Christmas Day and afterwards

Went to Susie and Laurence's new house for Christmas day and had wonderful Christmas lunch - cooked by Laurence! Here are some photos......
After lunch, Susie, Ian, Lily, Anna, Jenny and I went for a walk which felt much better after all that dinner. We then watched Wall-e. Anna and Charlotte came home with us and also Ian's Dad, David.

The next day, Boxing Day, Ian took his Dad home to Wadhurst and Anna and I went across to the Mill for tea and later a traditional Boxing Day party at David's - which was fun. Ian, Jenny and I came home that evening but everyone else stayed the night.

It all seems a bit quite now! Ian and I went to church on Sunday morning. Alan LeGrys took the service and preached about not following the delusion of the empire - just keep your eyes fixed on the baby in the manger. In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see "Australia" with Nicole Kidman. It was good - made you feel like going to Australia although Ian said he has always wanted to go there.

It is now Monday. Not really a lot to do today so decided to take the Christmas decorations down. It means we can get back to normal again and we are not expecting anymore visitors. I got lots of nice presents for Christmas. I love my sheepskin boots - heavenly to wear. I like the Swatch watch Anna gave me - although she doesn't! I still need to work out how to change the date. Charlotte bought me some lovely cleansing/toner which I am looking foward to using. And we have lots of boxes of chocolates which we will be eating soon I think.

Charlotte's New Car

Ian and I spend Saturday morning decorating the house. We dug up the Christmas tree fin the garden from last year and put it in the sitting room in the window in a plastic bucket and decorated it - it looks lovely. We then spent a few hours decorating the other rooms ready for Christmas.

Afterwards we went to Harold Wood to collect my car from Charlotte and saw her new Toyota Yaris which she got today. It was in the dark but what we could see it looked very nice. Had a cup of tea and then came home.

On Sunday I had to get up early to preach at 8.00am and then preached again at 10.30am. It is nice preaching because that's all you have to do on the day. Unlike leading the service you don't have to think about anything - just step forward and read your sermon! In the evening we went to the Carol Service. It was a bit lack lustre. Ian thought it might be because they had all the lights on in the church as well as all the candles.What's the point of the candles, with all the lights on? The choir was good but there was something dead about the service. Went to Suzie and Brian Micklewright's for mulled wine afterwards. Felt tired when we got home. This cough seems to be getting me down quite a bit.

Today went to morning prayer. I wanted to ask Alan what was happening about the Carol Service at Churchlands tomorrow. He said it was all organised. Brian Micklewright was going to bring his portable piano to play the music. It starts at 11pm. Went into Chatham to bank Anna's cheque at Barclays Bank. It took my a while to find Barclays - but now I know where it is! While I was in Chatham I thought I might as well go to Sainsburys and get the ingredients to making the apparatiffs for Christmas Day.

I have got a homily to do for Mid Week Communion on Wedneday so made a bit of a start on it. Then I went to sleep for the afternoon. Got up at about 4pm. Ian came home at about 6pm and we had the curry dish that Pat's son-in-law made. It was quite nice but a bit too hot for me. Jenny is working tonight at Asda - back at 10.30pm.

British Museum

Met Lindy up in London at the British Museum. We went to the exhibition on Babylon which was very interesting. I did a bit of research beforehand and discovered lots of things in the Bible about Babylon, especially in the book of Daniel. Daniel was one of the Jews who was deported to Babylon when Jerusalem was besieged (for 3 years) by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. All the stories in the bible about Daniel, being thrown in the fiery furnace, in the lion's den - fascinating stuff. Lindy was quite interested in it and I lent her my bible to read more about it. We had lunch in the restaurant and chatted for quite a long time. I was not feeling too brilliant from the cold but it was OK. Got home about 4.30pm.

There was a Christmas party on at Churchlands, the old people's home round the back of our house. I go there once a month to do communion. Ian and I popped over there just to say hello. Spoke to Delia. There was a lady singing songs from the 40's and she was dressed in uniform. It was a bit of a singalong with Christmas decorations and a huge raffle. There was also lots of party food and lots to drink.
Came home. Ian had supper with Jenny. We then watched a film called "China Town" which I remember it from the 80's (?). It was quite shocking then because the character that Faye Dunaway played had sex with her father and had a daughter/sister. Nowadays it is not particuarly shocking!

Anyway, today I was deaconing at midweek communion, then met with Angela for chat and prayer. Came home and did some work on this Sunday's sermon. Also distributed leaflets about Neighbourhood Watch. I am the new Co-Ordinator as Don Summerley from No. 18 has stood down after 14 years. I will send out emails etc notifying people of criminal activities in our area when I receive them from HQ. Already received an email saying that someone had tried to gain entry into a house in Park Crescent by the back door but had not succeeded. Got to be careful over this Christmas period.

Experimenting wih the Blog

A photo of me at our stall at the Advent Fayre at church. All proceeds from our Christmas decoration stall went to the Children's Society.




Here is Barry and Sheila - they also helped on our stall. Sheila is very good making craft things and she showed me how to make the table decorations.

Buying and trading cars

Ian and I went to see Charlotte yesterday. The plan was that I would collect my car and she and Scott would go to Hertford in the Renault to collect her new Yaris car. Unfortunately Renault was in no mood to go! The rear brake pad had locked on to the rear wheel and so car would not reverse, just rise up at the back. AA man duly arrived but could not complete the job. Next thing was to go to local Kwik Fit who said it may be 2 hours IF they had the RIGHT brake pads etc etc. The plan was that C & S would pick up car in Hertford and then on to Cambridge to do some Christmas shopping and then dinner with Scott's brother who is a Fellow at Cambridge University, staying the night at the University. So having no other option, they went straight to Cambridge.

So no new car! Re-arranged for next weekend. Ian and Scott did fit the light in Charlotte's bedroom - which was a good!

We got home mid afternoon. Put the supper on at about 4.30pm - well, it was dark and felt like night time! By 8pm it felt like midnight. Winter is a funny month - short days. And weather has been really wintery. I quite like wintery days in winter. Mild days in winter are not to be trusted!

I've got a cold!

Although it's nearly the middle of December, the day looks gorgeous out there - frosty and clear with bright blue skies and a few white clouds. First thing this morning when I came downstairs and looked through the kitchen window the dawn had broken and stained the clouds pink and shimmery.

I've got a cold and have been staying indoors. The only thing is Charlie still looks expectantly at me for a walk after breakfast. I don't mind taking him out but the problem is he is so slow and wants to spend time smelling! So after a bit it gets cold just standing around - waiting!!

I am sitting in the sitting room (that's clever!) typing this blog. Cats are lying together sleeping on the sofa and Charlie sleeping on the floor. All is peaceful!! I started a blog because I was writing something in a book and then thought it would be easier to type it on a blog! When we went to the Peak District, the lady who ran the farm cottages where we stayed had a blog and it was quite interesting reading it every day. (We had WIFI in our cottage.)

My mind is running on over the things that need to happen in the foreseeable future. I have had to cancel going to Discovery Group this morning at the church and also the Embroidery Group here this afternoon because of my cold. I have to lead the service on Sunday morning - but hopefully I will be able to do that, then just go home. We are supposed to be going to Audrey and Philip's on Sunday for lunch. Audrey is Ian's aunt and lives in Orpington. Perhaps I shouldn't go. It would be good for Ian and Jenny to go and have some time together.

We are going over to Charlotte's tomorrow to collect my car which she has been using because hers sometimes won't start. Ian also needs to finish putting up the light fitting in her bedroom which we started but didn't finish a couple of months ago! That was quite funny because it took five people (Anna, Scott, Ian, Charlotte and me) to try and change the light fitting and because the light was fading we has to use a chandelier with lighted candles to see by. Eventually we had to abandon the job because the screws wouldn't go in the ceiling. There are lots of jokes about how many people it takes to change a light bulb but none about how many people it takes to change a light fitting.

It will be nice to get my car back - although to be honest I have never been stuck without it. If I need a car, I just take Ian to work and use the Ford. Most of the time I am just walking up to the church for things.