Christmas

Once I'd opened my stocking and recovered from my hangover, Christmas morning began to look a little bit easier to deal with. I spent a lovely day roasting boar, drinking bubbly, munching on smoked salmon and opening a multitude of presents. It was a wonderfully relaxed day, with the food turning out tasty, the company cheery and the required silence through Dr Who.



On Boxing Day I woke up full of cold, something which I haven't yet managed to shift. Tom drove us out to my parents where we munched our way through goulash, whilst keeping myself breathing with the help of a stiff gin and tonic. It was another lovely relaxed day, with the usual banter and yet more fab presents. Unfortunately though, by five I was beginning to flag and so we came back to Brighton and curled up on the sofa to end Christmas with a quiet night in and a couple of glasses of wine.

It was lovely to catch up with friends and family and despite cooking for people, it was all thoroughly calm and unpressured. All the presents I recieved were wonderful and very thoughtful, and it has been so lovely to just spend time with my boy. I just hope I'm feeling better for New Years...

phew!

I've wrapped all the presents, I've put up the tree, I've put the tree up again once the cats had knocked it down, I've cleared the dust and cleared more dust from the plasterers and I've finished work until next year.


Tomorrow I'm going to pick up the joint of wild boar ready for marianading. I will
do this for approx 48 hours with red wine, ginger, chilli, bay leaves, garlic and onion and will also use this mix as a baste whilst I slow roast it on Monday. I'm then going to make the Biscuit Tortoni for the dessert, a frozen mixture of sherry, cream and biscuit that was my favourite for a number of years. I'm really looking forward to cooking again, having not had time to make anything resembling a proper meal for weeks now. The days of catching up on our working day over the oven have been few and far between and I've really missed the joy I get from concocting something heavenly.

I'm so looking forward to relaxing for the next week and a half. Christmas Day will be lovely and relaxed, and after that we're off to Mum & Dad's for Boxing Day. Lyndsey and I are off to the ballet on Wednesday evening and that is all I have planned until New Years Eve. It's such a wonderful feeling to know that I don't need to do anything for days on end.

damp begone

It's with some frustration that I find myself boxing up books again today. Two months after moving in, I now have the damp proofing starting on Monday which means that I have to clear the area in front of the window. However frustrated I am at the reboxing, I'm grateful that they could fit me in before Christmas. The sooner the damp problem has been treated, the sooner I can decorate and also the sooner the smell will go. It's not an over powering smell, but it is there and I find it particularly noticeable when I first walk into the flat.

Until the initial work has been done, and the area can be left to dry off over the next few weeks, I can't put up any decorations. Great for my wifi, but having spent the day Christmas shopping, I find myself missing them. I want to put up my tree! I want flashing lights and baubles! But it'll just have to wait.

I am also having a think about how to move on with this blog. I have been writing another one recently, and I'm unsure whether I want to continue writing two or not.

dublin - fair city

We spent a lovely weekend wandering around the streets of Dublin, dodging rain drops and folding our collars up against the wind. On arriving we were welcomed with the wonderful news that our room had been upgraded to an apartment, giving us a kitchen and sitting room along with our Divine king sized bed. We headed out to lunch and a stroll around Temple and Grafton Street before an evening of Nepalese food at Monty's of Kathmandu and cocktails in the bar with the added excitement of a man dressed as Father Christmas, trying desperately hard not to set fire to himself whilst limbo-ing under a flaming pole.

Saturday was much the same, more strolling about in search of lunch before an evening of comedy (although some was distinctly unfunny and even a little scary) at Bankers, where keeping the audience under control seemed to be the main source of entertainment. We decided to head back for more cocktails, and perched by bamboo trees or perched on square seats under heaters, gazing up at the rain.


Sunday seemed to come around far too quickly, and a morning of an enormous breakfast, followed by sitting about recovering from it and reading the papers, was followed by our journey back to the airport and the unwelcome news that flights were being cancelled left, right and centre. By the time we left, on time, there was a general feeling of grumpiness from a number of passengers but there were no further problems and we landed safely only to be faced with the thought of buses from Three Bridges! I bit the bullet and decided that a taxi was the only way forward, so half an hour later we were greeted by very happy cats, a warm flat but with still that sad feeling you get at the end of a break.

I'd love to go back to Dublin, but with a record four holidays proposed next year, I suspect it may have to wait a bit longer!