets me most is "aitch" (H) being pronounced "haitch". Look it up in the dictionary! Then there's "pacific" instead of "specific", and of course "pronounciation" instead of "pronunciation". Feel free to criticise and/or add...

Yeah, I'm just a nitpicking, grumpy ...

But hey, the sun was shining today. The sky was blue, the sea was sparkling, I got a parking space, my bin was emptied, I picked up some useful underbed storage boxes (free) and was early for my art class!

So far so good! The reason for going in so early was to catch the college shop, which closes at 4, so we got there at 3.30 ... and it was closed. Also the machine that prints our student cards is still broken.

We were "doing research" for our projects on the Macs. I gave up trying to work out how to copy, paste and print (no right click?!) and spent quite a lot of time listening to Hendrix on Youtube. My teenage son rang to ask what time I'd be home, and I suddenly thought - have we reversed roles here?!

First try

Well, I don't know whether anyone will read this, but it gives me an outlet for moaning about things ... like not being able to get into plastic packaging, phones that stop ringing as soon as you get down the stairs (unless you took it up with you and just popped down for a minute), misplaced apostrophes ... etc etc Please feel free to add your own irritations and we can all moan together!