250: probably Sunday

Welcome to that weird period between Christmas and New Year, when there’s still a lot of Christmas cake left but you’ve run out of pigs in blankets, the Christmas specials are over and you probably have to go back to work at some point in the not too distant future. I have a giant pile of ironing to do, a whole lot of unfinished projects that I should probably be getting on with, and I have had some truly excellent naps instead.

On Sunday Rachel, Jill and I went for a very chilly swim at 5.5 degrees – my fingers were agony coming back to life afterwards – followed by coffee with Edith and Miriam in Harlow, and a bit of shopping while they got their nails done. I’ve found there’s no point getting my nails done as crochet trashes them! Later in the day I started trying to retrieve the dining table from under a pile of crafting materials. I introduced Miriam and H to Wheatus’s festive classic ‘Christmas Dirtbag’, which they hadn’t heard before. The festive film of the day was Miracle on 34th St (the 1994 version). I still love the 1947 version more.

Monday was baking day with Thing 2, while listening to about five million Christmas songs, none of which were Justin Beiber or Mariah Carey. One of them was ‘A Christmas Song’, which I first encountered on a compilation called ‘Nigel-Approved Christmas Fodder’. We lost Nigel a year ago, but the playlist remains my December go-to (though I did delete Mariah Carey from it. Sorry Nigel.) The stollen was made. The Christmas cake was iced with lazy ready-made icing and some sugar snowmen and penguins and polar bears. We also made chocolate salami after a colleague brought some in as a treat. It was amazing, though I did have to use rum as I couldn’t find any Grand Marnier in any of the supermarkets (and I had rum in the house). I cleaned the oven, too – after an explosive beef joint last week coated the inside of the oven in yuk. The children tidied their rooms, with assistance from my Beloved who insisted on telling me about it in forensic detail, and excavated several tons of laundry. Truly my life was complete. The festive film of the day was Gremlins – who doesn’t love the Mogwai?

On Tuesday the final presents arrived, much to my relief – there’s always something last minute! Thing 2 and I were back in the kitchen baking stained glass biscuits to use up the broken candy canes and two sorts of Welshcakes – cranberry and orange as well as the traditional ones. I remembered to get the turkey crown out to defrost along with the sausagemeat, and to sign up to an ultra marathon in March (does 25k count? It’s only 15 and a half miles). The festive to-do list has definitely helped this week. In the afternoon I popped to the neighbour’s with some Welshcakes and had a coffee with Sue, her dad and the sock-stealing Bella-dog. In the evening realisation that while I’d remembered to get the turkey and sausagemeat out, I hadn’t got anything out for dinner so I took a vote and we had a kebab. The movie of the day: Arthur Christmas.

Wednesday was, of course, Christmas Day and we’d been invited to TT1’s for the afternoon – I was taking the stuffing, which I made in the morning and which is apparently the best stuffing her partner has ever had in his life. As expected, it was glorious chaos – 14 people aged from four months to 55 years, two dogs (one very large and one very small), piles of presents, enormous quantities of food. We managed to fit all the presents, all the kids and my folding table into our little Kia Ceed which was the equivalent of a very tricky sudoku.

Boxing Day began with a walk and a coffee with Miriam and the dogs, complete with banana bread. I had an excellent nap in the afternoon and in the evening we had our own Christmas dinner with my late MIL’s angel chimes on the table. Lulu sat on the spare chair and watched us intently, but it turned out she just wanted some turkey. Ever since she recovered from her operation (which has caused her insurance premiums to double) she’s been far more interested in food, especially people food which was never a thing for her before. While I was making the pigs in blankets she sat at my feet and shouted at me, even though she doesn’t like sausages. In the evening we watched Gavin & Stacey: The Finale, and the Doctor Who Christmas Special – I loved the cheeky Mr Ben reference!

On Friday Jill and I started the day with an early walk with to see the cows down at the farm, as well as Wilbur the pig and a lot of hopeful horses. I spent the afternoon looking for inspiration in my quilting books – particularly Stuart Hillard’s books. He does amazing things with colour but I never have the patience to recreate his patterns. I have a plan though… In the evening a gang of us got together for a walk to Marconi Bridge to see the Epping Ongar Lights Express going through to the station. There weren’t any trackside lights this year which was a bit disappointing but the train was everything we expected!

Saturday began with a swim with Rachel, Jill and Sue at 6.1 degrees (that 0.6 of a degree did not make a difference to the tingly fingers!) and then Thing 2 and I took a spur of the moment trip to Harlow to see if there was anything good in the sales. We had lunch at Wagamamas and a good mooch around the shops – I found a black maxi dress in River Island reduced by more than half, and the jeans I was after were also half price. It was foggy and cold, so the buses running to time was definitely a bonus – though heating was apparently too much to hope for!

I know I really ought to be doing some useful things (like finishing the quilt I started in the summer) while I’m off but I’m quite enjoying watching TV, doing the odd row of crochet blanket and spending some quality time snoring with the cats. The ironing won’t do itself though, sadly, but I do have a nice new iron thanks to my amazon voucher as my good one for sewing has taken to tripping the fuses in the house every time it steams. For those of you worried about me, I spent the rest on a new leather jacket as mine is as old as Thing 1 and definitely looking a bit battered.

Normal service will probably resume sometime next week – we’re babysitting for GT2 on New Year’s Eve so coffee tequila won’t be on the menu this year!

Same time next Sunday…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Two for the Dough/Three to Get Deadly/Four to Score – Janet Evanovich

The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown/Inspector Chopra and the Million Dollar Car/Murder at the Grand Raj Palace – Vaseem Khan

BBC Dramatisations of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (Audible)

249: move along, please

Aaaand…breathe. The out of office is on, most of the presents are wrapped*, the turkey crown is in the freezer** and the cake is marzipanned and practically hiccupping with the amount of rum it has ingested. The presents for France are in Ealing ready to go over with London sister today, and we had a very delicious lunch at Remoli complete with aperitifs and pudding (affogato, of course). Christmas can now happen.

*Despite definitely having finished the shopping last weekend, I still ended up in Flying Tiger in Ealing Broadway as the stocking presents didn’t look enough.

**We are going to TT1’s for Christmas lunch but the utter horror on Thing 2’s face when she realised this meant I wasn’t doing Christmas dinner was a sight to behold. Yes, I am a sucker but at least I drew the line at buying a full turkey just so I could make soup, despite the face. Boxing Day will be dinner for us then!

On today’s mooch round Ealing we visited the Christmas markets that seem to be popping up in every available shopping centre – the best was at Pitzhanger Manor, but even that was only about ten stalls. London seems to have taken the idea of these markets but hasn’t really managed to get the hang of them. The one in Ealing Broadway Centre was six stalls, half of which were overpriced food and the others were overpriced tat. There is a limit to the number of scrunchies and Swiftie-style bracelets that any one person really needs, and this is coming from someone who remained faithful to the scrunchie throughout the noughties and still has a bagful in case I decide to grow my hair our again. I went to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park once – when it was free to enter – and swore never, ever, ever again. Having said that, the one on the South Bank is nice but there are way too many people at it, and if there’s one thing I cannot be having with in London it’s people who dither about the place. Chancery Lane tube station has been plagued this week by people in rush hour who go through the gates and then just…stop. Even my sunny disposition has been somewhat taxed by these muppets. Add to this people who can’t read the ‘stand on the right’ signs, people who choose to stop in the middle of pavements for conversations, people who walk slowly in busy places (I would have voted for a slow lane on Oxford Street) and anyone who hangs around by the entrances to tube platforms.

Even less fun this week was trying to despatch a parcel to World of Books – Royal Mail was not an option, only InPost or Collect Plus, so I chose InPost as they had two lockers in Epping and Collect Plus are in weird little shops. One locker was full, the other was broken – so I had to go to Ongar. It cost me more in bus fare to post the stupid parcel than I was earning from the books. This is the downside of living in a village in between two small towns, of course. Well, that and the buses which are a nightmare at the moment thanks to roadworks in at least four separate places on the route.

Things making me happy this week

Coffee and a catch-up with Rhiannon and cuddles with baby Otis on Friday, and the best (only) mince pie I have had this year made by Raf.
A Christmas drink with my lovely colleagues on Thursday at St John
Cat socks
Starting a non-Christmas themed crochet project
The library getting all the books I’d requested in at once – binging Vaseem Khan’s ‘Inspector Chopra’ series. Highly recommended.
Richard Franks’ take on teaching A Christmas Carol
The expression on my idiot cat’s face when caught with his new catnip banana

Today I am having coffee with Miriam and Edith after a chilly swim with Jill – and then I am going to do as little as possible for several days!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Midnight at Malabar House/The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra – Vaseem Khan

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible) – and the collected BBC dramatisations of various Discworld novels

Two for the Dough – Janet Evanovich

Making Thinking Visible – Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, Karin Morrison

248: festive fatalism sets in

I had my hair cut on Saturday afternoon and during the usual chat the stylist said she wished she was as chilled out as me about Christmas. Anyone who knows me knows that at this stage in the festive month it’s less about being chilled out and more about fatalism: whatever I do or don’t do, it’s going to happen anyway so I might as well give in. The outside lights are finally up so we are longer the sole dark corner of our little Essex street, and the shopping is all done bar the food and the presents actually being delivered to my house to wrap and then cart over to Ealing to hand to my sister next weekend. Thing 2 and I braved Harlow today, which was exactly as horrible as I expected it to be, so stocking presents are also sorted. (T2: Do you want me to come in Superdrug with you Mum? Me: It’s up to you – do you want the magic of Christmas ruined or not?) There were people singing carols, a tree walking about the place, a talking postbox that must have been driving the Trespass team to unprecedented levels of fury, a crammed Santa’s grotto filled with frazzled parents and WAY too many people.

The trip to Harlow was also to go to the cinema to see Paddington in Peru and to get her very belated birthday ear piercing. This was her first needle piercing and the lady said she was the best fainter ever – I was less impressed, as I had to catch her before she hit the floor. I manoeuvred her onto the bench, but it was a close call!

Paddington was enchanting, with Olivia Colman as a not-suspicious-at-all nun, Antonio Banderas as a lot of people, and the usual stellar support from an A-list of British actors. Julie Walters as Mrs Bird gets a bit more airtime in this instalment, Sally Hawkins was missed as Mrs Brown (Emily Mortimer is just a bit too mumsy) and the return of Phoenix Buchanan was worth waiting around for. Considering the time of year there were no trailers that really jumped out at us for our next outing, but I suppose Moana 2 is already out there. (As an aside, my Beloved is watching the new version of Ben-Hur – honestly, doesn’t he know that biblical epics are for Easter??)

We’ve been hitting the Christmas watching quite hard this week too, with Violent Night and Elf making the cut, as well as a nostalgic treat with the BBC showing the Box of Delights for the 40th anniversary (ouch). The special effects and language are a bit dated but the story remains magical. I looked up the book on Amazon as I don’t think I have ever read it and, lo and behold, the most recent version is illustrated by none other than Quentin Blake…

…whose Box of Treasures is also available on iPlayer – a series of animated versions of his picture books. The two latest instalments, Angel Pavement and Loveykins are now out, and to tie in with this our team at work have been working with BBC Teach to develop a Live Lesson for Key Stage 2 based on Zagazoo, another of the treasures. These live lessons are great, supporting the curriculum and complete with downloadable resources. They’re completely free and remain online afterwards for teachers (and home educators and so on) to use, and you can watch it online from 9am on the 17th or ‘live’ and interactive at 11am. How was that for a brilliant segue?

Other things making me happy this week:

An impromptu team lunch on Monday which left me craving a jacket potato with cheese.
Coffee with Amanda
Taking my little family out to dinner on Friday
A lovely community event making festive gifts in Holborn
My Christmas Spotify playlist

Today I’m off for a chilly swim with the woolly hat gang, a trip to Tesco to do the Christmas food shop and some baking later on. Even though we’re off to TT1’s for the big day the kids were horrified that they wouldn’t get a Christmas dinner at home so guess what I’ll be up to on Boxing Day?

Same time next week, unless the interminable drizzle has washed us all away…

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

One For The Money – Janet Evanovich

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible – both versions!)

A Child’s Christmas in Wales/Under Milk Wood – Dylan Thomas (Audible)

Midnight at Malabar House – Vaseem Khan

247: 80% fabulous, 20%….what?

I think my brain is already in switched-off December mode while, unfortunately, it still needs to be in switched-on-work-mode for another fortnight or so. Luckily I have an interesting piece of research to be getting on with and this year’s Spotify Wrapped playlist to help me focus. Once again this round-up of the year proves that 80% of the time I have excellent taste. The other 20% of the time caused near hysteria in my friend’s teenage daughter.

The research is into illustration as a teaching and learning tool across the curriculum, with our national schools plans in mind: obviously we know illustration is all about communicating information, but I think teachers may require a little more convincing if I’m going to get the whole nation on side. ‘Because I said so’ almost never works after all.

Something else I’ve had to do this week is put all the things in my head that have to happen before we open in 2026 down on paper so other people also know them: this meant a couple of hours with a bit of A3 paper, felt-tip pens, a ruler and a nice handwriting pen creating a fabulous colour coded chart on which to download my brain. There’s a lot, but at some point I am hopeful that there will be more than 1.4 people to do some of the things as right now (like everyone else I work with) we are all trying to be several people at once. I wrote these imaginary people on my chart, anyway. Thing 2 used to do something similar: She’d scrawl something on the calendar and say it was a ‘bardi’ (party). If it was on the calendar it had to happen, in her mind – let’s see if it works for me!

On Thursday the team went out for Christmas lunch – this year we went non-traditional and headed to Islington Square for an Indian vegetarian banquet at Omnom, where you can also do yoga and stuff. We did not do yoga but we did eat until we were ready to explode, so not doing yoga was probably wise. The food was amazing, from the aloo bonda to start to the kulfi ice cream in basmati rice pudding to finish.. I had a Laal Laal Mojito with rum, lime, strawberry pomegranate syrup and soda, accessorised with an enormous sprig of mint. Their mocktails were apparently good too – one of my colleagues doesn’t drink and is often frustrated by the boring menu options. The director brought crackers and chocolate coins, bad jokes were told, and hats were worn – not by me though, as it was a damp day and the paper crown was not designed to go over my enthusiastic curls!

The office Christmas lunch was also the Secret Santa moment – we have a theme which this year was ‘baubles’, a maximum spend of £5 or handmade, and it’s lovely as everyone takes part although it’s not compulsory. My outward gift was a crocheted robin in a bobble hat, and I received a gorgeous glass Moomin bauble – they know me way too well! One of the team only joined after the Secret Santa was organised, so she had a crochet gnome as no one should be without a present on these occasions! Other gifts included knitted tortelloni for our Italian colleague, as this is a traditional Italian festive food; an intricate folded paper bauble; and much sparkle. I’ve been very lucky over my years in the sector to work with lovely people, and this bunch are among the best!

Earlier in the week I visited Kingston School of Art, where I got to meet the MA Heritage students last seen at the start of their course when they visited New River Head on their first day. They’d spent the intervening weeks using material from Recycle Archaeology to create museum-quality storage and interpretation. They’d also worked with illustration students to design activities for adults. They’d presented these pieces – ranging from potsherds to toothbrushes – at the Illustration and Heritage Conference which I hadn’t been able to attend as I was in Manchester. One student had created a cabinet of curiosities; another an adaptable display case inspired by V&A Storehouse which showcased clay pipes very cleverly. The activities were well-thought-out, and we all contributed to a comic strip showing the journey of porcelain from China to London through the dragon gate, and drawing the people who used the 17th century china objects. The objects were mudlarking finds, mainly, from the foreshore at Fulham and the bridge in Kingston. I didn’t know that objects from construction sites excavated with no context were recommended to be reburied or sent to landfill. I am hoping that we may be able to give a home to some objects that date from the same period as the New River was being constructed, for handling as well as inspiration, and am looking forward to working with this course again.

The advent (see what I did there?) of Storm Darragh on Saturday mean that Epping Christmas Market was cancelled at the last minute. This was probably a good idea as the market moved to gazebos a couple of years ago rather than the solid old-style market stalls and they’d have been making a break for freedom in the gusts outside. I have another fair today in north-west London which I am looking forward to, so hopefully public transport will behave….

Things making me happy this week

Crochet pengwings. Pegwins. Pingwins. Whatever.
Discovering that our site fox was still about and making his mark.
Coffee with Amanda and putting the world to rights before a day at work.
A meeting with someone which ended up in a local cafe where a very friendly cat made herself at home on my lap and Emily’s. Good coffee too.
The blast of rum fumes as I open the cake box to feed the Christmas cake.
No market so Thing 2 and I put the Christmas tree up and made the fireplace look pretty.

The thing not making me happy this week is Duolingo’s sudden hard push to make its free experience significantly worse. I’ve been using the app for five years now and it’s been fairly constant apart from removing the support and updates for the Welsh course and making weird learning path decisions but in the last two weeks they have removed the ability to practice to earn ‘hearts’ (lives), made it so you’re demoted a level if you don’t finish in the top five of your ‘league’, stopped the double-XP ‘chests’ you could access if you did lessons in the morning or evening and generally made it a bit rubbish if you don’t want to pay for premium. I’d consider premium if they were still developing the Welsh content – which has always been significantly underinvested, without the stories etc that other courses have – but now I’m looking for an alternative.

Right – I must get ready and start the trek to the wilds of Willesden. Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for ~~breakfast~~ dinner.

Same time next week!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Now or Never – Janet Evanovich (Audible)

The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star – Vaseem Khan

Bad Monkey – Carl Hiaasen

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (Audible)

Hogfather – Terry Pratchett (Audible)

The Guest Cat – Takashi Hiraide

At The End of The Matinee – Keiichiro Hirano

246: stormy weather and marmalade sandwiches

On Monday I was given charge of the remote controls and decided that it was a good time to watch the Paddington films again: the weather outside was miserable, as Storm Bert and then Storm Conall were making their presences felt with rain, wind and general mankiness, and I was in the mood for something gentle and funny.

At home with the Browns (*Paddington*, Studio Canal/Sony 2014)

We loved the Paddington films as soon as we saw them – the casts are great, they are funny and heartwarming and Ben Whishaw voices the little lost bear beautifully. Hugh Grant is making a proper career out of being a bit of a villain, too, and camps it up well in the sequel while the role of the explorer’s bitter daughter suits the rather icy Nicole Kidman very well. Julie Walters and Sally Hawkins are always great, of course. Thing 2 and I are plotting a cinema trip to see the third one soon.

In this house we have a list of family films that we love and are happy to watch whenever we find them on the TV. They’re Sunday afternoon films, stuck-in-the-house-and-feeling-poorly films, bad weather films and – as it’s that time of year – I’m going to share some of them with you.

Nanny McPhee/Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang. Excellent use of Emma Thompson, and all the children end up well behaved in the end.
The Railway Children. Ideally the original but the remake is OK too. You cannot go wrong with Bernard Cribbins.
Five Children and It – Suzy Eddie Izzard as the Psammead.
Hugo – early Asa Butterfield and beautifully filmed.
Fantastic Mr Fox – Wes Anderson does family friendly, with a great voice cast.
Slumberland – a more recent entry, magical mayhem with Jason Momoa.
Stardust – I’m still cross with Neil Gaiman but this is a great film, full of magic and ghosts and skypirates and Robert De Niro in a dress.
Batteries Not Included – tiny aliens! Big business getting its comeuppance!
Hook – Robin Williams as an aging Peter and Dustin Hoffman in an excellent wig.
The Spiderwick Chronicles – more magic, and a grumpy house gnome addicted to honey
Bridge to Terabithia – even though I cry every time.
The Princess Bride (duh).

Jessica Tandy in *Batteries Not Included* (1987, Universal Pictures)

There are of course many more films that I will watch every time they are on, but these are the family favourites that even the grumpy teens will join us on the sofa for. I was excited to discover that the BBC are finally reshowing The Box of Delights, starting next weekend: more E. Nesbit transformed into TV magic. And Christmas film season starts tomorrow!

Things making me happy this week

The first of the Christmas fairs, which went very well. I’m glad I’m still making little robins!
The second National Illustration Day: so many people shared the illustrations they use and see every day, and the director made an excellent cake.
Coming back to work and finding paper chains all over the office.
The Asda order having everything in stock!
Tiny Christmas jumper brooches.
Clear skies so I see stars when I leave the house and dawn when I get to London.
Baking the Christmas cake that I definitely wasn’t going to make this year.

Things I’ve been giving hard stares to this week:

The weather, especially when it causes traffic chaos like floods and road closures.
Decisions made by the local council which add to the traffic chaos.
People who have no idea where they are going in tube stations and decide that the best place to stop is immediately beyond the ticket gates.
Evri drivers who claim to have delivered the parcel to the delivery address, when in fact they have delivered it to a house in a completely different road. At least they got the number right, which minimised the ‘excuse me, is this your doormat’ conversations.

Today I’m going for my first swim in ages and am expecting it to be cooooooold….

Same time next week, gang!

Kirsty x

What I’ve been reading:

Going Rogue/Dirty Thirty/Now or Never– Janet Evanovich (Audible)

Wayward – Hannah Mathewson

The Guest Cat – Takashi Hiraide

Bad Monkey – Carl Hiaasen