Well, maybe the week before, the week before Xmas… But it certainly felt like a pre Christmas whirl!
I caught up with my older lady Jo on Tuesday, hearing all about the schenigans in her block of flats. Mostly about ‘Kittygate’ – an even older lady, Kitty, who lives there too, is in her 90s and has taken on a second dog when she can’t even really walk her first one without help.. possibly not the best of ideas! But all the local goss keeps Jo busy, so I am duly caught up on it all now.
We then headed out with Janine & Ross and Clare & Andy to the carols at St Martins in the Fields, and broke with tradition by trying out the ‘upstairs’ seats. It was a really good session, very similar to previous years though with a couple of new arrangements of old favourites. And Clare & I gamely knocked out the sing-along carols despite still having our annual coughs…
Then it was Maureen’s turn for some pre-xmas cheer (despite her telling me that it wasn’t 1 week to Christmas!). I handed over a replacement furry penguin – her favourite animal – as they have a habit of disappearing in the care home. Ginny and I fed her some banana muffin – thanks to the girls next door here baking them this week – and some cheese & ham pastry nibbles that Ginny had made. She turned her nose up at Ginny’s coffee but accepted the cup of tea – and even submitted to a Christmas haircut, care of my left-handed hopelessness. It was one of my better ones – you can only imagine how bad the less good ones have been..
The week was topped off by Jasper, H’s 6 year old godson, coming to stay for a day – and a night! His first away from home apart from with his grandparents, so it was an experiment. Hawksey survived multiple long trips up and down several floors of Hamleys while Jasper made the all important decision about whether it was going to be a toy or some Lego… They saw the Xmas lights, and went on a boat trip and had Jasper’s choice of supper – sushi! H also gave him two cans of Diet Coke (which it of course turns out he is not allowed) – and he asked to come again! But I suspect will be quite disappointed when it’s back to normal life next time.
And I managed to pin down my lovely godson Jack for a walk on the common. He has just turned 21 – something I certainly didn’t think I’d ever be around for – and is such a nice young bloke. He’s landed a place on a Sustainable Finance internship at Barclays next summer (400 applicants!) and has now got to the stage in life where he knows its good to ask ‘and how are you?’ – a real sign of adulthood. Love catching up with him – especially as he now drives himself to meet me after 2 decades of driving to East Molesey to see him!
All in all a lovely busy pre Xmas week – and more to come!! x