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December 31
Goodbye 2018.
A quiet day. We watched more of The Tudors, then had smoked haddock with cream and egg sauce served with mashed potatoes. After that, a Hogmanay showing of The Two Towers.
It was a quiet day weather-wise until around 9pm. After that, it got wild. Our cast iron chiminea blew over in a westerly gust around 9:45pm - unfortunately that damaged our trail cam, which was attached to the chiminea :-( We got the trail cam a few years ago and it's worked well, so it was sad to lose it. Can't believe the cast iron chiminea blew over!
As usual, the Hogmanay TV offerings are pitiful, so we'll be skipping them.
December 28
A trip to Nethy Bridge yesterday for a Christmas get-together. Unfortunately I had (another) sinus toothache (still have it today, more ibuprofen, hoping it'll clear tomorrow), so I was a bit off. The food and company were lovely, though.
Today we shifted a large pile of wood briquettes from the garage to the porch (it's a shorter walk from the porch to stock up the log basket in the living-room), then we visited a local antiques place in our search for furniture for the new living room. We didn't find anything that was quite right, so our search goes on. We finally finished the Christmas Day roast beef leftovers tonight in a stir-fry. After that we watched Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (silly, but good fun and sounded amazing!). Inbetween all of this, I tried the Hotel Chocolat 70% cocoa hot chocolate mix in the Velvetiser - DELICIOUS!
December 26
A wonderfully peaceful Christmas Day with a fab dinner - roasted beef ribs with Yorkshire puds, roast potatoes, etc. Followed by rhubarb trifle (courtesy of Nigel Slater's Christmas Chronicles). We spent much of the day listening to Classic FM streaming throughout Piepad. Thank you to all for the presents, top of which could well be the Hotel Chocolat Velvetiser - what a hot chocolate it makes!
Boxing Day saw us watching The Black Shield of Falworth, then in the evening, Avengers: Infinity War on UHD. The latter prompted me to tweak some surround and subwoofer settings - the acoustics of the new living-room have changed since we fitted the new curtains (fabrics absorb sound), so the speakers needed to be re-calibrated (a little), so call in The Greatest Showman UHD!
December 24
Christmas Eve.
We collected our new curtains on Saturday and fitted them same-day. They are fab!
We planted our 2019 garlic today - Caulk Wight, Red Duke Wight and Solent Wight. Then we watched White Christmas (first time for both of us) before I headed to the kitchen to make kedgeree for dinner. After that, we watched The Fellowship of the Ring (with the new subwoofer...I can't begin to describe how much better films sound here now!).
December 21
Christmas food shopping done. 21st December and the shopping was hellish. Ours is done, phew. Rib of beef for Christmas Day.
When we got home we had a short walk. Then we watched The Lady in the Van. And then Trainspotting 2. Whilst watching T2, we got a call from a local department store: our living-room curtains are ready, so we're collecting them tomorrow!
December 19
Holidays! And a fox at Piepad!
Christmas is a chance to catch-up on films and TV shows we've not had time to watch yet. Tonight: Eddie the Eagle, which was a lot of fun.
December 8
The Piepad Christmas tree is up and looking good. Click here to see a video of the tree!
It's also the end of a long week. L's grandmother passed away on 26th November. L and I were in Lancashire for the funeral service this week. It was sad, but also a celebration of her life - she was 98 years old and had lived a life many of us will only ever dream of.
The Piepad living-room is finished apart from the curtains, which are still being made - we hope to get them before Christmas. We just need some new furniture now - a new sofa is on the wishlist, as is an antique bookcase and sideboard, but we're in no rush and we'll spend time to find just the right pieces.
