Happy New Year

Well, that's another Christmas gone. I am always surprised by the amount of build-up to it and then the speed with which it passes. For months beforehand, I'm planning what presents to buy for whom, what meals to cook, food to buy etc and then suddenly it's the 25th December and it rushes past in a blur. Although this year was considerably different.

Traditionally I have always hosted Christmas, since my parents were too frail to do so, which is probably around the 2001 era. Even as a child, there were never many of us. Just me and my parents with the occasional sprinkling of grandparents, but certainly never more than 5 of us at any one sitting. It was usually the traditional turkey with all the trimmings and Christmas pudding, then an afternoon and evening filled with watching all the TV favourites. I took over Christmas hosting when my father died in 2001 and the tradition pretty much followed on. When my husband died in 2010 we were down to three and when my mother died in 2017, it was just down to Kay and me trying to make the most of it together.

This Christmas was entirely different. Kay is now married of course and had received an invite from her in-laws to go to them for Christmas.  They have three grown-up children altogether. They thought this year might be the last chance to get them all together, before they pursue their own careers and relationships. Two of them doctors and one a dentist, so they might even have to work over Christmas, although this year was not the case, hence the chance to grab at them all being free. This meant of course that I would be celebrating Christmas alone, so they very kindly invited me to celebrate with them.

This meant of course that I did not have the need to plan what food to get in or cook the meals. It felt very strange indeed. On Christmas Eve, Kay and her husband Darcy drove me to the in-laws in deepest Kent. There were six of us to start with and the seventh joined us by late evening. On Christmas Day, Darcy and his father did a park run first thing, apparently beating Dame Kelly Holmes, who was there, in timing, then we all went to their local church for a service which was both relaxed and led by a hilarious vicar, who used all sorts of props such as a fire extinguisher, jug of water and lifebelt to illustrate his sermon. The church was packed and there was almost a full orchestra up by the altar.  

The rest of the morning was spent peeling vegetables and all joining in with the food preparation. Lunch was my starter of brie and cranberry puff pastry parcels , then roast duck with a cherry and sherry sauce which was absolutely delicious. I had provided red cabbage made to my German grandmother's recipe which was received with praise. Then chocolate and pear sponge pudding. We swapped presents and played many games during the rest of the day and evening right up until midnight. 

As an only child, with a father who had a day job and also worked in the evenings as well to save up for a mortgage, it just left my mother and me for a lot of the time, so I grew up not playing games at all. It was therefore very novel not to be watching all the Christmas favourites on TV. (Fortunately I had recorded what I wanted to see so that I could catch up once home). Boxing Day was very similar but with different meals and we were joined by one of the sibling's girlfriends, making us a party of 8 altogether. I realised just how much living on my own has made me rather reclusive, as it was difficult to get a word in edgeways at times. That is not to say I did not enjoy it, but merely an observation of how cut-off I have become.

We returned back to London early on Friday 27th and they dropped me off. Kay has a very important (and stressful) exam to do in a week's time, so wanted to get back to continue revision. She has to go to work tomorrow and next weekend , so needed to grab as much free time to revise as she could. So I am back to being on my own again, which in itself seems strange after seeing so many people over the last week.

My best friend is coming to stay overnight with me on New Year's Eve, so I am looking forward to that and in the throes of planning food and entertainment. This year has been a very special year in that Kay got married and Darcy and his family joined with ours. I look forward to what 2025 might bring and wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.

Happy Christmas

With just over a week until Christmas, I thought I'd make this my last post before New Year.

Unfortunately the flu has knocked me somewhat sideways and the first two weeks of December were well and truly cancelled - all my volunteering work, gym classes, choir rehearsals and a trip to see the Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery were scrubbed from my diary, as I battled with a temperature of 102F. Once that was down, I felt as if someone had pulled my plug. I have not left the house in 2 weeks. Finally this morning, with slighter milder weather, I decided it was high time to kick-start the old girl into life and I managed a 30-minute walk from my home around a large block. I am trying to get some semblance of strength back before our choir concert tomorrow. Wish me luck on that.

I did manage in a calmer moment to decorate the Christmas tree I'd hauled out of the cellar and to send off all my Christmas cards, so nothing more to do for the moment. I plan to be more organised next year and post once a week, rather than irregularly as has been the case of late..... New Year resolutions and all that.

A Happy Christmas to all those who visit my blog and many good wishes for 2025. 

Addy

A birthday present I didn't want

Don't get me wrong, I had a lovely birthday last week. A nice day out and lots of lovely cards (I counted 25 in all) and presents. But. There was one present I could well have done without. The flu! Whether I caught it from Kay, as she went down with it on my actual birthday, or whether I picked it up somewhere in Greenwich, I'll never know, but I went down with it last Monday and have been suffering ever since. I don't use the word 'flu' loosely. Don't you just hate it when people say they have the flu when they mean a bad cold? I can recall only ever having had flu once in my lifetime, but this week made it twice.  I tested in case it was Covid, but that came back negative, so I was left to conclude it must be flu.

I have been nursing a temperature of 102F all week - and that was after multiple doses of paracetamol each day. I ached in places I didn't know I had places and even every tooth in my mouth ached.  I was shivering despite the heating being on full.  I felt so wretched I could not stomach any food and had to force spoonfuls of soup down to keep up my fight against this virus from hell. Finally yesterday the temperature came back to normal but I feel exhausted and keep dozing in my armchair, wondering why the programme I am watching on TV has just gone off when I had only started watching the beginning minutes ago! The current phase is that I am now coughing for England. I had to cancel two things I was committed to this weekend as I could not face leaving the house and also did not want to pass this on to any unsuspecting person near me.

I am now well behind with what I planned this week and still no energy in me to do it next week, not to mention a Christmas concert I am appearing in on 16 December. I had the flu vaccination in October, but news reports in the last few days say that the vaccine this year has not been very effective and there are many flu cases in hospital. Fingers crossed this doesn't see me in hospital, although it was touch and go during the week!

Yet Another Birthday

Friday saw yet another birthday on my calendar. The years seem to rush by. It doesn't seem all that long ago, I was lamenting becoming 70. This year saw me become 74. I don't feel that age and people tell me I look 20 years younger. I am slim, fit, and try to remain so. But the calendar doesn't lie nor my birth certificate. It's no good passing myself off as 21 again.

Kay and Darcy had taken the day off and were determined to give me a lovely day. I was asked many times in the weeks leading up to it, where I would like to go or what to do. The trouble with a November birthday is that you cannot guarantee the weather will be warm or even dry. Visits to stately homes or gardens are not really a good idea as this time of the year the gardens don't look their best and we have already covered most of the major museums and art galleries in London, just by living here all the time.

In the end, I decided on a visit to Greenwich. I haven't been there for decades. As the crow flies, it is not that far from where I live in South London, but transport links are not good and parking a car in that area is almost impossible. Not only that, when I last was there - probably some 25 years ago- the area was still run down post-war. Now it has become somewhat gentrified and more worth a visit.

We caught a bus from the end of my road and ended up in Blackheath - a very expansive heath with grand houses and bijou shops. We walked into Greenwich Park (one of the Royal parks) which houses the Royal Observatory and the Meridien line - the centre of the world.  The view from there is amazing and, as luck would have it, the day was unusually very sunny for November, as you can see here. The view down to the Royal Naval College, the Thames and the City skyscrapers beyond is absolutely stunning. 

Greenwich taken from the Blackheath end of the park

Walking into the centre of Greenwich we found the indoor market which contains numerous stalls selling antiques, clothing, jewellery, and more with shops on all four sides selling expensive paintings and prints. There were also a number of food stalls and we lingered for a while to eat some gooey cakes drenched in custard and chocolate sauce.

Hand-made chocolates in one of the indoor market shops

By the time it was two o'clock, we had not reached the main reason for our visit which was to board the Cutty Sark - a tea clipper built in 1869 to trade tea and opium with China. After my recent experience on old ships in Portsmouth, I thoroughly enjoyed being "afloat" again, even if it was in dry dock. I had never before considered why the ship was so called but apparently it was named after the poem Tam O'Shanter by Robert Burns, which is about a farmer chased by a witch wearing a cutty sark. "Cutty" is old Scottish for "short" and "sark" is a "nightshirt".

The Cutty Sark

After an interesting wander round the ship, by which time it was getting dark and chilly, we called in at the Gypsy Moth pub for a glass of mulled wine, before heading home on a Docklands Light Railway train to Lewisham and then onwards further south by bus. We ordered a Chinese takeaway (a luxury for me, as it always seems too much to eat on my own) to finish off the evening.

Unfortunately Kay was brewing a virus all day (the cons of being a doctor on a respiratory ward) and was suffering by the end of the evening with a raging temperature and cough. Two days on it looks like she may have flu. Bless her, she battled on through my birthday to give me a good time but was punished badly for it, as she is really quite ill this weekend.