Happy New Year!

Well hello there! Long time, no see. It's been over a month since my last post and a lot has happened in the intervening time. We've had Christmas, my birthday, New Year. and then E's 21st birthday. I'm all celebrated out. L was home for 2 weeks and E for a month, so it's been lovely. I took E back to Bristol yesterday in time for her exams, which gives me a short interval to clean the house etc. before R and I go away for a few days. In the interest of clearing my camera, here is a summary of our festive season in photo form:

Taking E for lunch at 'The Real Greek' in Bristol when I collected her before Christmas. It was yummy but the portions were huge - next time, we plan to share!

Our Christmas tree. For once, it was the perfect shape - it's almost become a tradition in our house that the tree either has to balloon over the back of the sofa, bulge weirdly on one side, or have a strange, bald section near the top. This year's, however, was the perfect size and conical shape ........ it dropped like a b*****d though, so you take your pick!

 My Christmas Eve cast on: 

 Our festive jigsaw. This one wasn't new; we did it a couple of years ago, but J was here at the time and it was finished before we could blink!

 Our Christmas day walk through Bagnor, ending up at Donnington Castle:

 Hamish toasting himself in front of the stove:

 My birthday picnic. I say that L had 2 weeks off for Christmas - actually, the only day that she had something booked in court was on my birthday. It also happened to be in Hastings (4 hours by train!). I got up early, prepared her a packed lunch and dropped her off at the station. We had decided to celebrate the following day, so E settled down for some revision and R decided we should go for a quick drive in Bridget. We packed a picnic, left E a sandwich and set off for an hour. It wasn't particularly sunny, but it was so lovely to get out and blow away a few cobwebs.

When we arrived home, L phoned. She had got as far as London (and luckily hadn't boarded the Hastings train) when the solicitor called to say that the case had been postponed as the judge was ill. She popped into her flat to drop off some stuff and then came straight home again. We therefore managed to celebrate my birthday on the day itself. There was bowling:

 ...... and a trip to the cinema. I loved this:

Finally, there was an Indian meal and a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Now, I can't remember if I have mentioned this before or not: L is a fan of the old D&D, and a couple of years ago when we went on a sailing holiday, she took along her stuff with the intention of introducing us to the game. The first thing you have to do is 'design' your character. Well, it was after a long day and within minutes R was fast asleep, snoring loudly. E was thoroughly underwhelmed by the idea and only got as far as naming her character 'Boredy McBored Face'. After a couple of hours, I was the only one with a fully formed character, showing even the semblance of enthusiasm. Forward 2 years and we gave it another bash. Admittedly, L and I had to design the characters for R and E, but E did go so far as to give hers an alternative name ..........ladies and gentleman, I give you Paella Toss-cobble! Over a couple of evenings, we got as far as level 2, and I think that may be it until next Christmas!

 Hello deer!

 My baby turned 21:

We celebrated by driving into London with a 3 point plan: lunch at The Gate, go shopping for a watch, and then a trip to the theatre to see Agatha Christie's 'Witness for the Prosecution' in the evening.

The food at The Gate was yummy. It's usually a veggie/vegan restaurant, but to encourage 'Veganuary', the whole menu on her birthday was vegan. I had a selection of wild mushrooms on a risotto cake with a creamy cep sauce and lemon and truffle oil. E had the same.

 Polenta chips and salad, with L's burrito in the background:

 R's aubergine escalope with kale:

  There was a whole selection of vegan puddings to choose from too. Here is R's chocolate bomb:

My hazelnut mille feuille:

... and L and E both chose vegan tiramisu:

 

E had decided that she would like a watch for her main present. She had looked online and had a vague idea of what she wanted. We walked miles down Oxford and Regent Street and various other parts of London, but nothing grabbed her fancy. It was useful in that it clarified what she did and didn't like, so we called it research and grabbed some supper before the play. Incidentally, I took her into town for a haircut 2 days later and she found a watch she loved at the nearest jewelers to our house! It's an eco-drive analogue watch, solar powered so she doesn't have to worry about changing the battery and it suits her perfectly.

Here are a few of the sights from our great watch hunt of 2019:

This was the play we saw and it was indeed 'criminally good'. It was performed in the County Hall on London's South Bank - think Ken Livingstone and the GLC building! It was worth going for the building alone, both it and the play were glorious. Set in a courtroom, you could pay extra and sit in the jury box. One member of the audience was actually the foreman of the jury and had to stand and deliver the verdict! As we bought last minute tickets - E wasn't sure whether she would be in Bristol or not - we were in the circle, but the view was excellent.

 

Finally, a trip to see this at our local cinema. Given that Ralph Fiennes was playing Antony, I had high hopes. We were sadly disappointed - E declared it a 'snoozefest' and we had to agree. I thought that Hamlet was supposed to be the longest play, but this gave it a run for its money. The last time I saw this play was in the 80s with Anthony Hopkins playing Antony and Judi Dench as Cleopatra. I remember it being much better. The only redeeming feature was when R pointed out that Fiennes had a way of standing that was reminiscent of Rigsby in 'Rising Damp' (I'm showing my age here!). He stood with hands on hips, nodding his head repeatedly. You could almost hear the cry of 'Miss Jones!'. He did it a lot, and once you'd noticed it it was impossible to take him seriously.

Well, that's all for the moment. I hope you all had the merriest of Christmases and wish you all love, light and peace for 2019.

Toodle pip for now. x