One of the advantages of our advanced age (ho) is that we can spend as long as we like getting up on Christmas morning. In the absence of kids and grandkids to do it for us, we have to ask each other "Is it time to get up and open my presents now?"
This didn't stop me being awake at five yesterday morning, all excited. We'd tried going to bed early, but the drawback of being moored by the bowling green in Alrewas is that you are just a few hundred yards away from the church, whose campanologists had started displaying their art at eleven the night before. Not only that, but a local dog took exception to the noise, and started barking merrily along with it.
We got up in good time, feeling the appropriate mixture of pleasure slightly blunted by not enough sleep, had breakfast and opened our presents. Sheila had, with the connivance of both Elanor and Jane Howarth, managed to buy me my own Sony Reader without me being in any way aware that she'd done so. It made my present to her of the Bandaged CD look a bit feeble, but she assures me that it's just what she wanted.
The other real highlight of the gift haul was Elanor's to Sheila, a cross-stitched chatelaine decorated with roses and castles which had, she confessed on the phone later, taken her several years to complete. What a daughter. Note that we were also extremely pleased with all our other gifts, it's just that these stood out.
We'd decided to have the main meal in the evening as usual, so went for a walk before lunch rather than after. Back at the boat, we had turkey sarnies for lunch (cooked the turkey yesterday, remember) and then watched the first show on Sheila's new DVD of all the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Specials, her present from Graeme and Cathy.
You can tell we're getting old – the quality of the humour, brilliantly funny without having to be "cutting edge" or "pushing the limits" (i.e. offensive) was a vivid reminder of why they were so popular in their day. Some of the haircuts are a source of humour in themselves, now, mark you, not to mention an amazingly young Kenny Ball. Oh, and Sheila still drooled over Sacha Distel, though I just can't see it myself.
We had some of the Sainsbury's Christmas Cake with our tea, and another good laugh. Extract from the label:
How to cut..
Remove all packaging including collar and paper liner on base. Place cake on a flat surface and with a serrated knife, cut using a sawing action. Make sure you clean the blade between slices.
It's not even good English.
Dinner was hipbone steak with new potatoes and sprouts, followed by one of the Christmas puddings we cunningly bought last January, when they were on special offer. We do this every year; Christmas pudding keeps very well at the back of the cupboard for at least a year, and they are ever so cheap in January.
The rest of the time was spent reading, each with our own Reader. One of the great things about combining the Reader with Project Gutenberg is that you can catch up with odd books you've heard about, usually as background to another book. In this way I've just read Thomas Love Peacock's Crotchet Castle, (big success) and I'm working my way through The Wallet of Kai Lung by Ernest Bramah (not so good).
I'm also rereading The Three Musketeers, but that came free with the Reader as one of the 100 Classics. That man Dumas could write at length, I have to say, but it's still very enjoyable to reread a book you first had a go at as a teenager, and be able to follow the intricacies of the plot with the benefit of worldly experience.
Ye Gods, I'm sounding ancient this time, must be the time of year. I'll feel better after New Year, I hope.
It was warm enough last night to sleep with the Houdini open a bit, and perhaps as a result we had a really good night's sleep. We've loafed about in appropriate fashion for Boxing Day today, running the engine and doing a washload this morning, going for a walk to Fradley again this afternoon, and lots more reading (me) and proof reading (Sheila).
Oh, and I did bake some bread, as we'd run out, and anyway, it meant we could have turkey rolls in bread still warm enough to melt the butter.
Tomorrow we're going to take Sanity up to Fradley, fill the water tank and then wind her and stay there for tomorrow night. Elanor will join us for lunch tomorrow, and Graeme, Cathy and Daniel are coming on Sunday. We'll lunch in the Swan, then hopefully move back to Alrewas, giving them a little trip at the same time. The forecast is for overnight frost next week, so if we're going to be frozen in, we don't want to be on a 48 hour mooring right in front of the BW office.
They've been known to charge £25 per night for overstaying there, even for boats with a good excuse for doing so.
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