Well, this is shaping up to be the weirdest Christmas ever for Lois and me - after 50 years in Cheltenham, and 36 years in our last house, we've suddenly been plucked away from this familiar setting to live inside the building-site for a one-third-finished new housing estate in Malvern, Worcestershire. And after 36 years of that old familiar environment suddenly it feels like we've been a little bit cast adrift. We don't always know what we're supposed to be doing from day to day, and so we're kind of making it up as we go along.
The snow outside should make it feel super-Christmassy, but it doesn't help our efforts to feel more at home in our neighbourhood, knowing that we have no choice other than to brave icy roads or pavements if we want to venture outside. What a madness it all is!
We'll get through this difficult period eventually, we know that. And it'll help to be spending the week of Christmas with our daughter Alison and her family in their now familiar Victorian mansion in Hampshire, weather permitting - and I think it's going to turn milder and wetter next week, so we should be all right.
Nevertheless in case the worst happens, we put in a Morrisons supermarket order this morning for delivery tomorrow lunchtime - lots of the basics like milk and bread, just in case the weather closes in on us. Call us risk-averse if you like haha!
15:00 We try to do Christmassy things this afternoon - wrapping up presents and watching "It's A Wonderful Life", to try to feel more like our real selves.
16:00 We talk to Alison on the phone. The whole family - Ali, husband Ed, and children Josie (16), Rosalind (14) and Isaac (12) are feeling pretty tired today after Ed's large family of about 26 people descended on Ed's brother Charles's house in Surrey at the weekend for a massive family get-together, after which 6 of the cousins spent the night at Ali and Ed's house.
By a weird coincidence, we hear that Isaac is watching the same film. We ask him about the England soccer team's shock exit from the World Cup yesterday, after their defeat by France. We ask Isaac what he thinks it was that was the principal cause of England's defeat, and he says it was the Brazilian ref, Wilton Sampaio (crazy name, crazy guy!). If you google the ref online [always the best place to google people! - Ed], Isaac says that you find out that Wilton has always been "a big fan of the French team".
That must explain it then haha!
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