Christmas and New Year 2010

As always this proved to be a rather hectic time; but very enjoyable. It started on Wednesday 22nd December when we took our former Parish Priest, Father Pat to Westminster Cathedral for their "Christmas Celebration" which is a service of choir singing, reading and carols plus a reflection by Archbishop Vincent - a great evening. That evening Helena arrived home for Christmas, as always it is great to see her.
Then on the Thursday Phil, Julia's twin sister arrived with husband Peter, they were still celebrating their daughter's wedding the previous weekend. That evening Phil's other daughter, Natalie came over with boyfriend Pete for dinner. A most enjoyable evening.
Friday saw Peter and I go to join up with the a host of other Mellishs for a pre-dinner drink - mine was J2O as I was driving. Nevertheless it was a good to meet up although numbers were down, largely due to the cold and snow. Lawrie and Emma arrived in the early evening. Then later that evening we all went to the carol service followed by Midnight Mass at St. Joseph's Church. Then back home to a couple of bottles of bubbly to toast in Christmas. So we eventually got to bed around 4am; not a good idea.
Christmas day our good friend Father Peter ( a surfeit of Peter's this year) came over. We lunched late around 4 pm, but were amply fed with nibbles, smoked salmon etc whilst we waited (plus more bubbly).
After a great lunch there was the grand present opening - with 11 of us at home there were plenty of presents to say the least.

After the present opening it was party time which consisted of various games starting with a Christmas quiz and ending with charades with various activities in between, again a rather late night!
On Boxing Day Father Peter had to go "back to work" in his parish. Our friend Mike came over for lunch just to keep the numbers up. Again a great day this time finishing at the relatively early hour of 2am. The one sad thing was that Phil and Peter had to leave after dinner as they had commitments t'up North This was the first Christmas that we have spent with them and we certainly thoroughly enjoyed it. I just hope that they did.
On the Monday Father Pat came for lunch along with two other friends, Paddy and Veronica. Again we had a great time although this time they all left early although we stayed up with Helena, Lawrie and Emma playing more games - the TV had a good rest.
On Tuesday we went up to town around Covent Garden. Had a good Turkish lunch out; but dreadful service! As always the street entertainers were good.

Quite what he was doing juggling knives up a ladder in his underpants takes a lot of explaining - he started off in a kit and no he is not Scottish.

 On the Wednesday Helena left to go back to work and Lawrie also left as he was on duty on Thursday (he returned Thursday night). New Year's Eve was sober for Julia and I as we went to evening prayers at 11:30 followed by Midnight Mass. We did go back to the presbytery for a drink with Father Tom when the service was over.
So the year has drawn to a close. I did manage to keep this Blog going - a minor miracle. We are not quite sure what 2011 will bring. There is repairs work to be done at the lodge as we suffered burst pipes in the extreme cold and for some reason the boiler tripped out. Julia and I celebrate our Ruby Wedding Anniversary and hopefully her leg will soon be cleared of the ulcer which has now been with her for nine months. I will continue the Diaconate Studies and hopefully my essays will pass muster. What else........?

Happy New Year one and all, may 2011 bring you peace, good health and prosperity.

Farewell "Mo"

Clean shaven once more!

Growing it did raise £850+ for Prostate Cancer Research so it was worthwhile, even though Mission Control was, shall we say, not in favour!

The Wedding

Well after 7.5 hours on the road we made it up to Baildon, we went via Birmingham to collect Lawrie and Emma. A long old haul with plenty of traffic jams thanks to the snow; but we made it safe and sound.

It was all worth it when the wedding took place, our niece Nicola looked stunning. 

 Julia's twin sister, Phil. The mother of the bride.

The snow added a festive touch although it was mighty chilly when the group photos were taken outside. David seems rather cold, and cold champagne doesn't help much!

 

In the evening floating laterns were lit which meant another trip outside.

"Uncle Peter", the brides father with Andrew and Helena

 Emma wrapped up warm!

I even danced with my wife!

All in all a great bash, many congratulations to Joe and Nicola; they are a lovely couple. We even managed the drive home without hitting one traffic jam!

The snow has gone - but may be back!

Well the snow has gone; at least for the time being. According to those nice Weather Chappies on the TV Arctic conditions are set to return later this week. That is when we are due to drive t'up north to the wedding of Julia's niece. I guess all we can do is wait and see what happens. As all the ladies (well Julia at least) have bought the posh frocks etc for the wedding I just hope that we can make it.

The "Mo" is still on; Nicola did ask me to keep it for the wedding although whether she sees it will depend on the weather.

Alright as you have probably guessed by now I am taking these self portraits on the iMac.

The UK in the snow from above

Lots of the white-stuff about!

Thanks for the Donations

Well Movember has drawn to a close. Thanks to the may who sponsored me I raised £492.50 for Prostate Cancer Charities. When I started I thought that anything over £100 would be good, so to have raised so much is great and the site does not stop taking donations until 09:00 GMT on 10/12/12, so you can still click here.
 I have not yet shaved the Mo off; Julia says it makes me look grumpy perhaps because I am a grumpy old man.

Anyway there it is all I need now is my fedora and I shall be complete.

The iMac is here

and within 5 minutes of taking it out of the box I was happily using it on the internet! I went for the 27 inch version which didn't seem that big in the shop, but seems massive in the office; still as I get older and the eyes start to fail I can use a very large font! Being a student, albeit part-time I was able to get a reasonable discount. Now all I have to do is get used to the differences between it and the stuff from Mr Gates. I know who has the better product and it doesn't come from Seattle!