Friday, December 23, 2005

Running Up To Christmas

How are you all doing, Santa's Elves? Are you totally dazed and confused? I am! I was too knackered to do anything more last night, so I went to bed early, knowing I'd wake up early and hopefully have the energy to get through what I have to do today. So that's why I'm sitting here with a mug of coffee and a fag.

But, I have crossed off some items on my Things That Absolutely Have to be Done by 5 pm on the 23rd list. Five o'clock's when my buddy Matthew is arriving for the festivities. I hope he's bringing some festivities with him.

I have managed to tick the following items off in the last couple of days:

The Christmas cards are on their way. So what if the folk in Canada don't get theirs till next year? At least they'll know I was thinking of them. Except the ones whose addresses I couldn't find. Oh well.

And all the eBay parcels are on their way. Yippee!

The Festive Farce is done for this year, but we've had about a squillion requests to do it again next year - there's something to look forward to!

And I've got the groceries - that wasn't as bad as I expected. It was bad, mind you. I went to Sainsburys at 4 o'clock yesterday, which seems like a daft thing to do, but it really wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be. But I wasn't wearing my watch, so after an hour and a half, I had this strange feeling that I might have been there for weeks. I was totally confused. I'd had to start relying on the kindness of strangers to help me figure out what I was supposed to get. Oh yes, I had a list. I'd had several exchanges of e-mails with Matthew to see what his Christmas preferences are. I'd ascertained that he likes to have Christmas cake. And Christmas pudding. And mince pies. Mince pies make me gag, and I've never bought a Christmas cake or pudding in my life. Mind you, the darling Christmas cake with the marzipan Wise Men on it was awfully cute. But they wanted £18.99 for it! So I got a lesser version. Still ridiculously expensive, but very attractive in a minimalist sort of way. I did toy with the idea of getting an un-iced version and doing it myself, but then I gave myself a good slap and I was alright after that. Except ........ . He'd said he likes custard on his pud. Excuse me, Nice Stranger Lady. Do you I think I should buy ingredients and make custard from scratch? Oh dear, let me help you up off the floor and dust you off, while you take deep breaths and try to stop those hysterics. Okay, so I don't have to make it from scratch, but should I get containers of it or that yucky looking powder that takes gallons of milk - where the hell am I supposed to keep that much milk in my teeny fridge? So, cartons of custard it is. And despite all the e-mailing back and forth, I forgot to ask simple questions like, do you prefer white or brown bread? Or bread with chunks of what look like manure in it? Oh hell, we'll get the bread on Saturday. And you like juice, but I didn't think to ask from what. So we've got orange, tomato and one that appears to have every fruit known to man in there. You get the picture. So I got to the checkout, and there was a very friendly young chap waiting to ring up my purchases. He said that people were spending an average of £160 on their shopping, so now it was me on the floor in hysterics. But we managed to get by with £135 - eeeeeeek! In the middle of packing it all into carriers, I hit on a splendid plan. I'd keep the stuff for the freezer separate, put that in the front seat of the car with me, and everything else in the boot, where it would stay until this morning. Wasn't that clever of me? Except that now, of course, the groceries are still in the boot of the car. Well, unless my car was broken into during the night. That sounds quite appealing, really.

So, what's left for today, other than the potential insurance claim for the groceries? Well, I'm meeting some friends for a festive cup of coffee in half an hour, which will be nice, but it does mean I'll have to get dressed. And then really, all I have to do before 5 o'clock is figure out places to stash all the stuff that's in the guest room, and sitting around in crates all over the rest of the house, and then clean said house from top to toe, as I've neglected the housework pretty much steadily for ..... well, since I moved in 3 and a half years ago. And I also need to photograph the next batch of stuff for eBay. But on the other hand, I finally succumbed to the Colinette website for the first time yesterday. And I really would like to go back and look around some more ................. I think I'd better just have another coffee and think about that one.

Keep going, girls, we're almost there!

Love,
Nance

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have a great Christmas Nance! At least your shopping bill wasn't as bad as mine - lol.
Thank your lucky stars Matthew didn't ask for a four bird roast - our Waitrose had them for...wait for it..£200!!!(and no, my lot are having to put up with Turkey).
Gill x

1:03 pm  

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