Wednesday December 22nd 2021
Two pluses from today - after I drive our car down to National Tyres so that they can check the tyre that loses pressure, I take the bus back home, because they disappointingly say they can't do the job while I wait. First time I've been in a bus for at least 2 years - wow!!!!
a typical bus operated by the Stagecoach Bus Co. in Cheltenham
(warning - not the actual bus I rode on )
Then when they ring me up about 2 pm and say the job's done, I order a Starline taxi to take me down to the tyre place again. First time I've taken a taxi since October 2020.
the Starline Taxi Company's Cheltenham nerve centre
The second downside - when I get on the bus I find I can't use my senior bus pass: it's not valid before 9:30 am, so I have to pay full fare - damn !!!!
Cheltenham's Bank House "Wetherspoons" - the photo also
showcases the bus-stop where I board my first bus for 2 years
Thursday December 23rd 2021
We drive to Headley, Hampshire to spend Christmas with our daughter Alison, husband Ed, and their three children Josie (15), Rosalind (13) and Isaac (11). And Ed's parents, Stephen and Felicity will be coming for the Christmas Eve to Boxing Day stretch.
It's about a 100 mile drive, and the weather isn't ideal - rain and mist: damn (again) ! We normally don't drive more than about 10 miles at any one time, and the only time we've exceeded that this year was to visit Ali and family in August 2021, so it's a real mental challenge to do it. And we don't want to stop anywhere to go to the loo, just to be on the safe side, given the pandemic. We leave Cheltenham at 9 am and arrive in Headley at about 11:15 am, so not too bad.
the journey to Headley: we take the most southerly route, even though
it allegedly takes 2 minutes longer, because it's less annoying: makes sense to me!
Yes, we take the most southerly of the routes suggested. It means, as a bonus, that we only have to do between Junctions 15 and 14 on the M4 motorway, thus avoiding the dangerous "smart motorway" sections of the road, where they've removed the hard shoulder to ease traffic congestion and to cull excess population.
What madness the smart motorways are - "dumb motorways" I call them, which is being polite !!!!!!
Saturday 25th December 2021
An really enjoyable Christmas Day with Ali and Ed's family:
09:00 A zoom call with our other daughter Sarah, who lives in Perth, Australia, with Francis and their 8-year-old twins Lily and Jessie.
an early morning zoom call with our daughter Sarah and family
in Perth, Australia
The family's good friends from round the corner were there as well: Todd and Clarissa - Todd's from Queensland, and Clarissa's from Denver USA. Their two young daughters are great friends with the twins.
So - zoom call a bit chaotic as usual: but really fun!
Sunday December 26th - Tuesday December 28th
12:00 Later in the morning we open the presents under the Christmas tree, which takes a while, to put it mildly - my god!
flashback to December 23rd: I showcase
the family's 8 foot Christmas tree in an exploratory selfie
Ed showcases his new apron, a present from Lois and me
Isaac, sitting with Rosalind and Ed's parents opens
his "Horrible Histories" board game
I showcase my Bletchley Park memoir book, also
my tin of Turkish Delight - yum yum!
As always I feel like some kind of freak with my height. I'm only 5 foot 10 (1.8m), but that's a good 6 inches more than anybody else in the house. What a crazy world we live in!
13:00 We have our turkey dinner. Lois has supplied the Christmas pudding for afterwards, which she's made following her grandmother's and (probably) great-grandmother's Oxfordshire country recipe from the mid-19th century (the recipe, not the pudding haha!).
Ed and his father start carving up the turkey
Sika, the family's Danish dog, waits hopefully for the odd titbit
- poor Sika !!!!
Cor - what a spread !!!!
we sit down to eat
Lois successfully extricates the pudding rom the bowl
pudding time
the "Cats are like chocolate" moment!
Over the holiday we did a little bit of walking, but not much, and mostly in the house's extensive 6.5 acre grounds - there wasn't a lot of time: there was too much to do in the house and the weather wasn't that great, to put it mildly.
The family's two cats got a bit more used to us, although we didn't see much of Dumbledore, the family's ex-Danish alley cat. Otto was braver: he shared the sofa with us, and let us stroke him.
Otto, disrupting one of the Christmas card displays...
...and occasionally sharing the sofa with us
flashback to Christmas Day morning -
Rosalind opens her Aurora Lights Projector present
Other general impressions: initially it was a real shock for Lois and me to be surrounded by non-stop conversation after the quiet life we normally lead at home, just an old codger and an old crow rattling around in a house that's too big for us.
It hasn't been as noisy this year as in the past, however - Josie, Rosalind and Isaac (and especially Josie) are morphing into the role of teenagers who spend a lot of time in their rooms with their ipads, phones etc.
Another feature: our stay here has given Lois and me a chance to see some of the kind of TV programmes that most of the country watches but we don't. Like "Strictly Come Dancing" / "Dancing with the Stars", and "The Voice (Kids) - my god !!!!!
Enough said - it's all over now for another year sob sob!
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