wagwaan?

Day Thirteen

Apparently, I have lost a day somewhere! Yesterday was day Twelve but I thought it was Eleven, hence the title of my previous post. Hmmm. I think I need a break!!

Anyway, today we decided (after a long lie-in) that we really had to visit Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park or we'd run out of time to do so before Christmas. I'm so glad we went because Claire took her camera and shot some great pics. She hasn't had time to upload all of them, but here is our favourite... She's good at this game, you know. I can't wait for her to get some clients and get some shoots under her belt.

Actually, I can't decide whether I prefer it in colour or b&w.  We had a great time. Of course, once more, we had hardly any money to spend. Which is actually probably a GOOD thing - there was so much food and sweets and mulled wine and warm cider, I think we'd have been fit to burst by the end of it. And there were so many pretty things for sale. Sigh.

The atmosphere this year was brilliant, and we particularly enjoyed the German "oompapa" music lol. Claire wanted to hear the stall holders speak German, so at one point I chatted to one of them, and bought something from his stall. He said he had the instructions in German somewhere, at which point I had to say um no I'm actually English, which was quite funny. He was very complimentary about my German. I know I have a good accent, but if you speak to me for any length of time you're sure to pick up on my awful grammar and realise I'm a fake!

After a long while, when it had got really dark (at something like 4pm...), we made our way back towards Piccadilly Circus and stopped off at Fortnum's. I love that place, especially at Christmas, all decked out in prettiness.

And we got a hot drink each, to warm up again (although I was lovely and toasty in one of your coats, Joanie - thank you a MILLION!!)

 
  
 Hmm, you can tell I was just shooting with the iPhone and Claire with her digi SLR, can't you? Although you have to hand it to Apple, the phone does a pretty good job in low light really.

So now I'm off to my bed. Back to work tomorrow - we moved offices on Friday, such a palaver I couldn't be bothered to blog about it, but I think tomorrow is going to be hard because the two women I share with were dead set against the move. It'll be interesting shall we say!

Nite nite xx

Day Eleven

I'm really pleased I prepared my December Daily before the month started. I might have said that already, but it's great because I just have to scribble a few lines and maybe print out a photo and I'm done. Today my photo is going to be of these beauties I bought in the 99p shop!

"Festive washing up gloves" it said on the packet. I call them my Mrs Claus gloves. Claire says I'm bonkers but I know she loves me really. Talking of Claire, she's off having her work Christmas do; they've gone to Ali Baba for a curry, and before she left it was all "I don't know what I'm going to eat, I don't like curry", but while I was out at work finishing some typing the boyf obviously had a chat with her because she said she was going to have Tandoori chicken. Now, I just texted her the result of the X Factor semi-final because I knew she'd want to know, and she texted back that the food was "sooooo goooood" (or something - don't shoot me if I got the wrong number of "o"s Claire, ok?).  I'm glad she's enjoying herself. Me, I'm sitting here typing up this post listening to what's happening on the British Comedy Awards. One of our favourite shows (that I blogged about recently), Outnumbered, just won Best Comedy Series.

To see why they won, I'm treating you to one of my absolute favourite clips (note to family: is it just me or does Karen the little girl remind you of Lena when she was younger?). Click HERE.

Well, I'm off now. Must do the washing up with my Mrs Claus gloves... nite nite!

ETA: Joan - Claire brought the menu back with her "for when N&J next come to stay". Also, forgot to say it was Celebrity Watch in our local town today: Lisa Snowdon was doing promo in Clas Ohlson that opened this week and then when walking home I nearly bumped into that guy from The Apprentice "I got accepted at Sandhurst you know". Remember him??

Stayed up late last night adding pages to my December Daily book, after watching Kirsty's Homemade Christmas. The boyf started watching it with me, but he's really NOT into Christmas AT. ALL. so although I think he liked the idea of making the event less commercial, less about spending money on the High Street and more about making stuff, he still wandered off down to his den after a short while. Claire was working till 9pm so I couldn't even share it with her but oh how I loved it! We've always crafted and especially at Christmas. My mother used to use greenery, branches and berries to decorate the door and elsewhere; I was famous in my late teens for my own concoction, a wreath made with lots of colourful boiled sweets and other goodies (I am thinking of doing one this year), and we often made paper chains - ooh that reminds me, I bought some Cath Kidston ones so we must make those some time soon! Oh, and paper snowflakes of course, mustn't forget those. Kirsty taught a class of children in Bristol how to make salt dough decorations, and that is something that is huge in French "Maternelles" - it's called "pâte à sel" and I used to have all kinds of goodies made by my daughter's fair hand in salt dough. Ah the memories!! Anyway, I'm just taking a short break to write this, but I really should be getting on with some work. Toodles!

(by the way, my stats tell me there is a visitor from St Maur des Fossés, which tickles me pink because that's where I was born! If it's you - please say hi!!!)

More pictures. And Sunday Love

I'm just waiting for something to cook on the stove, so I thought I'd come and add the photos from yesterday.

First, here is what was in those parcels:

(just crappy pictures from the phone, but it's so much quicker this way).  I love every thoughtful gift, right down to the basket they came in because we didn't have a waste paper basket in the living room, and now we do!  I'm really pleased with the Christmas book, which has all kinds of festive crafts in it. And I have decided I just HAVE to make truffles to go in the little Christmassy petits four cases. The baubles will go beautifully on the tree, and how did Caroline know I ADORE robins? I think the paper napkins are adorable! There's a very pretty colour of nail polish (I do like my nails...) and a funky 2010 calendar; great cupcake notelets (love me some cupcakes), yummy smelling Iris candles and a pretty evening pouch. I am very spoiled indeed. Thank you Caroline, you made our day.  Oh, and the chocolate went down a treat too :)

Now for my December Daily book. I am keeping the entries to myself, but here's how it's beginning to get padded out, complete with Starbucks sleeve and card, and photos taken every day. I know I have some cardboard somewhere, so I have to dig that out today to make a cover for it at last.

Oh and can you see there, on the table? One of the Yankee Candle tarts I bought yesterday. This one is called "Christmas Eve" and I really must get some more tealights so I can put my burners on in the living and dining rooms. I love the tarts - they last for EVER. Much much longer than the candles I feel.

Now, let's not forget: today is St  Nicholas Day, Sinterklaas or Sint Nicolaas. Ever since we got given a chocolate Sint Nicolaas at the International Lycée when I was 11 I've loved that tradition! And then I got a nephew called Nicholas when I was 15 so every year I'd buy him a chocolate Santa because we couldn't get the real St  Nick in France, and I continued the tradition with Claire. She was happy to get this this morning and took a photo of it... (she's her mother's daughter!).

 Now what have I forgotten? Oh yes: some things I love for a Sunday Love post:

- Kirsty's Homemade Christmas starts on Tuesday - yay! Love that woman and her homemade home so I'm really looking forward to this.
- Dr Who's Adventure Calendar (geddit? ADVENTure Calendar, ha ha). I love the Christmas "ident" that you can see here, on day 4. And I've downloaded the wallpaper for my PC. Love it!
- Classic FM in the run-up to Christmas - they have lots of carols. My favourite! I've signed us up to Britain's Biggest Carol Concert on Sunday 20th. Wonder if I can get people at the Community Centre to participate, or will it just be me and Claire?
- Winter sports on TV: skiing, skating, ice hockey.. I love the lot. From the warmth of my armchair LOL!
- Songs of Praise on Sunday afternoons during Advent. More carols!
- Robins! And particularly this portly fellow

Not so weird in profile, but look at this!

There.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. At last.

I'm so excited you'll have to excuse me if there are lots of exclamation marks in this post!  This morning we were all up early - the boyf off to his course, me to the hospital to help with the exams and Claire off to her job. Anyway, by 8.15am I was over at the hospital, reading the paper over coffee and waiting for it all to kick off. I was paired with a lovely lady Rheumatologist, and we chatted between candidates. I recounted my (fake) tale of woe to 10 medical students, as is the norm, and as usual was pretty much gasping by the end of it. We finished quite early this time, and I went straight into town because I had to post some stuff off to France and do some shopping for craft stuff and 99p-shop essentials. The shopping centre is very lively and busy at this time of year, and there was a group of accordionists playing Christmas Carols.

That's the tree they get out every year, with Santa's grotto beneath it. I love seeing how excited the children get. Oh, and they also have a creche, which is nice as I don't like to forget the real meaning of Christmas. People throw coins into the sand as donations.

 
 
Claire got a 25 minute break to come and have a sandwich with me and then I made my way home where I found a large box (insert lots more exclamation marks here!!!). Look what was inside:

Exciting or what?  I left it there on the table while I quickly finished a couple of projects and packed up MY swap that I was a day late sending for reasons that I can't divulge just yet. I hope my swappee likes what I put in there!  I wrapped everything up and then trudged back out to the shopping centre to post it off.  The Post Office is inside WH Smith's, right at the back. Is your Smith's like that? I think it's a new thing they are trying out.  I saw Claire briefly to say I wouldn't wait another 2 hours till she was finished, and went off to get a few things in Primark for her. She had looked a bit upset, which in turn upset me. I was just about to go home when she texted me to say her manager had sent her home because he could see she wasn't fit to be there. I picked her up and as we walked past Starbucks I said "Do you think a hot chocolate would help?". She nodded and we went and sat down with our "skinnies", by which time she was feeling lots better and we went home. Poor sweetheart - Isn't it hard being a mum when your child, however old, is upset? (I nearly forgot: the boyf called just as I was going to pick her up and when he heard she was upset he was all "ask her who upset her and what they look like - I'll come and sort them out". Bless him!!)

So we got home, by which time it was dark and wet, and we just HAD to open the presents; well, I thought it would cheer her up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I'll do a post on it tomorrow because I don't want to make this one too long and it's nearly my bedtime.

Catch tomorrow's instalment with

• Pictures of my Xmas swap presents!
• Pictures of my December Countdown Book!
• Maybe even pictures of my Christmas parcels I have yet to put in the mail!
• More random exclamation marks!!!!

Nite nite xx

Just a quick entry as I'm VEEEEERY busy with the typing job at the hospital. Unfortunately I've had awful toothache this week and the diagnosis of a dying root in a treated tooth means I'm facing more root canal treatment on Monday. Shame the painkillers/antibiotics only seem to have a limited timespan and the pain kicks in again before another dose is due. I've had a couple of miserable nights but I'm hoping to have more sleep tonight.

Yesterday I did a full day's work in the eye department followed by 3 hours typing for my lovely lady Consultant so I got home at 9pm. Tonight there's more of the same and I'm a "guinea pig" in some medical exams tomorrow, for which I get a little bit of cash in hand just in time to go Christmas-stocking-filler-shopping. Needs must and all that. Everyone we speak to about Positively MAD is very excited about the product but no one is putting their money where their mouth is yet. The boyf is going to another day's training tomorrow - I've put mine off till January. It's all a bit fraught and I suppose if Christmas wasn't around the corner it wouldn't matter so much, but I wouldn't DREAM of not celebrating Christmas where Claire is concerned. I've got a few crafty project ideas for home-made Christmas presents, and we've got some seasonal outings planned, such as carol services and the like. It doesn't have to cost lots of money, does it?

Talking of crafty projects, I'm enjoying sitting down for a few minutes each evening and writing in my little December Countdown book. So far there's nothing exciting to report, but the fact I have the book all prepared means I think a little bit about Christmas each day and look for all the Christmassy things around me to report: festive milk bottle tops, decorations in the office, fairy lights in windows.... I've taken a couple of piccies which I'll print out to add to the book, and bit by bit it will get padded out.

I still haven't made a cover for it, but I have an idea for that too, so Sunday might see me pull out my stash and old bits of cardboard and ribbon.... Hmm, looking forward to it!

Anyway, must dash. Hope you are all feeling nice and festive yourselves. You know you can always comment - I do like reading what other people are getting up to :)

"Pinch, punch, first of the month!". That's what I heard the kids at the bus stop shrieking at each other this morning, excited about the excuse for a bit of fisticuffs. That's was the most fun thing that happened to me today. It's been a day of work, work, work. Not that I'm complaining, mind: it's nice to HAVE some work in this day and age! I'll be back later if I can think of anything witty to add....

Picture post

So I managed to upload the pictures to my flickr account, finally. Here is the gorgeous stretch of beach that says "home" to me. After days of torrential rain, our last day dawned bright and clear. Gorgeous.

Then we made our way to Paris. During the road trip:

Funny girl!   And then she took this, nearing our destination:

I don't care if they aren't brilliant - they capture the mood of the trip.

Now it's business as usual, and it feels like we never even left.  I have a scab the shape of South America on my chin that is the remnants of the worst cold sore I've ever had: it bloomed on the day we left for France and turned into a mega sore with about 8 blisters, tracking from my bottom lip half way to the tip of my chin. That's the third one I've had this month and everyone else says it doesn't look as bad as all that, but it was the most painful thing that could have made me very grumpy if we'd not been having a lovely holiday. I know I take pictures of most things, but I've spared you this beauty.... Anyway, time to watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition, then bed. Oops, I have to put clean sheets on it before I can get in. The delight of sleeping in clean, fresh smelling sheets only slightly marred by that fact. Nite nite everyone x

Back home

I will be off to bed shortly but I just wanted to recount what happened here while we were away. First off, well, the journey yesterday went smoothly but oh it was a long day! I like to get the later train back from Paris because it gives us time to get back from Normandy without too much rushing so we arrived home at midnight. After the stormy weather we had I was glad the day dawned bright and clear; I really didn't relish the drive back if it was going to be horrid, so it was a bonus. We spent a few moments on the beach taking last minute pictures - but my phone battery died as I was trying to upload them so you'll have to wait for those. 

Claire and I always enjoy what we call our "road trip" when we drive back from the beach, and this time was no different. The iPhone came in handy, blaring out various tunes from the past or from this past summer's "CampAmerica playlist". View from the motorway stop, looking back towards Normandy... Don't think you'd ever get an English motorway looking this empty, eh? 

 

When we got to Paris our luck changed (along with the weather) and we struggled along in a light drizzle, bumper to bumper, from the Porte Maillot right up until we got past the Boulevard St Michel. It was a toss-up between the péréphérique and going directly through Paris, and if it was going to be that slow I'd rather the scenery of Paris than the rather depressing outskirts! Claire told me it was about 40 minutes from the time we hit Paris, so I can categorically state that traffic in that city has got worse since we left 11 years ago. Again - the photo of the arrival near my sister's place hasn't uploaded so I'll edit this post tomorrow.

Anyway, we got there with plenty of time to spare and we were able to lounge about in comfort until it was time to drag our cases to the Gare du Nord, which we ended up doing just in time! The Eurostar home was comfortable and not too packed, and then the Tube journey home was uneventful, so you see it wasn't a bad journey, just very long and tiring.

So, what was this mysterious thing that happened while we were away? Well, the OH took it upon himself to completely re-style the house, in his own inimitable way. The place was spotless (we should go away more often *grin*). He has completely revamped the basement, which is looking mighty cosy now, as well as serving as an office for him, his Mac and new Playstation. The living room was nice and tidy and the dining room, well, the dining room was a masterpiece: the whole PC area has been pulled out and re-arranged and is beautifully tidy, and the "glory hole" of an area behind the table has been sorted out and emptied and generally made beautiful and I'm SO eternally grateful to him because it's a job I kept putting off and now it'll be a pleasure to keep clean and tidy. Ok, so now you all now what a slob I must be, but quite frankly I believe life is too short to spend hours on housework even though I so enjoy the end result!

Then, on going upstairs there was the bathroom. We had left the house more or less tidy and the bathroom wasn't bad, but I was dazzled by the chrome of the taps which look brand new. He won't tell me his secret, so I can only say that bathroom cleaning will from now on remain his domain because I'm obviously not worthy... Our bedroom is also transformed and my secrétaire (desk) has been moved to the landing, which is a much better place for it, and which gives me my own little office space now. 

Basically, it was the most wonderful present to come home to and I hope I showed my appreciation, but if he was in any doubt it's now out there for the whole world to read. (Love you sweetie!!). It almost made up for the fact he couldn't come with us....!

Anyway, this first day back has been completely shattering and I'm looking forward to my warm comfy bed, so keep smiling everyone, and see you later.

I keep thinking of things I need to remember so as I'm away from home, I'm using the blog as a pense-bête:

- organise myself for the Christmas swap I'm signed up to (yay - shopping trip!)

- make and decorate cover for my December countdown album

- get the Christmas decorations out and plan Advent crown for this Sunday

- calculate cost of next spring's Photo Retreat and make provisional hotel booking

- organise photo shoot with mums at the Community Centre

- Ikea trip with Claire? Ditto to Liberty of London / Fortnum & Mason?

- make dental appointments for both of us to have check-ups

- plan meals etc for Christmas as we are going to be at home again this year

- book slot for grocery delivery for Christmas shop

I'm sure there are lots more..

How about you? Do you make lists? Do they help?



Well; last night here. So sad that the week has passed in a flash and already trying to plan our next trip!



Nite nite...