Cake and Fizzy Wine

Well, that was a very festive Sunday.

Mind you, it started remarkably early, given that it was a Sunday and neither of us was working. But there were cakes to make. You can’t have a Cake Party without cakes, now can you? And I had to transform the front door space from its everyday existence as a “conservatory” to a festive Grotto. After all, you can’t have a Christmas Cake party without fairy lights and tinsel, now can you?

But first we had a visit from Tabitha, Gareth and Alex. They’d been in Doncaster at a party overnight and called in for lunch on their way back to Cambridge. Since we had Boys to hand, The Builder decided to shift the fence at the back. The land isn’t officially ours until Wednesday, but there will be no Boys on Wednesday and the fence posts have been in position for a couple of weeks and the concrete bottoms, and indeed the fencing itself, are very, very heavy!. The Speculator had said he didn’t really mind when the fence went up as long as it did. So we’ve moved it. (When I say we……). Ours is going to be the most fantastic garden when it’s all sorted out!

We had ham and tomato sandwiches and nibbly things from Waitrose for lunch. Then Gareth and Alex (and The Builder, a bit) gave life to my dalek. For Tabitha and Gareth and Alex have given me an inflatable red dalek for my birthday! It’s amazing.

Then they went away.

Shortly afterwards, Visitors came for the Cake Party. Roger came, without Kate who was at home with a cold and a bad temper. Bea and Steve came. Aileen and George-who-was-sick-for-months-but-is-now-better came. Peter (my boss) and Diane came a later. We ate: a cherry trifle, with cherries from the allotment; a chocolate cake; a cinnamon cake; mince pies, made with my fruit mince; and a steamed marmalade cake, made with my marmalade. I’ve never made a marmalade cake before. It was scrumdidliumptious! We drank fizzy wine and tea and coffee and fruit juice.

Then they all went away, except for Steve and Bea who stayed and had chips and egg and bacon and tomatoes and mushrooms and more wine/fruit juice and stayed quite late. Then they went away. The Builder and I poured ourselves up the stairs and went to bed.

The dalek, in the meantime, had been stood on the landing, preventing people going into our room (such a slack artist ¾ I hadn’t even made the bed!) or the spare room, temporarily transformed into a junk room. You could hear startled, nervous laughter as people went up the stairs to go to the loo and found him there.

Fortunately, I was on a late shift today. Got up and made The Builder’s lunch and then retired back to bed with a Cup of Tea. Got up around 8 and made a start on the first lot of dishes. Had another cup of tea and tidied the lounge room. More dishes. More tea. A bath, I think, with Vanilla bubbles and my new dog plug in the plughole (He floats on a chain attached to the plug. He’s inside a swimming ring. He’s very cute. Also a birthday present.) Wash last lot of dishes. Tidy up kitchen and dining room. All traces of Visitors now eradicated, except for the presence of a piece of chocolate cake and a mince pie on the dining room table. Excellent! Time for a cup of tea, I reackon. But I’m very glad I didn’t have to get up and drive in at 7 o’clock this morning. Actually, I wouldn’t have driven. I’d have gone by train.

Freyja has just been in, bringing my birthday presents from her and Mark. I like this idea of having a second birthday nearly two weeks after the first! I now have a Food for Free book, an allotment book and a letter holder with a watering can poised over where the letters would go. Will clearly have to put bills there!

The Builder has lost his phone. He had it on Friday when he met me at the station. He didn't have it when he left for work on Saturday. If you ring it you get straight through to his voice mail. The only thing we can think is that it dropped out of his pocket when he was getting the shopping out of the van on Friday evening. A new phone has been sent for.

Robert’s daughter Rosi has had a baby son. His name is Daniel Robert Gribben and he is a big laddie, weighing in at 4280g!

The dalek has moved into the spare room. He was gazing idly out the window the last time I saw him.