Boxing Day and Beyond

A very quiet start to Boxing Day. The Builder and I were a bit worried about how we wold get our morning cup of tea. We thought Freyja was sleeping in the dining room which is the only way into the kitchen. Fortunately, she wasn't!

The Builder had bought me a new digital camera for Christmas. It comes with an integral 44mg memory. It also comes with a much better quality picture capacity than my last camera. Which means the picture files are three times as big! A memory card was required. Although supermarkets do not open on Boxing Day, the larger retailers do. A trip to PC World or Currys was in order.

Alas. My insistence that we go NOW coincided with the last little bit of a film that I didn't realise Freyja and Taffa were watching. Freyja elected not to come at all. Tabitha said she would catch us up. Gareth, The Builder and I, after a heartening bowl of leek, potato and cheese soup to fortify us, set off.

After a bit, Tabitha rang. Gareth reported that we had reached the St George on Midsummer Common. Should we meet there? He would ask me and let her know. Should we meet in the ST George? Why not. We turned around and went in.

About ten minutes later, while we were peacefully enjoying a lunchtime sip, Gareth's phone rang again. Had we made a decision yet? Ah - he had forgotten to let her know!!!

Then on to PC World and Currys and a potter around Argos. Memory card successfully captured, we continued our stroll to the Green Dragon for a glass or three. It was somebody's birthday. We were all given slices of chocolate cake to celebrate. Seldom do you go into a pub and have cake thrust upon you!

Then back to the house for our rescheduled Christmas Dinner. Roasties and toasted veggie things and baked seafood, followed by Christmas pudding, chocolate mousse and pavlova. All very tasty. The Christmas pudding was especially nice. Its a Gordon Ramsey recipe and is much, much lighter than the traditional pud. I really enjoyed it.

And now we are in Salisbury, ready to continue the celebrations. We left Cambridge yesterday morning, dropped Tabitha off at work, were about to leave Cambridge when I thought - I don't remember picking up my camera this morning. Rang Freyja. Indeed, I hadn't. Back to the house, reunite self with new camera and THEN of to Salisbury through a morning which was most certainly crisp and even. It was -1d, bright blue sky; and everything on the ground was white. Not snow, but a deep, deep frost.

Lunch in the Market Inn then a cup of tea with Gwen and Peter. We had bought Gwen a oft, cuddly sheep for Christmas. One of those toys that hangs over the arm of the hair so you can stroke it while watching TV. She's never had a soft, cuddly toy before. Never, not in 83, nearly 84 years! And now she has two. She got a free gift from one of the catalogue companies which is a Christmas polar bear. Then we went and spent a small fortune in Waitrose and checked in to our cottage for this week.

And now I really much get up. It's nearly half past eight and we have 12 people descending on us around 1. There are potatoes to peel, sprouts to peel, things to roast. We've got chicken and beef and two small lobsters, lots of potatoes, loads of veg. And another of Gordon's Christmas puddings, with a Waitrose apple pie and chocolate roulade. And cheese. I hope no one will go home hungry!

The TV here only has the five terrestrial channels available. There wasn't much on last evening. So I watched the new Wallace and Gromit filmette and then Alan Hart Davis considering railway tracks in the north of England on my Mac. The Builder's Windows laptop doesn't want to talk to the wireless network, so he played games instead. Then some more sensible programs appeared on BBC2. I never think to watch TV on my Mac at home. It's quite fun - except I have to keep hitting the space bar or the screen saver comes on!