Friday, December 30, 2011

Firstly, a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my readers. 

Since my last post, Christmas has simply flown by.  Rita and Roger arrived on Christmas Eve - seems incredible that's a week ago now.  We enjoyed our usual Christmas Eve seafood feast.  Andrew prepared a ceviche of bream fillets, followed by scallops with samphire and some squid.  After the meal we all watched Muppet Christmas Carol, and singing along was compulsory! 

Christmas Day followed its usual routine.  After waking up, we all opened our stockings, and Father Christmas had managed to find Rita and Roger too.  Then we had some coffee and took the dogs out for a nice muddy walk.  Andy lay on hte bed while I was opening my stocking and was utterly enthralled by the wrapping paper, and enjoyed tearing it all to shreds.  

Once we came home we fed the woofs and had smoked salmon and scrambled egg with toasted muffins. Thus fortified, upstairs for shower, out of muddy clothes and put on something smarter (my favourite black dress with roses print) and jewellery/make up.  Then back downstairs and we had a leisurely afternoon of present opening and drinkies.  Made phone calls to various family members, then ate our festive meal around 5 ish.  Roast turkey, goosefat roast potatoes, home made stuffing, lovely gravy, sprouts, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets and carrots.  We served it with a Shiraz, which was delicious.  In the evening we relaxed and chatted and enjoyed watching Downton Abbey's Christmas special.  Definitely a return to form.  Eventually to bed, tired but very happy.  

Boxing Day was leisurely and enjoyable too.  We took the dogs for a very wet walk up to Garw Nant, walking round the Llwyn Onn reservoir.  On the way we saw a local gun pack working the mountain with their hounds - beautiful Welsh foxhounds, shorter and hairier than the English and as daft as a brush, but so lovely.  We took a thermos of coffee and some flapjacks with us which were very welcome before returning home to enjoy traditional turkey sandwiches. We were astonished at how busy the retail park at Merthyr was- I think that would be my idea of Boxing Day Hell.  

The day after Boxing Day, we took the dogs for yet another muddy walk (very drizzly at the moment) had lunch then Rita and Roger departed back to Bridgwater.  We had a very quiet day on Wednesday and on Thursday we went down to Swansea to see Hilary.  Spent a wonderful afternoon with her in her lovely conservatory although it rained solidly the whole time we were there.  
Today has been another fairly quiet day - we popped into town this morning as L'Occitane were having a sale and I also visited Cath Kidston.  I bought her newest book "Patch" which had been on my Christmas list, and a very lovely small handbag which was in the sale.  The shop was absolutely heaving and I was stunned to see a man with the most enormous pushchair (why are all the modern pushchairs so damn HUGE?) lurking in the shop while his wife/partner shopped.  He caused constant queues, bottlenecks and problems and I felt sorry for his baby who was constantly bumped and shoved by people (and their baggage) trying to get past.  I really couldn't understand why it would be simpler to just wait quietly outside the shop while his wife browsed.  

It's lovely having Andrew home and being able to simply relax and enjoy each other's company without clock watching or dashing about.  The dogs are enjoying themselves too - they all liked having some leftover turkey but just seem to be constantly muddy at the moment.  We made a big effort to clean the car interior before Rita and Roger arrived - hoovered out the inside,  washed the dog bed covers and fleece on the back seat and put in a new air freshener thingie from Yankee Candles. There was a brief, glorious moment when the interior actually looked and smelled quite acceptable.  After a few days of muddy walks it is now back to its default state of hairiness, muddiness and a certain ripe aroma comprised of damp dog, mud and essence of countryside. Sigh.   Now we are looking forward to the New Year. 

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Last week was incredibly busy, but the upside was that I completed most of the Christmas preparations.  All the cards and parcels have been made and sent, all presents wrapped - this is surprisingly time consuming.  

On Tuesday afternoon I went over to Macarthur Glenn, near Bridgend, which is an out of town retail park which specialises in discount stock.  On the way I got caught in the most ferocious hail storm and lightning which made the motorway visibility very poor.  I got the last few things there for gifts - but wasn't particularly impressed.  Most of my shopping this year has been done via the net, and this is simpler, often cheaper and much less hassle.  I've bought a few things in town from shops like L'Occitane and John Lewis - but these are both stores with excellent customer service who really look after their customers. 

At Macarthur Glenn, shop assistants were disengaged, with no eye contact, clueless about stock and about as festive as a soggy walnut.  I went into Austin Reed - they do great "classic"  menswear and I've often bought from their main store in town for Andrew, particularly their dress shirts, ties etc.  I found a beautiful tie, a shirt and some attractive cufflinks.  Nobody offered any help even though the shop was deserted, and when I got to the counter, the shop assistant had his sleeves rolled up displaying a fine array of rather wobbly tattoos, and was chewing gum.  I asked for a gift sleeve for the tie (something I've been offered routinely in their main store) and he looked like I'd asked for a diamond encrusted jockstrap.  He then muttered that a lot of customers had asked about them, but he didn't think they had any.  As today's young folk would say, EPIC FAIL! A real shame since they had some gorgeous tweed jackets too, and if the service had been good I'd have seriously thought about taking Andrew back there in the New Year.  Ironically this was the same day that Mary Portas released her report on to the plight of the high street and how to reinvigorate shopping.  Well, the first priority has to be to get customer service right.  What's annoying about AR too is that they are not a cheap brand - and I'm guessing most of their customers will be older/middle aged customers who aren't looking for "fast fashion" or a "pile it high" approach. They really should be better than this.  

Another minor irritant related to the charging for bags. I took my own with me but wanted a bag in the Cadburys shop where I bought some festive selection boxes for the nephews plus a few other stocking fillers.  I accept (grudgingly) that I have to now pay for a bag - however, the bag was made of the flimsiest possible plastic and as the assistant shoved the items into it, (again no care taken) the bag split and broke, meaning that she then had to put the whole thing inside another one, which barely made it back to the car.  If a charge has to be made, at least make it fit for purpose.  The whole experience was miserable and just made me glad I'd done so much while sitting comfortably in my pyjamas at home, sipping a coffee, and receiving goods promptly, usually beautifully wrapped.

Thursday I made two big batches of fudge, one white chocolate and cranberry, the other chocolate and coconut.  These have been chopped up and put into some lovely gift bags I got from Ikea and have been given to various people over the last few days.  

On Friday, James our nephew arrived while I was at work (my last shift before Christmas).  On Saturday morning he and Andrew took the dogs for a walk while I baked some bread rolls (spelt and oatmeal), then when they returned we all had a plate of bacon and eggs, with rolls warm from the oven and home made marmalade to follow.  Lovely.  Then it was time to get ready for the Greyhound Welfare Christmas show.  James is now an old hand at these (along with Boola, his compadre) and we arrived in good time.  James entered the Best Hound class, Best Child Handler, Best Veteran, Best Rescue and Best Matched Pair.  To our delight, James won the Best Child Handler class, and was awarded a gorgeous festive red rosette, which he immediately pinned on his hoodie.

He then got a Fourth place in Best Veteran, and a Second in Best Matched Pair, when he donned his elf costume and Boola put on his festive outfit.  I had actually prepared these for the Christmas show last year, but the heavy snow prevented the event from taking place.  It was quite noticeable that James had grown a lot since last year, when he put the costume on. Anna the judge (who also makes the rosettes for the GW shows) looked (and sounded) wonderful, as she had donned a home made green elf costume complete with jingling bells on the points of her skirt and on the curls of her shoes.  




 
 When we got home, Boola decided it was time for a well earned snooze and James called home and to his grandparents to share the day's good news.  We had a relaxing evening, with an enjoyable meal - Andrew did a turkey and leek pie, with James then choosing a film to watch before bed.  

On Sunday, Andrew took James, the dogs and a big haul of gifts (including fudge, sloe gin and preserved lemons) in the car, and headed for the old Severn bridge where he was meeting Basil and the other two boys before heading off to the greyhound field. The boys really enjoyed watching the dogs doing zoomies and it was good for Basil and Andrew to catch up and swap news.  At the end of the hour slot, Basil took the boys home and Andrew returned home with the dogs.  

I stayed at home when Andrew went as I was heading off on my own adventure.  Penny my friend had told me earlier in the year that she was doing part of the finale display at Olympia (annual Christmas show jumping festival) and this made me think about going up to see it.  I mentioned it to my friend Helen and she was keen to go, so off we went. We drove up and the M4 was pretty quiet and we made good time.  Frustratingly we couldn't access the pre booked parking space we had reserved until at least 5.40 so this meant by the time we'd parked and got into the venue, we didn't have  a lot of time to look round the shopping village or to meet Penny as we'd hoped.   The shopping village was awesome - full of every conceivable requirement for the lover of horses, and with plenty for dog lovers too.  I bought a greyhound coat for Andy as he is too big for the ones we had from Paula.  Then it was into the arena for the evening performance which was amazing and spectacular.  
 
We loved the Kennel Club dog agility final and the Shetland Pony Grand but the real highlight was the Lusitano riders who did the most breathtaking display of dressage and riding on these amazing and wonderful horses.  Helen of course was thrilled since she has two of this breed herself and is very knowledgeable about them -  I loved the dressage performance and the amazing ride with the flaming torches - quite dreamlike and stunning.  
 
Then we enjoyed some top class showjumping - our seats had an excellent view and we were practically close enough to touch the riders.  The seats themselves were astonishingly uncomfortable - seemingly designed for midgets.  I'm only 5'5" and my knees were under my chin and my left thigh is still hurting today after the way the seat kept digging in.  Poor Helen, who's now five months pregnant, also found it uncomfortable especially as she is much taller than me.  
 
After the showjumping, which flew by, the finale took place .  There were Camelot inspired knights  on foot, children on ponies, a wizard, various monks in a carriage (??), Penny's guys doing some jousting, (and it was great to see and recognise Joe in the ring) followed finally by that well known star of Arthurian legend, Father Christmas.  By this time, we'd abandoned any attempt at a coherent narrative so just enjoyed the spectacle.  It finished with the whole arena on its feet singing carols while Father Christmas and the others paraded round the ring, with snow falling.  Amazing.  
Then it was back to the car and time to head for home.  The sat nav threw a major strop but fortunately it was easy to find the A4 and back on to the M4.  We got back around 1.45 a.m.  and yesterday I was shattered but feeling very happy and festive.   Tonight is the library Christmas meal so more Christmassy fun and frolics. 


 

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A fortnight to go until Christmas.  We're doing fairly well on the Christmas shopping.  Yesterday, we went to Ikea to get our Christmas tree.  It's a Nordmann fir, and it smells gorgeous.  Andrew put it in its holder, watched by three very curious pointy noses.  While I decorated it, Andrew put up the lights outside and in the windows so the house looks very festive now.  The Advent candle is lit every night, I've brought out various other Christmas candles and ornaments including a lovely Christmas cross stitch sampler. 

A big batch of cards has been made and posted, with some more to go over the next few days.  I worked this afternoon, and while I was out, Andrew was busy cooking.  He did a gorgeous braised pheasant in cider with parsnip mash and made a wonderful pumpkin pie with a recipe he found on an American website.  The quantities in the original were enormous so he cut them down by half.  Now that we've bought our cup measures from Lakeland, following American recipes is a whole lot easier.  Before, I'd often see things I'd want to try but would be put off by the laborious mental arithmetic of converting cups to imperial, and sometimes into metric.  Now, we can just measure away - much quicker and easier.  

The filling in the pie was a mix of roasted pumpkin flesh, dark sugar, evaporated milk, eggs, and a glorious selection of spices including nutmeg, cinnamon etc.  Sniffing the mixture was wonderful and it smelled very festive.  The mix can also be used in pumpkin bread which I think sounds great.  We may have to try that.  

This week, the weather has got a lot colder.  We had our first proper frost, and all the dogs are now wearing their housecoats at night plus their very warmest coats when out for a walk.  Booty's coat was a gift from Paula - it originally belonged to Jim, but when he died earlier this year, she kindly gave it to us as Jim and Booty are very similar in size.  Seeing her wear it now that the weather is so cold made me think of Jim and of course also of Paula - this time of year reminds me of her strongly as she loved it so much.  It's surprising how much you can miss a friend and even though things have slowly eased, there are still some days when it really hurts, but oddly, in a good way, since the memories are such happy ones.   

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Drat.  I did a huge, long post and Blogger and lost most of it.  NOT HAPPY.  
Again, a busy time.  Last Saturday night we went over to Llandaff Cathedral to hear Brahms' German Requiem, sung by the Cathedral Choral Society.  It was absolutely beautiful and sung very well.  The programme also included some Mozart and a short Schubert piece so a real treat all round, including a very beautiful prayer read by the Dean to open proceedings written by John Donne.
Here it is.  




It was the first time I've visited the interior of the Cathedral.  It's an interesting mix architecturally as bits go back to the Norman era (and there have been buildings there even before that) but it was bombed in the war and was subject to extensive enlargement in the Victorian era.  Compared with other cathedrals I've been to, it still feels very small, but the most dominant thing in the building is an Epstein statue of Christ In Majesty which stands on a concrete arch bang in the middle of the nave.  I spent the entire evening looking at it from a variety of angles and I'm sorry to say I couldn't find a single redeeming feature.  It's

Llandaff Cathedral Epstein Statue of Christ In Majesty
hideous.  What I also disliked is the concrete arch it sits on.  To me it was strongly reminiscent of the sort of architecture liked by Communist regimes and Middle East dictators