Christmas 2011

Well here I am back from Blighty, the Christmas marathon behind me, the New Year gentle stroll to come. I will be celebrating NY with my TWDB only - no flashy parties for us with boozy bonhomie at midnight, we prefer to spend it à deux, at home - no driving, no fear of being stopped, no having to stop over at someone else's.

Christmas was busy. I took the boys to London to the Science Museum where they had a good go on all the hands-on activities in the Launch Pad, watched the 4D film on Apollo, and searched high and low for a cheap goodie in the shop. I had wanted to see the West End lights, but chickened out of the crowds so we went to Romford instead and searched high and low for some nifty clothes for my youngest, to no avail. Next was crap, so was H&M, as was BHS. Primark had nothing except an LA (Dodgers) jacket in men's size XS (which fit - there must be some very small men out there, my son is 10!). We usually stock up on original clothes for the boys, but it was very disappointing. The tee-shirts had stupid ugly transfers, or stripes, and the jeans just looked ragged. Not my son's style at all.

We went to see Dotty Dad, a sorry sight if ever there was one. Alzheimer's has ravaged practically everything leaving a bent, shuffling old man who gazes into the middle distance, closes his eyes if things get too much and has horrific fits of aggression if anyone gets in his way. Occasionally his eyes focus on something, and he may smile, though at what we don't know. We found him the first time sitting with a carer and drinking beer. He used to hate beer, cheese, vegetables; now he eats and drinks everything. We popped in on Christmas morning as he was about to have his lunch. I will say this for the care home - they do a marvellous job. The carers are kind, and the lunch looked very appetising. On our first visit, they were having a Christmas party and a young woman singer was entertaining everyone with some old favourites to a karaoke machine. She came up to my dad and stroked his hand while she sang to him, got some of the more mobile residents to get up and dance, and others to sing along. Kindness in a care home is so important.

We saw all the family including my youngest niece who is nearly 2 and such a sweetie. She was desperate to join in the activities of her 4 older cousins, sit at their table and rush about with them. A very determined young lady, that one. She didn't even flinch at the party poppers and gladly wore her cracker crown taped to her size.

My mother cooked a delicious Christmas lunch, with tasty leftovers on Boxing Day. We had one of Heston's glacé mandarin Christmas puds from Waitrose. It was okay, but I think I prefer the ones from Harrod's. They seem boozier, and I love the heavy traditional pud. Still, it's good to try out other puds. I brought back the leftovers of the M&S one we had on Boxing Day, and I have a Duchy Originals still to tuck into this weekend. I love Christmas pud! We even had a Christmas pud cheesecake from M&S. It was amazing - the right taste but in a cheesecake and lovely and light. Delicious!

I hope you all had the Christmas that you wanted whether en famille, à deux or with friends. Mine was great, what with being back with the family and in the UK, and surrounded by so many decorations there wasn't an inch of space uncovered. A veritable Christmas wonderland!

Air Today

I had to buy two new suitcases to come to Blighty and all because of RyanAir's new weight restrictions per suitcase. In times gone by I would fill up a mega case with clothes for all, and take a small case of 2 x 10L wine boxes. They fit in snuggly, and I just needed to be able to get the cases in and out of the car. It was a struggle at times but what's a back in the pursuit of a good drink?

The limit of 15kg per bag per person is a pain, but makes things easier on the back (there's always a silver lining...). I filled up the spaces with a loaf of pain de compagne, a tarte au poire, a galette des rois and those inflated pockets of air in plastic used to pack boxes. A visit to the family at New Year after Christmas involves presents - bulky ones for the boys - and the need for space.

We flew via Marseille; an original routing in a direct service from Montpellier to Stansted, but we needed a spare part. An engineer wearing a descriptive coat and carrying a screwdriver (always a dead giveaway), fiddled about in the cockpit for a couple of minutes, after which we had to wait 40minutes for a slot out. The kiddy diagonally opposite screamed from time to time, expressing on our behalf the frustrations of the rest of the cattle. I mean, passengers.

I was fairly unperturbed as the wait for the taxi at the other end would have been 2 hours had we been on time, and would now merely require us to hang around for 45mins.

Our taxi driver was a chatty chap and provided an entertaining drive including avoiding the M11 which had a tailback from the M25 junction as far back as Harlow. I heard about his mother who had lived in the UK for 45 years and spoke no English but had had 4 children who now financed her travels around the world since the death of her husband, and, at the age of 75 was having a blast. I heard about his eldest son who, at the age of 27 had given up believing he was the next rock guitar phenomenon and, with the love of his girlfriend, had been encouraged to find a proper job and grow up. He is now a trainee computer repairer with PCWorld and loving it. His daughter is a maths whizz and earns a 6-figure sum in the city, while his sister is married to an Indian pop star and jets it around the world. Definitely an entertaining drive!

Followed by relief at arriving 'home', surrounded by the entire nuclear family, a festive house wonderfully and fully decorated, a turkey and Christmas pud lunch on New Year's Eve, and joyous boys having a ball with their cousins and adoring their presents from the Blighty contingent.

Happy times.