Tuesday 26 December

We're off on our new year cruise. Driving down to Southampton today and we'll stop overnight before clambering on board the ship tomorrow. And then it's off to Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands for the next ten days. Warmth, sunshine, all my work done for me, and no email. Absolute bliss. :)

Happy New Year to everyone and I'll be back at my desk on 8th January with details and (hopefully) pics of the trip.

Saturday 23 December

Had a last mad scurry into Solihull for all the fresh food that wouldn't have kept from Thursday or Friday right through to Monday. Got what we needed, but my goodness it was a battle! Took us two and a half hours to drive four miles, do the shopping and drive four miles back. Eeek.

Dave managed to break the fireplace clearing up after yesterday's fire! Turns out it was held together with cement, which is hardly the best material for being close to a fire, so it's hardly surprising it had all cracked. Luckily we had a tub of fireclay in to repair a smaller 'dinge' so he was able to repair and re-set the whole thing and it looks a lot better as a result. In the process he discovered that the fireplace is certainly old - possibly not the original one from the house but certainly of the right period. We'd never been absolutely sure before.

Lit the fire this afternoon to help dry out the fire clay and it was very welcome as the weather is still horrid. The fog of the last few days has gone but it still only reached the dizzy heights of 2c and felt colder than that, somehow. Brrr.

Watched a very entertaining film tonight - The Brothers Grimm with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon. It was directed by Terry Gilliam and it showed - the whole thing was a riot of weirdness, but fun all the same. Although I'm still trying to work out why they bothered to give an American and an Australian, playing Germans living in France, English accents. Both did them remarkably well but it just seemed a little odd.

I may not get time to update this again before the Big Day so just in case, Happy Christmas to all my family and friends! Hope you have a lovely relaxing break, and a happy and prosperous 2007. And if my friend Poss is reading this, a special Happy Xmas to you, hon. I have tried emailing you but I'm not sure my messages are getting through. :(

Thursday 21 December

We went to the last tai chi session before Christmas, which our tutor had said was always lots of fun. It certainly was, not to mention distinctly surreal as the whole group transformed into reindeer and a sled to trot Santa (actually one of the seniors in a red cloak) round the hall. I was a twinkling star. O.o I haven't done anything like that since primary school and it felt rather strange (and probably looked even more strange). On the upside, I got through to 62 on the form before forgetting where I was, and Pauline said afterwards she was proud of me. *glows even more*

I've started a new section of book reviews if anyone is interested in reading. Mostly it's to remind myself what books I've read and whether I liked them or not, because I read so much, so quickly that I tend to lose track. It's here if you want to take a peek.

Wednesday 20 December

Instead of our usual coffee-in-the-cafe after tai chi today, we all went back to Geraldine's house for coffee and mince pies. Two former members of the class also turned up, so there were enough of us to have a really good laugh, put the world to rights and scoff two packets of mince pies. No, not each <g> - between us.

I was glowing all day because our tutor, Pauline, told me I'm doing 'really, really well' considering I've only being doing tai chi for just over a year. I know I still copy some of the moves and fall over my own feet, but it was nice to hear that she thinks I'm making good progress.

Saturday 16 December

Dashed into Solihull as early as possible to try to beat the crowds and do the very last bits of Christmas shopping. There was a French market in Mell Square and it all looked very festive although some of the cheese smelled a bit ripe!

Tonight we went back to Solihull for a Christmas meal out with our friends. This year we tried Jimmy Spices, a buffet restaurant serving Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian food - and it was very, very nice. The great thing about buffets is that everyone can have exactly what, and how much, they like, which is great as a couple of the blokes eat loads, I 'pick' and Nicky is vegetarian. Food great, company even better, lots of fun had by all, and the only minor niggle was that the restaurant hadn't done anything to make it look like Christmas (no crackers, no party-poppers, no silly hats) in spite of putting the price of the meal up by £4. But it was still excellent value and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Friday 15 December

Dave's parents came up for the day, as part of a mad-dash-present-drop-off-round-the-family before their cruise next week.

The weather wasn't wonderful so we mostly stayed in round the fire chatting, although we did have a brief stroll up to Kings Heath high street. They don't have anything like that where they live and love the bustle, the Victorian buildings, and all the fascinating little shops.

Tuesday 12 December

Dave sold a load of china (no, not my cups and saucers <g>) on Ebay last night so we spent a good hour this morning wrapping plates in bubble wrap, squashing them into boxes and wrapping the boxes in brown paper. I don't think I've ever seen so much sellotape, or so many bits of polystyrene chippings. Dashed round to Moseley Post Office to post them and got absolutely soaked as it started to bucket down with rain the minute we got outside.

The chairs arrived and look wonderful. They're modern but craftsman-made, ladder backs with rush seats and match the table almost exactly, which is quite an achievement considering they're different kinds of wood, bought at different times in different shops. LOL. We're absolutely delighted that they arrived in time for Christmas. Now all we need to do is sell the old ones, as we currently have sixteen other dining chairs in the house and we can't stop falling over them. We've stacked them in the kitchen, the dining room and two of the bedrooms and have completely run out of space. Anyone want to buy a dining chair or two?

Found an article on the BBC Website all about claiming back penalty charges from banks and credit card companies. I'm so, so tempted to send off to M&S after all the annoying tripe over their late payment charge. Now it seems it may not even have been legal. Grrr.

Sunday 10 December

Dashed over to Solihull first thing to pay off the balance on our new dining chairs, which are due to be delivered on Tuesday, and to drool over all the wonderful furniture in the shop. I want a Welsh dresser!!

Plodded round the town centre in ever decreasing circles trying to find a nice jar of hand cream for Dave's Mum, only to find that hand cream in jars is now an endangered species. We eventually tracked some down in a pump dispenser in a cut-price cosmetics shop. Yah boo sucks to M&S, Boots and all the other big-name stores who didn't have it. :P

This afternoon we drove over to see my cousin Joan, who's 87, to take her Christmas present. Had a coffee and a nice chat (she remains remarkably 'bright' in spite of failing eyesight and generally failing health) and enjoyed being indoors and looking out at the driving rain and horizontal trees.

Heard today that the old lady who was knocked down by the bus on Friday has died. Very sad.

Saturday 9 December

Spent the whole day on Christmas preparations - wrapping presents, writing cards etc. It was a bit of a slog but it's done now and we can relax more in the next couple of weeks knowing it's done.

Treated ourselves to a takeaway curry tonight and flopped in front of two different films. First was The Legend of Zorro (the sequel to The Mask of Zorro) which we saw at a cinema in Solihull last year. Sadly, the film was ruined for us by a bunch of badly behaved kids in the row behind who chatted, fought each other, held long involved conversations on their mobile phones and constantly got up and down to the loo for the entire duration of the film. This time we could actually concentrate on the film rather than being smacked on the head or kicked in the back of the seat, and it was a whole lot more enjoyable! It's a great film - utterly silly, but very entertaining. Our favourite bit was probably the look on Zorro's horse's face when it sees the tunnel approaching - and it's on the roof of the train... LOL

The second film was King Arthur, a very unusual take on the Arthurian legend starring Clive Owen as a knight in service to the Roman army, fighting the Saxons. I first saw it a few weeks ago when Dave was away and had waxed lyrical about it to him. I'm not sure he was convinced - until he sat down and watched it. It's different, intelligent and has obviously been well researched and makes a refreshing change from all those 'knight in shining armour' Arthurian films Hollywood usually puts out.

Sadly the curry gave me a gippy tummy so I was awake most of the night. :(

Friday 8 December

Scuttled into the city centre to get as much Christmas shopping as possible done, and was surprisingly successful. So much so that I've only got two more small gifts to buy, and now I'm sitting here wondering who I've forgotten because I haven't been this organised for years!

Bad journey back as someone had been knocked down by a bus and the police had closed one of the main roads - and it just happens to be the one most of the buses use to get into the city centre. And if they couldn't get in, they couldn't get out again. I ended up walking right back up New Street to the Town Hall and catching a different bus which put me in the right suburb but with a fair old walk at the other end. It was still better than hanging around for hours, though. I can't find any mention of the accident on the news so I don't know how serious it was. Hopefully not too bad.

I don't tend to like graffiti, which mostly consists of unreadable signature 'tags' or impossible sexual bragging. Just occasionally, though, a genuine street artist comes along and one of my favourites is Banksy, a controversial but brilliant artist who specialises in darkly humourous trompe l'oeil. His paintings often involve windows that aren't really there: one with a computer being thrown though it, another with a man apparently dangling from the outside sill while his mistress and her husband argue in the 'room' above. And I found this gem whilst browsing today. (Not work safe, btw. :) ) Needless to say, Banksy isn't always very popular with the authorities....

Wednesday 6 December

Another session of tai chi this morning; this time there were two of us plus the tutor so it was still more-or-less individual tuition. For the first time ever, I managed the first 50 moves of the form almost on my own, without copying and without having to stop and think what comes next, or which foot I should be moving or where my left hand goes. I still fall apart after 50, but I'm determined to get to 50, properly, and then worry about the rest of it.

Another trio turned up this afternoon - this one is slightly later in date and more 'art deco' in style with a square-ish plate. Still very, very pretty, though, with little apples instead of roses.

Watched the repeat of Sunday's 'Torchwood' tonight - the second time I'd seen it in a week but it was a really exciting episode and watching John Barrowman isn't exactly a hardship at the best of times. LOL. For the first time in the series there were much stronger references to Captain Jack's bisexuality, and the first hint of Something Going On between him and Ianto. I can't wait for next week's episode now. I'll still be surprised if they show more than a chaste peck-on-the-cheek or two, in spite of a couple of full-on lesbian snogs earlier in the series. For some reason, two women kissing is still seen as more acceptable than two men kissing. Sigh.


Tuesday 5 December

Popped out this afternoon (dodging the rain) to the last local history society meeting before Christmas. It proved to be really, really interesting because the secretary had done some research on Fred Lanchester, the local car magnate from the early 20th century, who turned out to be something of a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci in terms of ideas and inventions. Apparently he was responsible for the development of runway lighting to help aircraft land at night during World War I, and a starter for gas engines, and even helped to develop the first 'ram jet' engine (using exhaust as propulsion). He was greatly involved in the design of aircraft and engines in the 1916-1930 period and it was fascinating to think that my grandfather could well have learned some of his own engineering principles from Lanchester.

Sunday 3 December

Went a bit mad on Ebay today and won myself three separate lots of china - two very striking trios and a sweet little Edwardian cup and saucer with 'A Present From Birmingham' on it. I couldn't resist the latter. :)

Had a super trip out this evening, to one of the famous 'Aston Hall by Candlelight' events. For those that don't know, Aston Hall is a beautiful Jacobean (seventeenth century) house in north Birmingham which has survived remarkably intact through the centuries, apart from the odd cannon-ball hole in the walls. Every year, just before Christmas, the city council run special evening events when the rooms are lit by candlelight and various period entertainments are on show. This year was particularly special because the Hall is just about to close to the public for over a year while a huge refurbishment project is carried out, so it was the last chance to see it for quite a while. It seemed to have drawn the crowds in; tickets were timed at half-hourly intervals and there must have been 200 people in our 'half hour' party alone.

It made for rather a shuffle but it was well worth it because the Hall is simply stunning. I'd never actually been before (even in daylight) in spite of living in Brum for 20 years, and I was pleasantly surprised by just how large and fine the building is. The rooms are all on the small, cosy and intimate side rather than vast state apartments, and lit purely by candles they looked homely and inviting, almost as though the inhabitants had just popped out for a glass of wine and would be back any minute. It really brought it home how these big houses would have been to live in and seemed to bring the whole place to life. Now I can't wait to go back in the daylight, once the refurbishment's been done.

Came across an interesting little article about tracking down classic tv gems on the BBC website. Shows mentioned include Adam Adamant, which I have a horrid feeling I'm just about old enough to remember. LOL

Saturday 2 December

A very busy day. First of all we hurtled over to Solihull to make a (very small) start on the Xmas shopping. Came away with a handful of cards, some chocolate and a new camera for Dave, which wasn't quite the intention but still.... :)

This afternoon my second cup, saucer and plate from Ebay turned up, which was quite a relief as after waiting nearly a week I'd given up hope. They're definitely old but not quite as pretty as the first set and must originally have been seconds because all three pieces are delightfully wonky! Never mind, it adds to the charm and they were so inexpensive that it really doesn't matter.

After that little burst of excitement we quickly came back down to earth. The drain/outflow in the utility room has been smelling lately so we took the cover off to investigate and found the whole drain was pretty much blocked with gunk. Dave donned rubber gloves and cleared it all out while I 'stood by' on the tap, turning it on and off at his command to check the water flow. Eventually it ran clear and we think we've sorted the problem but by that time the whole house stank of drains so I had to rush round opening all the windows. Yuck.

Had a meal out tonight courtesy of Dave's office Christmas 'do'. This year (the first at his new company) it was at the rather unusual venue of a Malaysian restaurant in Kenilworth. I'd never had Malaysian food before and I'm not sure this was the best introduction to it since it was a set menu and the quality wasn't all that wonderful. The best way to describe the food is half way between Indian and Thai, with more delicate flavours than Indian but more of a curry theme than Thai. On this showing I think I still prefer Thai but it was interesting to try dishes such as Rojak (a rather odd mix of veg and fruit in a peanut sauce), Ikan Goreng (spiced fish) and Beef Rendang. The crowd Dave works with now are lovely - very friendly and chatty - so it made for a really nice evening out.

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