The festive season

This was a less hectic week than the last few. We stayed in the village until Thursday, did mostly work on the computer, Roy family history, me proofreading. As we are having guests from the Mill over New Year's Eve, we did some cleaning and made the beds, so that when we get back we shouldn't have to rush around like madmen. On Thursday I got really cross again at the total unreliability of the medical services in the village. The doctor only comes twice a week, but as I can't stand either of them (there is one on Tuesday and another one on Thursday), I usually go early on Thursday to see the nurse before the doctor arrives. She is perfectly happy to print out 3 months of prescriptions for me and this way I only really have to go to the surgery 4 times a year. Well, this time there was nobody there and no notice explaining the absence of any medical personnel.  Eventually I managed to ring the nurse and it turned out that she was on holiday. I went home fuming, counted my pills and realised that I can just about survive until 5th January, when she returns. If she isn't there then I'll definitely be stuck, as one of my pills will by then only have 4 left, which is two days' supply.  Let's hope she turns up!

Roy's steak sitting on the board

The table before we attached the food

Roy with his vino in his hand

Me looking uncharacteristically happy

This is how rare his steak was

As Roy didn't want to be lumbered with the car in town, we came in on Thursday evening by bus. I must admit, this arrangement of catching the 15.55 to a nearby village where we have to change buses to a fast one to town, is the best option of all. Mostly because it takes the motorway and thus delivers us fast and efficiently to our doorstep after another easy change, but also as on this route there is almost always a new, comfortable and safe coach, which is fast becoming a rarity in our county.

Once in town, the first job was to do our Christmas food shopping at the market. We managed to get my salmon, Roy's fillet steak, quite a lot of veg., fruit and herbs, plus nuts. It was quite a weight to carry it home, so we left the potatoes off and got those in the block. I decided to do some truffles, so we bought some chocolates and cream as well.

Christmassy model in the market

One of the stalls

Marzipan sweets

Closeup of sweets

The Basilica's fascade

Handicrafts

In the meantime we had a phonecall from some friends that they would like to invite us for lunch on Christmas Day, so we cancelled the restaurant and went and spent about 5 hours with them, had lovely food and good company, which made a change after several years of having just each other on Christmas Day. En route to them we popped into the Christmas Market in front of the Basilica and while we didn't buy anything, we appreciated the lingering scents of garic sausage, lángos, mulled wine and strudel.

Call the Midwife in South Africa

We had our big Christmas dinner on the 24th, and I must admit, I am in the process of growing gills, I am having so much fish nowadays.  Not that I am complaining, they were all very nice.  I was watching Jamie Oliver and decided to try making his gravadlax. That turned out good, so did my truffles and Roy's steak. He found 2 packs from last year still in the freezer, so he had one of those, having chopped up and frozen this year's offering.

Rowan Atkinson as Maigret

I carried on with the proofreading, which I managed to finish today and have already sent it. Apart from being helpful to my comrades in London, this also gave me sheer enjoyment, as I love Trotsky and in this particular work he was especially erudite, witty with his style at its most clear. The weather has been quite unpleasant, lots of freezing rain etc., so we stayed indoors a lot. Watched some TV, some from the US, although they stop their regular stuff mostly around Christmas, but there were still some. I also discovered some programs I haven't watched for ages, like Midsomer Murders, Last Tango in Halifax, Call the Midwife, Grantchester and Maigret, which I enjoyed tremendously. They tend to come out of the woodwork around Christmas, which is great. We are all looking forward to Sherlock, which starts again on New Year's Day and which promises a darker tone to the first three series.

The still deliciously dishy James Norton in Grantchester

I also managed to see a really good documentary about Lenny Henry, which I also enjoyed, the above mentioned Jamie's Ultimate Christmas, House of the Year with Kevin McCloud and the next instalment of Who Do You Think You Are? So, as you can appreciate, there was a lot of TV watching done this week, but only those programs that we really enjoy.

Last Tango in Halifax principals

Tomorrow we are having lunch with one of Roy's virtual family history researching friends, so that should be interesting. Finally on Wednesday I am having my last cultural outing to an alternative theatre and then we're off back to the village on Thursday.

A very Happy New Year to everyone and this will probably have to be my last posting in 2016. Let us hope we will all have a better year in 2017!!