Christmas 2014

On Christmas Eve we hired a car from Enterprise and headed down the various motorways to Poole arriving just before 5pm. 

Jess was lucky enough to have finished work early as it had been quiet and managed to get most of the Christmas Day lunch prep done. We had a lovely evening drinking Egg Nogg and playing board games.

Norman, the real Christmas tree

And Nancy, the present tree

Christmas Day breakfast was smoked salmon and homemade Belinis along with Bucks Fizz and then into present opening. We decided to go for our walk along the beach as rain was forecast for Boxing Day so she popped the turkey in the oven and off we went complete with Santa hats and beards for our photo shoot on the beach using Jess' new 'selfie stick'. We certainly drew attention to ourselves and made a few people smile and laugh.

Lee, Jess, Me and James

Me and James

Jess and Lee

Back home it was just the potatoes and parsnips to peel, everything else done including her lovely homemade stuffing. All feeling very full we had the Christmas pudding much later on after a few more board games and a couple of rounds of charades (which were in the crackers).

Jess' alcoholic Christmas cake 

Christmas lunch

On Boxing Day it was into Poole town centre then onto a couple of the retail parks, we were certainly making use of the hire car.

On 27th leaving James home to fit a new shower and after dropping Lee off to visit his Mum, Jess and I headed up to Berkshire to visit Mum, Lyn and Lee. Mum was dog sitting three dogs over the Christmas time so we booted up and headed off into the countryside for a walk, passing by the adult play park on the way.

Lyn at the park, we all had a go and it was great fun

28th saw us visit Castlepoint, a massive retail park just outside Bournemouth, I had forgotten the nightmare of trying to park there!! Afterwards another quick visit to Poole.

Monday 29th came round all too quickly and after dropping Jess off at work we headed back up the motorways to LJ at Fazeley, after dropping the car off at Tamworth.

Thanks Jess and Lee for a really lovely Christmas we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Final Birmingham catchup for Christmas...

Strolling down towards the main line BCN to blow out the cobwebs Deb recognised the name of a fellow  cruiser and blogger but I wasn't sure, their roof was far too clear for a start. We popped for a closer look and she was right, Yvonne was just getting off Fizzical Attraction taking (Yvonne and Rogers blog) hers and Rogers border terrier, Chico for a walk. It was lovely to meet and put a face to the names so we invited then over for a coffee in the afternoon to carry on the chin wag.

Deb, Yvonne and Roger

It was great to spend a couple of hours chatting to Roger and Yvonne, but we were a little spooked out when Roger said that they hadn't been on LJ for the best part of a dozen years, had they known the previous owners then? No, but they had seen  Lois Jane back on Birmingham centre in 2000 when she was on display at the IWA festival. It was nice to hear from the professionals that they thought that LJ was still looking good after nearly fourteen years.

It's fantastic being right in the centre of the city and a couple of hours after we'd cleared away the dinner bits and pieces and went off for a nose around the market and a little gander from Birmingham's library garden. Saves a bit of battery power on the boat as well. On the way back to LJ there was a couple of 'characters' loitering outside the boat. Even from a few hundred yards away I tend to be suspicious of just about everyone outside the boat. 

'Are you James?'  Of course my brain was saying 'might be, who's asking?' But mouth volunteered an instant 'yes'. We weren't expecting anyone but were really surprised when they introduced themselves as Geoff and Lois Jane. Amazing! I've been in touch with Geoff a few times since buying LJ but to finally meet them (and THE Lois Jane) was fantastic we had a great chat aboard LJ before Jane dragged Geoff away as I they had an early start at their clinic in the city center the next day. No photo unfortunately this time but Jane promised that they would be back for a longer evening of 'refreshments' in the new year.

How exciting to have two new pairs of visitors with a bit of a connection. Now, no more visitors until... tomorrow. 

Mum and dad arrived for their first stay on LJ after a long old cross country trip from west Wales. We had a great few days revisiting the library and festive markets as well as popping back to the ICC to see a jazz band and enjoying a pleasant evening at Strada. We managed to pack quite a lot in on the couple of days they were with us and even found time to get to the balti triangle for a genuine Brummie curry.

Managed to fit four of us around the breakfast bar again

A little drink in the market

Jazz in the ICC

HRH popped in with his over due books to the library

Visitors depart

The few days after mum and dad had left for their big cosy house on the west coast were spent getting ready for Christmas. We've been making a few of our Christmas pressies this year which we've both enjoyed but it's meant long hours studying Photoshop in the library for me (I'll post some results in the next blog) and Deb knitting so furiously that if her needless were wooden we would have both gone up in flames. Well worth the effort though and I hope everyone likes the results.

We were able to get some bargain train tickets now that Deb is officially disabled, and had a 30% discount with her new card - less than £10 each to get from Birmingham to Aberystwyth. To qualify for my bit of discount I am officially Debs carer. I thought the best way to carry out my duties was to be a calming influence so once she was comfy I set about listening to some music and dozing under my cap :-)