Countdown to Christmas

 Dear Marmite

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent and my mind has turned to thinking about Christmas. I have already got my visit to IKEA out of the way. I needed lights and candles and there is no better place to find all those things under one roof. I managed to restrain myself from buying any more house plants though. I always get itchy fingers when I walk through that section. I can't help myself.

Sadly I missed the village lighting up event yesterday. It was such a lovely one last year, I'm sorry I missed it. At least when I drove back into the village I saw our newly lit Christmas tree standing proud at the end of my road. By comparison, it is smaller than the Dairy Farm one but probably decorated with more panache!

What really has got Christmas underway was my trip to the Ideal Home Exhibition with Sophie, Diane and Jeremy. We did a wreath making workshop which was the big part of our plan for the day. Everything we needed was in a big box and all we had to do was tear open the package and put it together. Easy! Well actually it wasn't. I got into a fight with the fine wire that we needed so that we could wrap the leaves to the hoop. It had a mind of it's own and it fought back. 

I set about repairing and fixing my wreath this morning. An hour of being pricked and pierced by aggressive, fine wire was not enough time to create  masterpiece - I needed to continue with the masochism to get the finished article into an acceptable round. At least now I am a bit happier with my result and it will be put in a place of pride on December 1st. 

On the downside of our day out, the Olympia Exhibition Hall was heaving! A dizzying amount of  people all wanting to eat in a "food court" style area. It wasn't nice. We got food from a stall that didn't have a mile-long queue and found a table to sit at. Even table's were at a premium. errr. 

Part of the exhibition had stalls very much like those found on an indoor market. They were all set at the back right-hand side of the hall. I wonder whether this is a sign of our current economic decline or that my tastes don't allign with their "Ideal Home"ones. I wonder?

What was really exciting was my trip down to London in Sophie's car. We got down to St. Albans and then drew to a halt. The M1 saw chokka. There were police vehicles and flashing lights behind us so we edged over to make space. What we didn't expect was to find the police descending on a van right next to our car. We had front row seats. Sophie turned off the engine and wound down the window so we could hear!! The van was STOLEN. The  passenger was interrogated and the driver was marched off across three lanes while we were asked to stay still and wait until the can had been moved. We sat there and took it all in.. I should have videoed it... silly me!

So today is just a normal day. I have a swim planned and despite the low temperature outside there is glorious sunshine -just right for long country walks! I know, Marms - not your style....

Love you

XXX