It’s Tuesday 17 December and Mark and I have just ‘broken
up’ for the year! (sorry if that alarmed anyone initially~) – currently I am at
the kitchen table being blasted by a fan, he is at Mitre 10. Knowing that he hasn’t done any Christmas
shopping alarms me slightly, as there’s every possibility I will get a cordless
drill for Christmas! Hopefully,
Hopefully (I say again) he’s taken me at my word and has gone to spec out garden
umbrellas. Our L shaped deck (yes dEck)
has 4 umbrellas currently, the sum cost being under $100. Mark does enjoy finding a bargain on TradeMe
and at the moment he’s feeling a bit peeved because the umbrella he’d seen on
at a dollar has just increased in price to $1.50. When I asked him how much a new umbrella was,
he didn’t know. Now fair call, $100 for
4 garden umbrellas is a hell of a bargain, but the pully action on all of them
is becoming more and more dodgy with the increasing possibility of my Weeble
like self wobbling right off the top of the deck railings! Quite a picture
isn’t it!!
I’m kind of reckoning it’s going to be the drill!
Meantime, Ann, you will be thrilled to know that Christmas
is as far behind as ever! Thank God for
Midwinter Christmas decorations, and possibly one of the few bonuses of NMO
being that I couldn’t really get round to taking them down!! Lou & H arrive tomorrow afternoon…. I’m toying with the idea of burying the dead
wreath and starting again by going to buy some greenery from the florist!! Either way it’s unlikely to be done before Loobie
gets here – neither will the downstairs decorations, nor will the shopping or
baking have miraculously turned up in the kitchen. Their flight doesn’t arrive until 2pm so
there’s a window of opportunity in the morning, but I suspect that neither Mark
nor I is feeling much like facing the hoards of shoppers in town and it’s quite
likely that we will not venture forth until lovely daughter and wife have gone
to lunch with slightly less lovely ex husband (sorry ) there was a rhythm to it
I couldn’t control!!)
….11.45pm – Percy/Murray Christmas, 20 December 2024…
Christmas has been and gone.
Yesterday was a flurry of activity.
There was shopping and cleaning and cooking and a certain degree of Mark
gallantly hung the lights and the baubles in the living room and he baubled up
the hall too!!
…sleep prevailed…
….Saturday 21 December, 7.02pm…. still at the kitchen table
and fan still on… Gladys Knight on Spotify.
God she’s good!
So between starting this and getting to here? Well, remarkably, there is a wreath on the door!
The Captain has put up lights and baubles in the living room, and mama Christmas
has wrapped lots of presents and put them under a Christmas tree that looks
remarkably like a Hydrangea! The weather
has brightened up and then thumped down with rain and we have had the first BBQ
of the season around a gorgeous table with Lou, H, Mark’s Mum Bo, and Mark and
I. Crackers have been pulled, with fairly
impressive jokes (at least for crackers) the usual hats, and a few charades. We’ve also opened up said presents, which
contained far more fudge than sensible and a number of presents that will make
it fairly difficult for Boo to get back down to Wellington without getting
another checked in bag!
That was all yesterday!
And it was the first ‘Christmas’ that I’ve been a chickling
missing. We have, for years, chosen our
own Christmas day, the only criteria being that both daughters were able to be
under our roof for the same night. And
so it’s been. And this year, chickling
2less it has felt quieter and something’s been forgotten. After everyone else had gone to bed, I had a
little chat online with her, but not quite the same. She’ll be spending Christmas day with the
Northern Hemisphere Percy’s and doubtless there will be turkey, stuffing, pud
and egg nog a plenty! How strange to not be with all those Percys!
In other news, in the last week it’s become apparent to me
that Hydrangeas do not last as long as they should. We/I wait all year for them, finally they
arrive and barely have they popped their blossoms than it is time for them to
get freckled and browned and just a little bit sad!! A similar theme runs on the state of the
house… barely has the cleaner left the
driveway than the hoover, washing machine and dryer go back into full time
usage and the floor looks just a little (lot) freckled and sad!!
This year, for the first of many, I’ve spent some time actually
writing Christmas Cards! This is a pastime
so long forgotten it’s not funny, but here we are!! In 1973, my Mum would send my sister and I on
a carefully prescribed route round our cul-de-sac and the houses nearby, to
deliver charity Christmas cards through front doors of all the people in our
lives. Latterly, I think there was a
time when we’d be in the passenger seat of Mum’s Chevette directing to the next
delivery. Circle round to 2024… no-one out of driving distance has been sent
a card, sorry! The rest have been
delivered either by me or by me and Boo!! Oh and then there were the desk
deliveries! Truthfully, those who haven’t
received, please forgive me, ever so slightly out of practice, and address
books just don’t work like they used to!
I have, as usual, pondered on the differences between Kiwi Christmas’s
and an English Yuletide.
1.
I will never get over the sweatiness of a Kiwi
Christmas!
2.
…. And the facts that the lights don’t really
twinkle until 9pm!
3.
All forms of Christmas chocolate will melt –
whether in advent calendar, on tree, gifted or just a casual purchase, it will,
without any doubt turn into chocolate icing by 11am.
4.
In summer, Feliz Navidad works much better than
Mistletoe and Wine.
5.
Ham, ham, ham all the way – or possibly
lamb! Definitely not Turkey!
6.
And Pav, not Pud!
7.
Trifle remains!
8.
The best part is that this means that there’s a
very good excuse for midwinter Christmas in June or July
9.
Christmas trees over here … whole other chapters
previously written about, but English ones work better!!
10. As
do cold Carollers, Nativity services and Salvation Army bands in the snow!
Of the NMO?
The short story is that it’s improved.
The long one is that it’s improved but it’s still going to
be a long road back to normal. The gym
is fabulous, but I still struggle with the cankles and the bandage knee
thing. Weight is still rocketing, rings
coming off one by one. Wondering whether
it’s possible to grow out of earrings?!
Much less pain. Far
fewer spasms. But just enough to make it
an exciting gamble every time I get up to standing! Will I be spasmed or will I not! When I am, dime to a dozen I will be / am in
the middle of crossing a road, and the corset breathing and pins and needles
have to just soldier on across the road!!
I do have a droopy left foot which I have multiple exercises to help
improve. My balance is still shot, which
I have multiple exercises to help improve. (Guessing this might put a last
ditch ski-ing trip in the ‘unlikely’ bucket, but hey!!) I seem to have a
permanently snotty nose along with a dirty old man laugh, both very attractive –
and for which no exercises have been assigned!
Boobs are enormous! But then they were before!
I am still a bit pants with the drugs. But getting better!!
Final word on Christmas…. For those of us born in the UK in
the 1960s, The Great Escape will always be a Christmas movie.
