I was out on Christmas Eve - a dinner-party of eighteen nearby in the village - and didn't get to bed until two in the morning. I woke as usual at seven, but must have snoozed off, for then suddenly it was ten o'clock, with much to do before walking to one of the local pubs with Jackie and Kevin next door. I had promised to be knocking on Jackie's door by 11.45am. I did well to manage it at noon precisely. Jackie was in high spirits:
But we downed just one gin-and-tonic before departing.
The pub was, as expected, seething. All the usual people. Plus one or two new faces. Character locals galore, plus character dogs. It was impossible to stand back and take photos! Two hours, and three gins-and-tonic later, we (myself, and the couples who were my neighbours) spilled out into the remarkably mild air, amazingly steady and coherent considering the amount of drink consumed. Jackie had put on some green antlers, brought out from somewhere, and I had decorated my bobble-hat:
For me, public festivities were over for the day. I went home with Jackie, parted company, checked that I had everything I needed for cooking later on, and promptly went to sleep. Apart from putting together and eating a steak dinner with all the fixings, I had a very lazy evening.
You know, looking at the shots above, something is missing. Frost, at least; but actually the day required a sprinkling of light snow. The penalty of living on the south coast - the weather is too warm for a White Christmas! But perhaps I should be careful what kind of weather I wish for.
It would be nice, however to put those new Michelin tyres to the test...
