… has been a blast. And no, it's not over yet as my next post will be the actual festivities of Xmas itself and then we've got the loveliness of 3 different social events back to back between today and NY Day. A veritable festive social whirl! So – time to share some of the fab pre Xmassy thingies right here. Apologies to those we saw but perhaps didn't manage to snaffle a photo of!
Starting with:
Rich coming to stay to help H prepare his 'Gentleman's Dinner' – a bonus as H's usual right hand man Jules, went down with the lurgy for a full week and was sadly Man Down for the do, most unlike him. Check out the 'Bodgit Brothers' (as they are known) getting some early cider – that they made together in August – in as they cook..
Then Reeve, H's nephew, appeared for an afternoon and an evening for an early Xmas dinner – god knows how it a) was successfully cooked, and b) they had room to eat it, with them having spent the afternoon 'walking the dog' – aka having beers in 3-4 pubs en route plus a fish & chips lunch! More cider was duly dispatched as well as a turkey crown and all the trimmings. (And yes, I think Reeve was peeling the potatoes straight into the roasting tray for some reason – the beers maybe?)
Next stop was a fab Xmassy breakfast with the Helens at Brown's in Covent Garden. I LOVE these girls – we laugh at ourselves and whatever life is throwing at us every time we get together. Such a brilliant friendship, just as strong through all the decades since college…
And thence to the Sloany Pony with H to meet up with Stewart & Helen on their annual foray down from Manchester, plus Janine & Ross and Clare Greenwood, for a festive pub lunch. We had Bob dog – Fi & Rich's big collie – in tow, gaining us a couple of surprised looks as our usual black & white dog (who was on a play date at Alex McDonald's, as his daughter loves her) appeared to have got a lot bigger and woollier… and slightly bite-ier.
One more meal down the hatch and it was on to the Common for the annual walk with Mikey, Margo, Patrick and Emmy – this time plus a little Emmy chum, Harriet. Both of whom were kept highly motivated by the 'hunting for golf balls' game, making sure of course that Emmy 'found' the first ball and so won the day. Then onto the Fox & Grapes for our first scoff there in many a year – nicely busy and buzzy and decent food, so worth popping in.
Finally it was time to have one of my old ladies – Jo – round for the annual scran of homemade sausage rolls, pigs in blankets, some token salad and coleslaw, followed by H's mince pies (with their contents carefully stirred by me). I also took most of those bits to Maureen's care home, where I had a pre-Xmas tea with her plus the wonderful Ginny & Muriel – annoyingly the photo has saved itself as a .heic, wtf?? It seems if you crop a photo now to the 'wrong' size it saves as something utterly unutterable but doesn't tell you till you try to print or upload it. There's progress – not. I've never liked those tossers at Apple, constantly changing stuff just for the hell of it and now making it much worse… Grinch grr.
That was the run up to Christmas – plus a v nice lunch with Liz T at a new pub, the Lass O'Richmond Hill, in case you ever find yourself hungry near Richmond Gate and want a decent park with lots of parking.
Here's to the Twixmas rumble in the jungle – kicking off in 10 mins at the neighbours next door! Yet more mince pies are about to emerge from the oven. Not feeling super keen as I've just eaten 3/4 of the first one of my four (yes four!!!) Terry's Oranges, all too quickly over a cup of tea…. Blurgh…. January's food slow down needs to come soon.
x