Mistakes, I've made a few

Christmas dinner- no big mistakes here

Some of these mistakes I have made in my life have been whoppers and are probably not for public consumption. I am restricting my fessing up to what happened this Christmas. I will start by sharing my loss at "spoons". Yes, I played and I lost. Big Mistake. My reputation has tumbled and now needs some time to recover. The rest of the players clearly had it in for me. I lost. They cheered. The whole village heard it. I forgive them as it is Christmas,

Chateau Dop- the finest that Cosgrove can produce!

On the Canasta front, Sammi was over 2000 points up on me at one point. Again, I was onto a monumental loss that was a total embarrassment. Strangely, bit by bit I clawed it back to 4980 to me and 4915 to Sammi. We called it a draw. It is Christmas and that for me is games time. I haven't played as much as I would have liked but it has been fun despite the knocks to my reputation. 

Other bits have gone wrong along the way. I made a panettone bread and butter pudding to take to a friend's house on Boxing Day. It came out of the oven looking lovely. It slipped out of my silcone oven gloves and in a nanosecond it had splattered every surface of my little kitchen. The dish smashed on the floor. A massive disaster. Things were looking bad on the dessert front for Boxing Day dinner.

I also made a turkey pie with chopped turkey, veg and fresh cream, flavoured with Lee and Perrins.  I can tell you, it looked good, it tasted good; and I was proud of it. When we were ready to leave,  I put it in a carrier bag to carry through the village. Up to this point, there were no mistakes. At least I had something to take to my friends. 

I put the dish which was in the carrier bag on the floor by the door, Sammi emptied the washing machine downstairs, I popped upstairs to pick something else up and meanwhile Lucky had stuck his head in the bag and ate a fair chunk of the pie. Argh! I couldn't believe it. Lucky had slobbered over my special pie that only I knew tasted good. 

Sammi wanted to take a picture of it just to show that I really had made something. We ended up just taking a shop bought Christmas pudding which we then brought back to our place after the gathering as there was already one there. Another oops. We didn't take any drink as Peter - now an expert wine maker had given me loads of homemade wine for Christmas. I didn't want a coals to Newcastle moment. The Chateau Dop, BTW, made by Peter was our Christmas dinner tipple - every bit as good as a top class wine!

The worst of the mistakes happened before Christmas. Ezra-Mae came over for a sleepover with Uncle Sam and myself. She loves staying at my place. This is a real treat for her. Uncle Sam or as she says, Uncle Gammi shaved his beard and hair with her help and then we gave her a hair trim. I am not too sure how it happened but she wanted it to happen and we obliged. 

Sammi hoovered up the hair and I blow dried the new style. She thought she was a princess. The next morning Danielle came over. She didn't notice THE haircut until Ezra-Mae pointed it out. We didn't know it was her first ever cut or that it meant so much to Danielle. Danielle was so upset, words cannot describe the trauma. My grand daughter wanted to stay another night but this was not to be. I can't say how sorry both Sammi and I are. We can't stick the hair back on but Sammi has emptied the hoover, washed the hair and it awaits collection. 

Lucky before her shameful theft of pie!

So now Lucky is farting turkey pie farts and Shadow is in the dog house because she hid under my bed and we couldn't find her just when I needed to go to the station to catch a train. We called her name and ran through the house at least twice. I even thought she had escaped. It was a close call, I only just caught the train to Euston for the connection to Truro where I am currently writing this. Shadow's disappearance nearly made me miss the train. Argh! 

Beautiful skies in Cornwall

Christmas at 15c in Cosgrove

Mark and Syd in Falmouth

Meanwhile, Sammi has my house to himself where he is catching up on his writing and probably emptying the cupboards of food. I just hope he is taking good care of Sally! I am in Cornwall having a nice relaxing holiday. All I need to worry about is catching a train home in time to make it to the pub for New Year's Eve. What could go wrong?

Christmas Spirit

The compost bins at St. George's,  Wolverton

Well this is Christmas, and I send my greetings to the four corners of our round Earth. My Christmas spirit extends to a few egg nogs and a couple of Baileys – why not? Despite the uncertain weather, this is my favourite time of year. I just love the one BIG meal that is Christmas dinner with all its trimmings. Second to the cooking, it is the wall-to-wall games that I just love. This year I am planning on feeding 16. There are two babies and two small children included in this number so that makes my turkey size calculations down to 12 – no probs! That is the maximum size turkey I can fit in my oven.

I am cheating on the cooking as my kitchen is small so I have asked Amira and Danielle to add a couple of dishes to make my life a bit easier. The living room isn’t much bigger: I’ll be squeezing two temporary tables alongside my dining table. I’ve made a list and I’m checking it twice. There is so much to do between now and the BIG day – I want everything to be near perfect.

Sammi has organised a Secret Santa. He’s staying for a few days so I am presenting him with a long list of things that need fixing in and around my house. He can’t say I never give him anything!!! The toilet seat wobbles, a tap downstairs is skewiff and there are few heavy lifting jobs I know he’ll be up to. This is the one useful thing about having a strapping son.

On the lead up to Christmas there have been a few fun  gatherings to round off the year. There was the tennis club dinner, a village table tennis party and the end of year awards at the swimming pool. 

The Royal Albert Hall

Ill wind and all that – Diane is still a bit immobile, so Jeremy took me to see Sandy Toksvig’s Santa show at the Royal Albert Hall. The music by the BBC Symphony Orchestra was marvellous but the LGBTQ story thread that ran through the evening was tenuous. It was well worth an evening out though as it was THE Royal Albert Hall  We even had a meal in pub that had been the set of the 2004 film, Layer Cake with Daniel Craig.  

The Queen`s Arms

Christmas spirit inside the Royal Albert Hall

I even managed a couple of hours in the V&A before the show. I started off in the religious icons pre-Renaissance Rooms, then the Renaissance area followed by the Middle East - then on to British bits from the 1500- 1600s. How easy it is to wander around such a wonderful place! Just as I feel when I go into churches, temples and mosques; the museum made me wonder how dedicated those people must have been to create art for their gods. Man has had such talents for millennia.

Getting home was a trial and definitely a dampener on my trip. The train was packed. The rain was torrential. It was still pouring down when I got off the crowded train in Wolverton well past midnight. I walked from the station to Danielle’s to pick up my car avoiding deep puddles and the swollen streams running down the gutters. So this is Christmas – if only it would snow!

A very Big Dilemma

Syria has certainly hit the headlines this week and I have become obsessed with the twists and turns, comments and foibles of our commentators. So what we have heard so far is a rollercoaster of reactions to recent events. Firstly, shock! Aleppo fell very easily to Islamist extremists linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban that are blacklisted by our government! Very negative news.

Naser

However, as the story has unfolded Al Jolani isn’t such a bad chap after all. He has been turned into almost an international hero for toppling the Assad dynasty and their ruthless reign over Syria. Syrians worldwide are dancing in celebration. They are talking freely without fear for the first time in their lives. They are sharing their thoughts on FB! America says it helped topple Assad. How? It was only in Syria to protect its oil interests. It certainly wasn’t worried about people dying.

Then the conversation on the news turned to when all the refugees will return home. Apparently, those in neighbouring countries; those in temporary camps are already flooding back – understandable. They have faith there will be a better life in their homeland. Then…It wasn’t such a big step to link Syria having a new leader to when will ALL those refugees in Europe go back – and as an extension – why haven’t any of them left yet?

This is where I started getting vocal and telling the newsreaders how stupid they are. As you know, Naser and his family are in this category. They live in MK and have established their lives here after 13 years of hell. Just think how difficult it is to move country. It took me a good 6 months to sort myself out to leave Singapore. That was just me. It wasn’t a whole family who needed to move, resign jobs, leave school… Masah, Naser’s daughter is at university here in the UK. She has been to 12 schools in 4 countries to get to where she is. Not easy.  

Besides logistics, Naser is on cloud nine. He never thought this day would come. He had a death sentence on his head so there was no way he could return. He was one of those in a hole in a stinking prison and now the whole world can see what Assad did to his people – thousands of them, not just Naser.

He is talking to fellow Syrians about the future. He wants to rebuild a better country. He and his fellow Syrians do not need Israel to interfere and make a land grab – currently they have destroyed the navy, driven tanks to Damascus and been typically Israeli… Don’t get me started about That country! Syria has suffered enough.  Naser needs to get back all that was confiscated. Syria is his homeland. Here’s the dilemma – Should he stay, or should he go?  

If he goes, I will lose almost the best tennis partner ever; but I might have cheap future holidays in sunny Syria! Meanwhile he is so happy he can’t stop crying. He is contact with an international network of movers and shakers about rebuilding his homeland. This is BIG decision that only he can make.

While he is here, we have another big Christmas to look forward to. First things first.

Wonderful Syrian food!

The family settled and happy in MK

BBQ in sunnier times

 

 

 

Heading for Christmas

I am writing this while outside the wind is howling. It looks thoroughly unpleasant and I am not actually living in the parts of the country that are being hit the hardest this time. Currently lots of homes are without power because of storm Darragh with winds of 95mph and heavy rain. So, I should be thankful that I am in a warm space - but I don’t fully appreciate it. There is a clear link between my mood and the colour of the sky; and I am sure that in ancient times the winter celebrations were to counter this misery.

Out in Storm Darragh

This week, Danielle, the girls and I popped round to Sophie’s for a “tree lighting” ceremony. The log fire was blasting and it looked so lovely and festive. Thank you, Sophie – a big highlight of my week. I picked Ezra-Mae up from school the next day. She knew there was one of Sophie’s cakes waiting for her in the fridge if she had been good. Added to this, she has four Advent calendars which are turning her into a chocaholic. At least my homemade one has stuff other than chocolate in it – today was a Christmas tree stamp.

While driving home from Diane and Jeremy’s in the dark this week, I saw that Willen Lake has massive swans lit up – I must go and see them before Christmas. These are definitely an “Ah” opportunity. I managed to get a good look from the car as the traffic was chokka. I’ll brave the elements another time…

I realise I am getting on with my preparations far too slowly. The tree went up on the first. Now that I am essentially retired, I can spend all day doing something that took me no time at all. As a result, I put off til tomorrow what I could easily fit into today. I’ll get sorted by Christmas Day - I have to. I am making dinner for twelve plus a baby!

I always think of Christmas as a time to look forward to a better world. Making New Year Resolutions happens across many cultures. This year there is a lot to resolve on the home front. In other parts of the world, war is still raging. I have some of the war zones represented at my Christmas table  - Syria, Lebanon, Ukraine – but am missing other notable conflicts. One of my favourite Christmas songs is John Lennon’s one – I think it sums up a hopeful future. Perhaps we could spread the message.  

We might have a more cheerful time...

An early present from Nataliia