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| Rhoobarb |
Christmas Eve saw my parents coming for dinner. We ate very well, (I impressed even myself with my cooking) and I packaged up a lot of what was left for them to take it away. No doubt the beautifully tasty butter basted turkey will find its way into my Dad's stewpot! Along with almost everything else he took away. I'm pleased to say the Christmas Cake will probably not go in there!
Christmas Day saw the Domly One taking me to a friend's house for Christmas dinner. He drove right past and I shouted "Hey, what are you doing?????". He replied that he'd offered to give me a lift there but I had omitted the 'stop and let me out' bit. Much begging ensued and handbrake turns were threatened. The attempted J-turn was rubbish, mainly due to there not being enough room to do it properly. 
Christmas dinner was lovely, I filled my plate high and ate every scrap. Lounging around in front of TV with good friends was the best way to spend the rest of the afternoon. I was given some lovely gifts and this year there isn't anything at all I don't want! Bohnanza came over in the early evening and the Wii went on. More food, more drink, more longing about watching the Domly One do energetic tennis stuff on the Wii. Eventually we went home.
Boxing Day plans were changed when the weather still hadn't improved, my cold hadn't improved and the temptation of staying home on the sofa wrapped in a blanket won out over driving into Edinburgh to go to a party. Especially since I knew no-one there.
On Sunday we went into Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Lunch Munch, which was good. Our host was snuffling badly but the company was fine and the food was tasty. Apparently it is going to become a regular event. Good!
On Monday I went back to work. (Boo hiss)
Evenings of that week were spent trying to make my house visitable, tidying away some of the crap that lies around led me to find a couple of things I'd been looking for, one of them being the cat brush. She loves to be brushed and just sitting there and showing her the brush is enough to ensure a lapful of cat.
Thursday saw a few friends coming round for an evening of conviviality, food and drink. One had travelled from another country to be with us. The evening was quieter than I'd expected but I enjoyed it anyway. What's not to enjoy? Friends, food, drink and warmth, I can't really ask for a much better way to spend an evening.
On Friday we spent the afternoon and part of the evening playing board games and card games. I really really enjoy this and am going to make it a bigger part of my life this year. We also lounged about and watched a couple of films.
On Saturday I was back at work. By 4.30pm I was driving at one mile per hour over a treacherously icy road of frozen slush looking for an exit to get off, turn about and head home, even though I was scheduled to work until 9pm. Once in Edinburgh, however, the roads were clear so I carried on with work for the next half hour. 
Returning towards home I found the back of the queue for the Forth Road Bridge was in Edinburgh. My next three miles took almost three hours, we'd stop for ten to fifteen minutes unmoving, then move forward a few car lengths. I had no choice but to persist until I reached the slip road to get off the A90 and head for South Queensferry. By now (9.10pm) my plan was to get to the train station, abandon my vehicle and go home by train. The back of the queue for the Bridge was now something like 15 miles away. Roads were being closed minute by minute and traffic diverted off motorways. One town near by was completely cut off with no roads in or out passable.
But.... once off the well travelled frozen shallow lake that was the A90 I found snow! Good grippy stuff that had only a couple of other tyre tracks in it. I tootled along at a heady 15-20mph. No slips, no slides, no wheel spins, just nice clean snow and my notoriously bad-on-ice van making beautiful headway. I was home before 10pm Had I stayed on the A90 I doubt I'd have been home before 11 - 11.30pm.
On Sunday I started work late due to the late finish on Saturday, which meant I was still at home when our house guest left to head back down into the snowy wastes of England and onwards.
And that's it. Better late than never, or perhaps due to the rambling, better never!
Oh and there's been a lot of snow.
Edited Fri 8 Jan 10, 12:38 PM by Rhoobarb
