Boxing Day

Christmas Day went just about as well as I could have possibly hoped for.  Gail and Pete were so lovely with Mum and Lilian which is great as it isn't everybody's idea of a good day out spending it with the older generation but within minutes they were all relaxed and chatting and having a laugh.  Bless Gail she said she had toned down the content of her Present game parcels so as not to offend anyone which was good of her because she has a brilliant but wicked sense of humour so it did not go unnoticed that it was my Mum who lowered the tone of the day by shouting out that she thought John's headgear looked like a penis!!!  Gail and I are still sniggering about it now - children that we are!!!

A glorious day today for our annual Boxing Day stroll.  John and I started the morning by opening the presents we had left under the tree yesterday which meant we had our lovely gifts from the UK.  We then packed up the pasties and the non-alcoholic mulled wine and picked up Lilian and Mum and sent down to the coast for a wander in the sunshine.

It was absolutely glorious walking along the coast - if I had come prepared I would have jumped in for a swim without question - several people were doing exactly that - and this is the spot where I swam last December with Kaye - it is near the King Evelthon where they have created a nice natural spot to enter the sea.

So Mum managed to walk a reasonable distance but decided to sit so John and I could walk further and Lilian stayed with her.

I was far too hot in my jeans, as was John, so we actually didn't walk much further because we were melting.  What we did see was that there appears to be yet another massive hotel being constructed on the coast opposite the Melania - not visible from the road but very visible from the coastal path.

We slowly made our way back to the car having built up a bit of an appetite so no pressure then for me to get my pasties reheated in mum's ancient and rather temperamental microwave.  I had everything crossed that pre-cooking had been the right way to go because I didn't want a repeat of the gluey pastry I had when I made them and froze them uncooked last time.

I needn't have worried - the pasties were a thing of beauty. You can't tell from this picture but actually Mum and Lilian were really enjoying them and ate every bit of them and they were huge and packed full of meat.  The non-alcoholic mulled wine was also a revelation.  You would never have known that it was only made from fruit juices and spices - not too sweet and punchy in flavour it went perfectly with the super peppery pasties.  For once I was proud to have made these and will always cook then freeze in future.

A beautiful day.  My work here for Christmas/Boxing Day done we returned home and kicked off our shoes, poured a large wine and sighed a sigh of happy relief - all feelings of well-being were firmly erased by another abject performance by the Blades - this season cannot be over quick enough for me.