Have you noticed that very slowly the days are getting longer? Of course the covering of snow helps but it is not getting properly dark until nearly five o’clock.
Last night was the coldest so far here, minus 12.9C and today it has stayed around -4C. Thank goodness for central heating and good insulation. This cold spell has gone on for several weeks and is set to continue. It must be some kind of a record.
Like nearly everybody else today, I have been catching up with online banking and paying bills. So far I have made one mistake, (not drastic I can compensate) and have been irritated by busy phone lines and inaccessible websites. I really feel sorry for the operatives at the other end of the line, by the time the caller tries to spell out information to a computer-generated voice and then has to wade through umpteen automated numbers……. (for so and so press 1 etc) it means the call centre employee is having to soothe people’s troubled souls before even getting to hear what the problem is.
This is real life in 2010. Welcome, and a Happy New Year to all.
Visited the hairdresser yesterday – went in, determined to not waver and to make the point that the razor cut ends had been a little flyaway. What do I get greeted with? “Would you like a wee glass of wine or sherry?” Not to be daunted I gave into a half glass of red wine (very good incidentally), refused the proffered chocolates and was quite proud to remember to explain about the disaster of the previous cut. So we were back to the usual basic style in time for the New Year.
Needless to say all the customers were rolling out of the hairdresser’s with rosy cheeks and nice hair!
Visitors are safely arrived for the holidays so Christmas is going well. We have been providing a salad bar for a many-antlered red stag. He has been venturing into the garden from early evening. Must be desperate poor thing.
Well it is the season of goodwill.
This is the first time I can remember a white Christmas for ages. Our temperatures are way down in nearly double figures below freezing. Makes me appreciate heating, lighting, TV and internet.
A happy and blessed Christmas to everybody.
Dreams really can come true. We need to remember that. This duet with Susan Boyle and Elaine Paige had me in floods of tears.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sF1hIaHKANk]
Went to our local church last night where the Craig Lodge Community (Mary’s Meals and SIR) were hosting a nativity and carol service run by adults and young people. There was a choir, a very large stable (size of a small garage) dim lighting, community singing, candlelight, mulled wine, mince pies – in other words the full works. It was attended by a couple of hundred people including children of all ages. At the end, the person sitting next to me turned with tears in her eyes and said, “Magic, absolutely magic”)
Indeed it was.
The nativity scene is up and the three cats look on in wonder. They are being distracted from their job of stopping the stable mice eating the donkey and ox’s hay. Sometimes it is nice to be a big kid.
Oh no! We’ve got mice. The good news is that they are in the loft – so far. But they sound as if they have tackity boots on.
