Happy New year!

We watched a review of 2009 last night and were amazed at how quickly it has gone! Stuff that happened last Spring seemed just weeks ago! I suppose thats either the penalty or the reward of old age! It does, I find have unexpected perks! Yesterday I was playing backgammon on the net with a man from California. He was new. I'd never played him before. He asked me after the first move if I was male or female. Female I told him briefly. The next question after the next move was how old I was. Very old I told him. Over 50? Certainly! He resigned the game! I've never achieved a rating point so quickly! I wonder if that might happen again if I tried it! A whole new career beckons!

Lobster

Amongst the food I got at Christmas were a ready cooked crab and lobster. Yesterday was the day for tackling them! The only person who could tell me how to deal with them properly was my cleaner. The irony of this has not escaped me. Assembling the tools to get into them took about ten minutes, and we have still to tackle the claws once we've found a hammer! They were good to eat eventually, much better than turkey! Maybe next year though I'll find some already hacked into!

Aftermath

This morning feels like the first sane day after a week of hectic activity. Unfortunately the house looks as though no one has touched it for a week.....which is true they havn't. My cleaner works on Monday but as today is a Bank holiday I am not sure she's coming in so today I am on a mission to tidy! The weight of clothes on the hall stand has finally defeated the fixtures completely. A major repair has to be done and in the interim we have coats and jackets everywhere! I can not put it all off because unbelievably in just two weeks from now we will be setting sail at Southampton for foreign parts!

Sunday after Christmas

The church was freezing this morning! We are clearly not geared up for a real winter! At 8am it was bitterl but it was no better at 11. The sun is out now but just as I was leaving the church yard I spotted a red camellia out and the the first green shoots of snow drops. Alleluia!

Boxing Day

Today is the day I have time to cook! Yesterday we slept and this morning I did tomorrows sermon! But now the beef rib roast is in the oven. I am all turkeyed out! The beef will make a great change!

Daffs

Opened just in time for Christmas

Christmas count down

Every Christmas we start counting down to the big day. This week its all been focussed on Friday as the actual day so all the decorating , shopping and cooking are all concentrated on getting there more or less intact. I had, I thought, got the Christmas day sermon more or less sorted out in my mind if no where else, until yesterday when the penny finally dropped. Sunday is only two days after Christmas day! Two days full of activity are not conducive to sermon writing so today has to be the day! Head down...ignore everything else going on around me and concentrate! Ha!

Snow

Great fun here today. Our trip to Liskard for lunch with David's son was cancelled due to snow! This was also the day that Christmas was to be delivered by way of Tesco and Wings of St Mawes! Its just as well we couldn't go as the mountain of food from Tesco covered every surface in the kitchen! The son and his wife are coming here instead and so far there is no sign of them! Wings say they are delivering in the snow so nothing is definate right now but as yet we are snow free! I was once on the mountain rescue team in North Wales I expect some of those skills could still be deployed!

Christmas post

I am not sure who I have sent cards to. Some people last year got two so I have tried to keep tabs on them but have failed. Obviously if some got two there may be those who get none... all part of life's rich pattern as we used to say in the sixties! Tomorrow I have four things happening in the day ending with the carol service at St Just. By Wednesday I shall be exhausted! Us old people cant do what we used to do! Bah humbug!

Xmas cards

I am at the stage now where I don't know who I've sent them to or not! One friend last year got two so I have been trying to remember but my memory is not what it was. In fact nothing is what it was once! To try to do too many things in one day is hopeless now. Tomorrow I have four things happening, ending with the Carol service at St Just. which means that on Wednesday I will be tired but with still a couple of days in hand before Christmas Day. I just hope that I remember all the things that I havn't done so far!

Christmas food

I have now had enough festive fare for quite a long time! Yesterday I went to the school Christmas lunch where we had the full works, turkey with al the trimmings and a sumptuous plum pudding made by a fellow governor. Last night at the final session in the alpha course we had another Christmas dinner! Argggghhh! Not since my first year as a deacon have I had to cope with two turkey dinners in a day! The vicar of Dubley comes to mind!

Today

Another very busy day trying to be all things to all people! David is much better thank God and is just about back to normal. I have a very busy week coming up mostly in school. So far we have had the panto, Alice in a very different light. The children were very good and the head had worked hard. We made the Christingles in school on Friday and the service is tomorrow. Next week I am in school more than church!

Still

Its the first still morning for at least a month! We were not woken by the sound of trees being shaken or rain hammering on the window! It would be good if it lasted if only to let me get to St JUst this morning to do the midweek communion. I havn't been down there for a couple of weeks and I am hoping for the usual four in the congregation. Any extra would be great!

Harbour lights

Last time I should have switched on the lights they had all blown away in a storm and the weather was too bad to get them back up Tonight I am blessing the crib and the tree! Providing they are still intact after last nights storm. Christmas would be so much easier in summer like the Aussies do it David is spending more time out of bed now so I have offered to take him down to the harbour where he can sit in the local with huge windows overlooking the event! He is not sure about having a female chauffeur though!

Better

David is improving day by day. Yesterday he propped himself up and had a shower! Today he is hoping to get dressed. He is still unable to get down the stairs but says he will do it soon even if its on his bottom! The weather has also improved a bit. The wind is not so bad and the rain is sporadic but there are good moments. Its going to be a while before he can drive so this morning I will go into the village for essential supplies. I am amazed by how much he does daily which I never really noticed. It's keeping me busy, so its just as well that I have no sermon this Sunday!

vertigo

We have had some very difficult days. David collapsed at the weekend, unable to walk, falling over and being sick. He was so bad that I had to send for an ambulance because I couldn't move him on my own. The men were wonderful. They got him into bed with instructions to get our doctor out first thing on Monday. He arrived and he was great too. The diagnosis was of vertigo. David had had a busy morning driving into Truro, had come back and started to rearrange his office, involving alot of bending down to sort out boxes and wires! That according to the doctor had shifted something in his inner ear. He is now getting better....moving very slowly and hanging onto the doors, walls and furniture. He cannot get down stairs or drive for a while. I am just glad to have him laughing again!