Yuletide Message

Hello everyone!
We haven't sent lots of cards this year - a pack of ten charity cards costs nearly £4 so 40p each, add on the stamp and every card we send costs the best part of a quid. Even the years I have made cards we've still spent a fortune, and the charities get maybe 10p each time. So this year, we've dramatically cut the number we've sent, and we will just give all the money to Breast Cancer Care (who have helped me) and the RNLI (who we hope we'll never need to call, but some of our friends have!).
So, Yuletide Blessings and Merry Christmas to all our friends and loved ones, and the space we've left on your mantlepiece has helped to do some good!

And in the meantime, here's a message from a friend, who gave me these wise words a couple of years ago - I think it bears a revisit.

I don't generally go in for moral lectures, but this one sort of caught me a bit - anyway, here it is...

A Personal Appeal...

As someone who has experienced sleeping rough, please spare a thought this Christmas as you tuck into your hot meal and open that pair of socks from Auntie Mildred that you loathe.

• Look through your cupboards, is it filled with tins that you haven’t used, probably won’t. Then donate them to your local soup kitchen.
• Got old sleeping bags, there are plenty of homeless charities and soup kitchens who would appreciate them and could pass them to someone for whom that warmth could save their lives.
• Smile and wish them merry christmas, just because they are homeless doesn’t mean they aren’t people anymore. Sometimes all it takes is a bit of human contact to give someone hope again.

Don’t just think of the homeless freezing in the cold, think a little closer to home too. Have you seen your elderly relatives lately? Maybe you should, they might need a light bulb changing, a heater fixing or just a chat.
How about the little old man in the bungalow at the end of the road? Smile, say hello next time you see him. Behind his door he might be sitting in one small room next to a single heater, cold and worried about the money he doesn’t have. While you eat your turkey, he might be eating a cold sandwich because he can’t afford the gas bill with the price hikes. If you got to know him, well then it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to pop over christmas day with a hot plate of christmas dinner and a smile. You might just make someone's christmas a merry one.

 

Conservatory - Day four - short and sweet.

They arrived at 7.45am.
They pronounced that "the ballast is frozen" and went away.
Sigh...

On a more positive note, spend Sunday making lots of presents... I might actually get this all done... that's this afternoon sorted then!

Busy busy busy

But mostly in a good way, I think!
I got the vital birthday present finished and wrapped up in time to take it to the midlands on Sunday morning - we were up and about scarily early, M was muttering that we were half an hour late leaving and it was all going to be terrible, but we were still on the road by 8.45am and there by 12, so at three hours it was a pretty average journey and shouldn't be moaned about.
We took his girls out for lunch at a pub in a village near where they live.  It was a very nice roast, and not too expensive, although despite the flash website with restaurant menu it's pretty much a locals pub, and the atmosphere was a little bit strange... the place was empty when we got there so we were settled in before any of the regulars arrived, but there were a few raised eyebrows at the presence of strangers... but we were pretty well off the beaten track, so it was probably a rare occurrence.
It seems strange to go and see his girls and take them to the pub, with one of them driving us there... it seems about a couple of months since we were visiting them and looking for parks and playgrounds to entertain them, although it's a fair number of years now!  The stress of SATS has long since given way to the angst of A-levels and the upheavals of university.  It seems a short time since my daughter was fighting her way towards GCSEs, now she's a grown woman watching her own kids doing the same...

This morning, I locked myself in the little hut at the bottom of the garden which serves as my office these days, and was just settling down to work when M appeared in a slightly agitated state... Conservatory Man had just turned up at the door, and announced he was meeting with the neighbours, and would we please come and join him... M was in the process of getting into the car to go to work, hence his agitation, so I said I would go... as we headed to the door, Conservatory Man and his chum (who I suspect is actually his boss!) arrived on the doorstep, all smiles and happy faces - "All sorted, they are very happy, no problem at all" - they'd walked in, sat down, listened to the neighbours' concerns and been able to explain how each of them was going to be catered for.  The neighbours agreed that work could start next week and everything in the garden was metaphorically rosy!
Naturally, as soon as Conservatory Man had driven around the corner I rushed next door to check that they were really happy... he does have a vested interest in making me believe they are happy, but they are actually not just our neighbours, they are our friends and we want to be sure that they are completely happy with no residual doubts.  Anyway, they certainly seem to be, they were still laughing about how earnest Conservatory Man had been!  So we are all on course for the base to be laid next week, with the actual conservatory being erected some time in early January, as soon as the panels have been manufactured.  This means that there will be a series of dinner parties, parties and general festivities just as soon as I have a place to put the dining table where there is actually space to get the chairs around it - yee hah!

It's dark now... it's not even 5pm and it's properly dark.  I might just slope off from the studying that I am supposed to be doing and sneak myself a nice hot bath.  It's 2CV club Christmas Party no 1 tonight... no idea what I ordered, I remember ticking things off on a menu ages ago, ah well, it will be a surprise!

'Tis the season to be chilly...

... tra-la-la-la, la-la-la-brr......

It's been a bit parky today.  Not quite the way it was a year ago, though - a year ago we were walking on the beach in about a foot of snowdrift, which was a tad freaky...  It was something of a surprise when I looked at these pictures and realised it was exactly a year ago today.

There is something about a seaside town in winter which is strangely endearing, to me at least, but then I have spent much of my life in seaside towns and I learnt early on that I love them more outside the summer season!  The fairground looks rather magical in the snow, I thought, what do you think?  The lonely figure in his sailing waterproofs - now that's a slightly different thing.
It's past my Dad's birthday now (Nov 28th) - as a child, this meant that we could at least acknowledge the approach of Christmas.  We weren't allowed to even mention it before then!  Now it was safe to talk about it, but not to do anything about it - that wasn't permitted until after my baby sister's birthday on December 7th.  There are other December birthdays to worry about now, and my poor son-in-law has his on December 23rd, which does have a tendency to get lost in the madness.  A friend from school was born on New Year's Day, which meant she never got a proper birthday party as everyone was all partied out by then.
The Christmas dinner season is starting in earnest now - Monday night is the 2CV club do, then Tuesday night is the other 2CV club do... we went to the pub this evening and it was full of tinsel and fairylights, the tables starting to be bedecked with crackers and holly for other people's parties...  I guess we do need to start thinking about it soon!  There are sweeties to make, embroidery projects to be finished, stuff to buy and wrap... I hate the stress of it all but I do like the whole giving pressies bit, I get a real buzz when people open something I've agonised over and smile enough that I believe I got it right!!!