Pirata joining in Christmas
Our cheese feast with asparagus from earlier this year
My activity session with the children went well – as well as can be expected anyway, with 8 over excited youngsters and the lethal combination of glitter and glue.
We had the back room set up ready – and low and behold, the plumber turned up to to fit the tap and appliances. So we had to move into the room outside Ian’s office. This wasn’t great, however we didn’t want to scare the plumber away. They made chocolate balls, some sort of cornflake cakes – and were going to make sugar mice. However I couldn’t find icing sugar, but I read on the internet that you can make it at home by crushing it in a food processor. Well, you can’t. So I then had to change plan to making a fondant using boiled sugar. However I missed out an important part of the recipe – the bit where you stir it to thicken it, so it remained the consistency of treacle. Much to their disappointment. Sugar mice might be on the cards for their first lesson back.
They did make a peg angel, a paper angel, a paper monster and a Christmas card though – and a hat. So that gave them plenty of opportunity for getting covered in glue and glitter. They also had lunch and the burgers went down well. They were a little nervous on the food side, which I understand. However they did tuck into their burgers and pizza happily. They gave the plumbers some chocolate balls. While the plumbers weren’t daft enough to eat them, they did have the grace to hide them amongst the packing material from the sink.
So we now have a functioning kitchen – hoorah. We spent much of Thursday looking at our new tap, and trying to work out how the hob works. We boiled a lot of water….
Christmas was good – and quiet. It was a miserable rainy day, so we spent the whole day bunkered up in the living room. Not a bad way to spend the day and the first day where we have spent the whole day without doing any work for ages, probably since last Christmas. As Christmas Eve is the main celebration here, Christmas Day is more like Boxing Day and Boxing Day is a normal working day (the bin men came yesterday which seemed odd). Yesterday was a glorious day so we went for a walk. We were going to do a circular walk, however we came across a fast flowing river, where a small trickle of a stream normally is, and we couldn’t cross it, so we had to turn round. As this was about the half way point, we hadn’t done too badly. We had lunch outside listening to traditional songs that were playing from the clock tower.
Our festive cheese feast has been a great success with two award winning cheese gracing our plates. As it so happens, with our new kitchen we could have cooked a roast meal – however our cheese feast was a convenient option and will keep us going this week.
Of course, the build-up to the celebrations is only just starting. The shops will be busy for the next ten days as people prepare for the three kings celebrations. The main gift giving time is on the 6th, so people will be buying their gifts and getting ready for their parties and celebrations.
The plumber is here now fitting the extractor fan and Manuel is coming round later to sort the stove pipe. A warm and working kitchen gets ever closer….
Oh yes, here’s my Archers prediction. The big event on the 2nd Jan that means that Ambridge will never be the same again will be to do with Lizzie. I think the Mad-Helen / Tony-turned-into -a-doormat thing is a red herring. Lizzie and Nigel have become more prominent, and his position as a doting husband has been reiterated several times. The other option would be Jolene setting fire to the Bull because of St Sid, however I wouldn’t call that changing the face of Ambridge. However a disaster a Lower Locksley potentially would…..?????