wagwaan?

Home again

Well what a lovely time we had. I thought I'd blog while I was away but I just never got around to it. The journey over there went smoothly despite worries about flooding in the south of England, and we got picked up by the local taxi driver at the ferry port. He stopped at a Boulangerie so we could buy hot fresh croissants and bread to take to my mum's. Mmm.

The week went in a blur. My mum's house is quite small so my sisters had rented a gîte in the town, and that's where we had Christmas Eve dinner and where we spent Christmas day. 

One of the highlights was the visit of my sister and family on Boxing Day. My eldest nephew was visiting from Switzerland and he came over to the introduce his fiancée to my mum. I was delighted to be able to take a picture of them walking hand in hand on the seafront - he is usually in a wheelchair, so it's very special that he's up and about now.

I spent a lot of time just chilling with my mum. Her speech isn't always so good nowadays, but it's fantastic to spend time with her. She still doesn't let you do anything around the house, so you have to empty the dishwasher or what have you while she's busy doing something else. I really need to get to see her more than I did this year. 

The journey back was not too bad, although it was a choppy crossing. Luckily, we have learnt our lesson over the years and only get that ferry if we can get a cabin. It's much easier when you can get rocked to sleep... We got home around 10am and the cat was sooooo happy to see us. He hasn't really left my side since yesterday, bless him. 

 

So it's nearly the end of the year. A lot has happened in 2012. Here's to a fabulous 2013! 

Catching up

This new iMac is such a time suck!!  And I love it :)   I have been trying out Garage Band and iMovie and uploading photos in a couple of clicks and "zooom" there you go.  It's wonderful. But it does mean I'm spending more time on the computer than I have for ages and um the packing and housework? They aren't really on track....

I've also been trying out the Bamboo Wacom tablet. I've been practicing my handwriting (because it's weird writing on the tablet and looking not at your hand but the screen), and made a couple of little png pictures I thought I'd put in my Project Life. 

     

Feel free to download them if you like. They're really just practice pictures so nothing special, but fun to do.

This week I've had a work Secret Santa & lunch, and a choir Secret Santa & dinner. Lots of fun but tiring! I decided to take today off because I've got a ton of stuff to do and I was yawning my head off by yesterday afternoon. We go away tomorrow and I'm glad we've sorted out a house-sitter to look after the cat... but I still have to pack and work out if I've bought all the presents I need, and tidy up and see if I need to do any more laundry etc.  So I'd better scoot.  Hope you are all feeling festive :)

May they rest in peace

I would like to just record for posterity the terrible tragedy of 14th December in Connecticut. Such horrific events are beyond our comprehension. I have since discovered that the granddaughter of one of my coaching friends goes to that school but on the day, decided she 'didn't want to go' to kindergarten. There but for the grace of God! 

My heartfelt prayers go out to all the families of the victims as well as the whole community that has been devastated and will never be the same again. 

 

The downside

Ok, so I've paid for the excitement of the past week by being rather unwell. It hasn't happened for a while, but every so often I get cocky and think I've got the tiredness licked, only for it to come back and hit me big time. I had to cancel last night's outing with my girlfriends to go to a long-awaited carol concert because I was desperate for my bed by about early evening. On top of that I had a bad tum. I slept for hours and still felt like I'd been hit by a truck this morning so I stayed in bed. Didn't get up till gone lunchtime. I hate when that happens. I feel like I've taken a step backwards, even though I know I'm a million times better than a year ago.

Claire declared it was time to watch White Christmas this afternoon, so we snuggled under blankets with the tree lights on and had a lovely time. I took this from my armchair...

 

Before I close, here's a picture I took yesterday, before I got sick. I had received the score for Carol of the Bells and needed to work out my Alto part. I have no instruments here but suddenly remembered the iMac comes with Garage Band. Oh wow! All I had to do was open it, select "piano" and try out the notes. And voilà. I even recorded it so I could have it to listen back. Brilliant invention!  In the end I didn't get to sing it today but I'm sure it will remain part of the repertoire.

 

Fantastic! And now for bed....

Oh frabjous day!

Such excitement at wagwaan towers today: my new iMac finally arrived at the office yesterday. To say I am excited is an understatement. I got a cab home and left it there, in its box, while I went to the office Christmas party. It was great but I was actually really tired so I shared the first taxi out of there with other people who had long journeys home. I actually thought I'd go to bed and set up the computer this morning, but Claire 'convinced' me that it really wouldn't take long.... and the rest is history. Oh what a joy it is. The detail and design. The understated, sleek packaging. And the 'plug and play'ness of it. I was set up in no time. I'll stop waffling on about it now, but you get the picture!

So here are a couple of pictures of yesterday's events....

And last but not least:

 

 

What a small world

I'm so glad we kind of forced ourselves to go out yesterday. I had been crafting on Saturday, so I'd been out most of the day, and I didn't sleep very well that night, but we had planned on going to a Christmas Market and instead of the crowds at Winter Wonderland we thought we'd try out the South Bank, which one of my crafting friends told me about. It was quite bitterly cold, and the crowds were just as bad as at Hyde Park, but the atmosphere was great. My friend had told me there was a Chocolate Festival every year so we thought we'd check it out. Just as I had been handed a "Christmas Pudding chocolate" to sample, I heard Claire say "oh  hello!" and turned to see.... my goddaughter/niece and her boyfriend. The weirdest part is that Katy actually lives in Manchester, so it was really unexpected to see her there. We hugged and laughed and chatted and had the most amazing hot chocolate from one of the stalls, before going our separate ways. It really IS a small world!

The South Bank stretches for quite a long way, but we found out that the market was near the London Eye, which is just a few minutes from Waterloo Station. That means it's quite easy to get to from where we are, which is a bonus.

 

It was lovely to get in the festive spirit and although we did look for some presents, most of the stalls were selling food. The ones that had gifts for sale seemed to be horrendously overpriced so we came home practically empty-handed. I say "practically" because I did give in and buy a small Gingerbread House kit, which I'm really looking forward to putting together.

 So that was our weekend. Hope you enjoyed yours!

Cold!

Not that I'm complaining, because I love winter, but it really is freezing out there. Nice and seasonal, dontcha think?  I thought I'd upload a couple of pictures so you can see it really is beginning to look rather a lot like Christmas round these parts.

A view of our living room, from the hall

Much as I've always preferred having a real tree, we gave in to a fake tree years ago, mainly because the cats used to attack it and I hated having needles all over the house.  We do like to put Christmas music on as we are decorating the tree, although this year we watched The Santa Clause as we were doing it. A real classic in our house. 

I like this one of our front door. I left the milk bottle there on purpose to make it quintessentially British :)

Talking of all things festive, I definitely plan on going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park soon - maybe at the weekend. I don't really want to go with all the crowds, but I'm not sure when I'll get another chance before Christmas. I hope if I go when it starts to get dark but not too late, then it won't be so bad.

So, what else is new around here? I'm enjoying work, although I'm glad I'm still only part-time because I still get rather exhausted when I do too much. I've got quite an active social life these days, which has to be a good thing. I volunteer and I go to crafting mornings with a bunch of ladies. I'm also meeting new guys and going out for dinner and stuff. I don't know if any of them will be the man of my dreams, but in the meantime I'm enjoying myself. I'm not a  young innocent and I know how to take care of myself - I don't know why my friends worry about me, but I'll take it as a compliment. They obviously care!

So that's enough for tonight. Time to go and snuggle up under the duvet. And maybe listen to the latest episode of The Archers... 

Yes, time flies when you are having fun! On Sunday I had a newborn photoshoot in the morning and then an early dinner with my new beau. Well "beau" is maybe pushing it a bit, but I had a date anyway.  We decided to eat at TGI Friday as there is no problem parking there, whereas the town centre is a pain because everything is pedestrianised with multi-storey carparks dotted around. Anyway, we had a lovely time and then we drove back to mine and sat in his car with the heating on and nice music and chatted for an hour.  Claire is accusing me of acting like a teenager, and with that end to the evening it certainly felt like I had gone back in time!

Talking of acting like a teenager, I took part in a webchat with  my favourite singer, Lemar, at the weekend... and he mentioned me a couple of times (including a message saying "mad love" to me because I mentioned I've been following him for 10 years). If you don't believe me, check out below, at just over 33 mins in. LOL!   I am just mesmerised by his green eyes.

   

So, today was a quiet day but tonight I had a Trustee meeting and then our Trustees' Christmas Dinner so I'm rather full right now. And so the season begins!

Saturday

No thoughts of a lie in today. I had to be up and at 'em, ready for a taxi at 7.45am to go to the hospital for the medical student exams. My lovely Dr C, although officially "retired", still runs the final exams for the students from St George's University (Grenada) twice a year. I'm usually a patient on the "history taking" station, which means the students have to come in and pretend they've been asked to see me by my GP, and then take what's called a "focused history". Basically they have to get me to tell them what's wrong with me and they have to make sure they ask the right questions so they work out my diagnosis and what treatment I'm going to get. Today I was a lady who has all the symptoms of diabetes, plus an added complication. The person I'm playing is based on me so it's not all pretend, but then Dr C gives me certain symptoms that I have to pretend to have. It's quite fun actually, and although the first time was nerve-wracking, many moons ago, it's just routine now.  We have refreshments and lunch, and now I live further away I get a taxi sent for me, so it's not too hard!  I think most of the students I saw today were pretty good. Some of them were desperately nervous, and one, an American, was really cocky and had a bit of an attitude. 

After the exams I met up with Claire for coffee and a spot of shopping, and although we had planned to decorate the tree tonight, we were a bit too tired so we'll do it tomorrow. After another photoshoot (yay! babies!) and before my "date", which had been brought forward to tonight but has been put back to tomorrow again. The vagaries of the dating game.

Another "corner of my home"... from the bargain bin at Dunelm Mill :)