Saturday 1 December
Arrived back from the US after a short business trip. Was home at 3.45pm. House very tidy! Opened first window of beauty Advent Calendar. Hadn't slept much on the flight so went straight to bed after the Strictly Come Dancing final.
Sun 2 Dec
Had nine hours' sleep. Went to my first Power Plate for a week. Housework, washing, roast chicken.
Mon 3 Dec
Working from home. J got the Xmas decorations down, but no time to put the tree up. Turned out to be busy day.
A former colleague who works in BBC radio sent me a Christmas card and his annual delivery of "Nicky Schiller Tat" (his description) which is always much awaited by all of us!
Tues 4 Dec
Working from home. Delivery of an intriguing lipstick called "Frog Prince" which is green but turns pink on your lips. I've always been fascinated by those, from the days of Tangee at Woolworth's.
Weds 5 Dec
Office. Took secret Santa present in. V busy day. Ordered a gorgeous lemon jumper with feather trimmed sleeves. In the evening packed for a short visit to Plymouth to see Mum. Christmas tree is still not up.
Thurs 6 Dec
Two days' holiday. Went by train - such a treat from driving - to Plymouth to take the Christmas presents to Mum and my brother. Mum met me at the train station. In the evening my brother Rob, wife Claire and children William and Isabel came round.
Fri 7 Dec
Rainy start. Mum and I went into town by bus. Our usual restaurant, Quay33 on the Barbican, had no tables so we had to go to the place next door. A learning there: book! Ate too much in the evening. Mum likes to fatten me up!
Sat 8 Dec
Had to go home as I go to the US on Mon. J picked me up from the local train station. As requested, he'd put the big Christmas tree back in the attic and deployed the "pop up" tree instead.
V busy with a PP class, ironing, cooking roast beef, photographing and writing 2 blog posts. Had to go to bed without having packed case but wrote a list of what need to take.
Mon 10
Back to US for another business trip in Silicon Valley. Used Pod Parking at Heathrow for the first time. This was fun! First, pressed the button at the pod "station" in the car park to summon my pod.
Tues 11 Dec
Woke at 3. Couldn't go back to sleep. Was in a two day meeting. Today was in a conference room at the hotel. Varied agenda: we broke into teams and had to make a video on any subject. Then we watched them all. The creativity was amazing! After dinner in the hotel was in bed by 9.
Weds 12 Dec
Aargh. Up at 3 again. Whiled away a couple of hours reading favourite blogs and leaving comments. After a morning's work we had a team building afternoon of sports. Some were quite funny - "human human hippos" for example (we Brits had never heard of hungry hippos). Then we went into San Jose for a lovely festive dinner and Secret Santa exchange. Dinner started with a fondue which was very retro (and delicious.).
Our flight home wasn't until the evening so I had a normal working day in the office. This was the most useful day of the trip for me, meeting with colleagues. Had a grilled cheese sandwich and fries at the airport. Could feel arteries hardening!
Fri Dec 14
Managed to sleep for a few hours on the plane. This is extremely unusual for me! But very welcome. Didn't watch any films. Bit late arriving. Long delays on drive home. Had fish n chips supper. Four Advent calendar windows to open. Our burglar alarm went off at 3.30am which woke me up. It wasn't set, so no intruders. Managed to go back to sleep.
Sat Dec 15
Had a nice long sleep. Went to Epping to do some shopping. Caught up with Christmas by wrapping presents and writing cards.
Sun Dec 16
Alarm went off again at 3.22am. Grrr. V odd as the alarm wasn't set - so at least it didn't go off in the street. Went to Power Plate. Quiet day, did cleaning.
Mon 17 Dec
Signed paperwork for new car. Worried about Mum who has shingles. Alarm company came round to fix alarm problem.
Tues 18 Dec
At home. PP. J is building another bike. Mysterious deliveries of components
In office. Secret Santa on desk (I missed the Christmas lunch where these were exchanged when I went to Plymouth). We had mulled wine and mince pies at work. Published post on Christmas outfits.
Thurs 20 Dec
At home. My old car was inspected and driven away; meanwhile J had gone to Kent by train to bring my new one home. It's my third Golf GTI and the second white one.
Work finally winding down. I had ordered white ankle boots in the sale from Russell & Bromley and they came. Went to PP.
Sat 22 Dec
At M&S by 7.10 to get some food bits. It was still dark and I saw the Epping community garden lit up (top, and below). Rescued a racing trolley full of food in the car park, as it careered towards a car.
Wore a Christmas hat to Power Plate! Did more cleaning back home. My Christmas shopping delivery came at 7.30pm. Yummy, albeit challenging to put everything in the fridge!
Christmas Eve. Sunny and mild. Still too warm for my liking. Went to Pilates. No cleaning to do. At a bit of a loose end! Started another book by Liane Moriarty, a recent discovery. I love how her characters fizz with life, and how well she paints female characters.
Tuesday 25 Dec
Met with John's kids and their spouses at Rachel and Sean's to open their presents.
Boxing Day, another public holiday. As always, had the kids round. Cold cuts with jacket potatoes and salad for lunch and games in the afternoon.
 |
| We played best of British |
Thursday 27 Dec
Did some "normal" food shopping.
Friday 28 Dec
Went to the Gainborough Family Portraits Exhibition. Gainsborough is one of my favourite artists: I love "Mr and Mrs Andrews." I popped in the Tudor Gallery but quite a few of my old friends were missing, presumably on loan. J and I went for a quick snifter at the pub.
 |
| At Trafalgar Square on my way to the National Portrait Gallery |
Walked to Waitrose, a five mile round trip. I will be attempting the #walk1000miles challenge in 2019. Staggered home with too much in my rucksack!
Sunday 30 Dec
Went to Sainsbury's to do a big shop and bought some bakeware in their sale. Lots of cleaning and tidying up. Threw out all the remaining sweets, chocolate and Stilton.
Monday 31 Dec
Booked two holidays, yay! A sunshine break in Parga (Greek mainland) in June, and a walking week in the Lake District in September. Went to bed well before midnight. Yes, #JOMO (joy of missing out)! But heard the London fireworks in all their spendour.
Sharing this post with #ShareAllLinkUp at Not Dressed As Lamb
No comments
Post a Comment