Ah, always a bit sad writing this on 2nd Jan when the seasonal fun is pretty much all over red rover.
But, it was good while it lasted. Started with a bit of 'god, do people really still do that?' amusement up by the Hand in Hand when the Morris dancers came out to play on Boxing Day. A mixture of surreal weirdness and slight pride that this strange old British tradition still goes ahead, thwack whack!
From there, down to the west country for 3 nights in a very nice little Airbnb – and of course, the annual visitation from Mr J Nurse, just in case we ran out of conversation. Scrumpy dog very happy to have a third pair of jeans to make absolutely filthy with her joyous mud-filled paws.
Spent our last night there watching Bath play Wasps, top notch seats right behind the goal posts, thanks to Batch, lots of rugby muscles and taut derrieres to admire – oh yes, and the game itself – ta very much.
Check out the 'Queue-Buster' 2 pint jugs of beer they sell there – part of our downfall that evening. Thank god for the inevitable curry at midnight or the next day would have been a total washout. Very amusingly, Batch's chum – Nicky on the right below – asked H who had done his knee replacement – turned out it that Fairbanks is her ex-husband! Small, bizarre world at times..
From Bath we headed back eastwards, via the fish place in Portsmouth to buy a pile of giant prawns and two large turbots (as you do), to take to Janine & Ross's cottage
All lovely, cosy and festive – and two good nights were had by all.
And a good job that only lucky Simon next door was treated to our annual terrible rendition of Auld Lang Syne at midnight….
Happy New Year, all you wonderful people x x