I'm dreaming....

Thursday 25th December to Friday 26th December 2014

Diane was awake early - one of only two such days in the whole year - exclaming "Santa's been, Santa's been!"
"Of course he has - he'd left everything before we went to bed" I replied. "Now be quiet and let me sleep in."

Diane may wake up early on Xmas day and Easter Sunday, but for me, I use the chance to have a lie in - from years of being up late the night before waiting for kids to go to sleep, old habits die hard.

But with the offer of a cuppa, which she assured me she would make, I relented, but somehow I ended up making the coffee and the tea; and bringing her the santa stocking so that she could unload it and begin on the sugary things contained therein.

Diane is still a big kid - even after all this time.

We have given up on buying presents for each other although a couple of novelty items always seem to appear.

So we unpacked the stocking and sampled a few of the treats that we knew were in there and generally enjoyed the fact that we really didn't have to worry about doing anything straight away - no work for me to do; no need to rush off to do shopping; not even a need to head out for a latte.

There was no sign outside of anything remotely resembling any well known Xmas songs like "White Christmas" or similar - much as Diane would have liked it to be.

The weather was cold outside, but inside the boat it was nice and warm. By the time daybreak came it was clear to see that a lovely blue sky was present.

A normal breakfast was had, but she couldn't help herself and the sweet things took a bit of a beating, as usual.

There was a bit of preparation work for lunch/dinner completed - primarily peeling all of the potatoes and vegetables - there would only be the two of us, but you would have been convinced that a few others were likely to drop in.

Later on we prepared ourselves to venture outside - primarily for a visit to The Royal Exchange, but other domestic chores on the way also required attention.

Getting there a little after noon, we found Roly, Rob and Sally in the window seat; Bev was home looking after the turkey and Sally was just about to leave to help - Sally would be back to pick up Roly and Rob.
For us, there were no such problems - we were both free for a drink.

The pub was only open for 2 hours and judging by the crowd, it would easily have been thought that this was that last chance for a drink for who would think how long?

After a few drinks and plenty of chatting about what else - boats and we did discuss batteries but not toilets - we were done for a couple of days; Sally arrived to drive Rob and Roly back; we readied ourselves for the short walk.

Once back into the warmth of the boat we only had to start the cooking process and relax a bit - well, I did most of the relaxing and Diane just a little.

The starters were ready on time and devoured with gusto - simply a camenbert melted.

The main course was a little bit later on, but allowed us time to be ready for it - a roast chicken, 2 types of potatoes, 6 vegetables, gravy - the lot - it was up to the standard that anyone would expect for the main course for Xmas and lasted not long enough for either of us to even think about taking a picture.

The final course of pudding and custard really finished us off - lovely indeed - and we both stumbled inside to the lounge chairs ready to just stay there and not move - in true xmas tradition, we had definitely had more than enough.

Friday morning was again cold, but this time, not a clear sky but one that promised and delivered rain.
Still feeling the well devoured dinner from the previous afternoon/evening, it took a little while before either of us were ready for food, but after breakfast we headed out for just a couple of things that we did really need - apart from the Costa coffee.

Today we played it very quietly indeed, compared to yesterday - just relaxed in the boat - where it was much warmer than outside - it was a colder day than the one the day before.

Later on, after the sun had disappeared from the sky, there was a sudden shout from Diane "It's snowing" and it was - the snow was coming down heavily but not lasting long once it hit the ground.
Further on it then started to build up by accumulation.

Photos were needed and as I was being pushed out through the back door I just managed to put the coat on.
The first batch of pictures were not suitable enough so I had to head out again.

Rain started coming down a bit later and the snow that had built up slowly started to disappear, but we do not doubt that there will be more before too long.

As for the fact that it snowed at all, Diane is declaring it as a White Christmas and was singing away to that tune (even with the right words as well).


No travel