This was the sky from the balcony outside Emma and Brit's flat on Xmas morning. Cold and sunny with no sign of snow so not much chance of a white Xmas at all.
This Xmas was certainly a low key affair after the busyness and people that was the previous Xmas when Barry, Thomas and Robyn were in London as well. This time there were 4 of us - Emma, Brit, Sam and me had breakfast and unwrapping presents at Emma and Brit's flat without a lot of fuss and bother but it was a really lovely morning. Well, a late leisurely breakfast and present unwrapping with lots of fun and laughter. Brit demonstrated her square-egg making skills -
Yes, it is actually a square, hard boiled egg.
our little heap of 'loot'
Emma and Brit gave me a fabulous book called 'Letters of Note' by Saun Usher put together from his collection of letters, memos and telegrams which appear on his website. One of the letters is Queen Elizabeth II's handwritten letter and personal recipe for drop scones, as sent to President Eisenhower. It is a fabulous book and I shall be very happy to have it on my bookshelf in Auckland. It is a rather large and heavy book so, unfortunately, I couldn't bring it back to Azpeitia with me so it is with Emma for safe keeping, probably until June when I pack up to head back to NZ. From Sam I got bottles and jars of delicious tastiness - Brixton Pound Sauce, chopped chillies, hot English seed mustard and one other that I don't remember the name of. The reason why I can't just have a look is because I'm in a bar, Etxe Zuri, White House in English, having a beer while I do this blog. These jars and bottles I didn't leave behind and now they sit on the bench in my apartment kind of like a bunch of flowers except it's like a 'bunch of deliciousness', and, I'm savouring every little taste of them.
And then it was time to be off to the Clapham North pub, in Clapham Clapham North not so far from Brixton, for a slap-up Xmas Dinner with Holly and Stacey, Holly's mother who had come over from NZ to have Xmas, and an extended visit with her lovely daughter. There is no public transport in London on Xmas Day, good for them I say, however taxis are running. It had been decided that we'd taxi to the pub so this had been preordered but it didn't come and after some time we finally decided that it wasn't coming so Emma telephoned, was told our job wasn't on their list. Emma kept her cool and they despatched one and we waited and we waited some more and then Emma got a call - from the taxi driver. He couldn't find our place so Emma gave him directions and then he called again saying
the same thing so we ended up telling him to stay where he was and we walked to him. He was just on the other side of the estate! Anyway, we got to where we needed to be in time so it was ok in the end. The same company was booked to take me to Heathrow to come back to Azpeitia and the same thing happened so it's a cab company to be ditched, in my opinion.
We'd booked for 2pm and had preordered our food when the booking was made so we just sat and chatted and drank wine while we waited for our food to arrive in front of us. Oh my, there was so much food on our plates - entrees, mains and desserts and we were all stuffed to bursting by the time we'd finished. No shopping, cooking or cleaning up - certainly it was a different (for me) and very relaxed Xmas Dinner. Eventually we headed back to the flat, on foot, to finish off the day lolling about enjoying each other's company.
Just remembered - on the night of the 23rd we all went to China Town for dinner which was not up to the Canton Cafe's deliciousness I'm sorry to say, and then guess what we went to see ..... Yes, you're right .... ' LOVE ACTUALLY' ..... apparently this is what has to be done at Xmas time and I must tell you that I went with good grace. This film is not one of my favourite movies, not even close and Hugh Grant is definitely not one of my favourite actors, again not even close, and this has become a bit of a joke with my family who all love Hugh Grant and that movie. We did the same thing the year before and what continues to surprise me is that the theatre was, again, full and most likely it will be full of people next xmas watching Love Actually again! We got given a cup of mulled wine and a xmas mince pie each to go into the theatre with so not all bad, well, actually it was a lot of fun.
On Xmas Eve London time/Xmas Day morning NZ time we had a skype chat with Barry, Thomas and Robyn. Believe it or not, the night before, they'd had Chinese food for dinner, at the Canton Cafe, and then the'd watched 'Love Actually' so there was a bit of a 'snap' family thing happening on either side of the world. We didn't have a long chat because they were heading out to meet up with Robyn's family, but, short as it was it was still wonderful to talk and laugh with them. Skype is simply great.
On Boxing Day we met up with Holly and Stacey in Islington to eat more food, drink more wine and to play Cluedo which was made from the Christmas crackers which Brit had bought. The reason we went to Islington is because it's where friends of Emma, Brit, Sam and Holly live with their two cats. Their friends were away but the cats were there and needed feeding so the 4 Londoners were cat feeding for the time that their owners were away. The cats were fed and we enjoyed our food, wine, a couple of games of Cluedo and some good fun in the Islington flat until it was time to wend our way back to Brixton. I've never played Cluedo before so I was fairly useless.
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