Err, a little bit late aka, 'The not so silly season'

I've been a terrible blogger of late. I've been thinking about it, but haven't managed to do anything about it. But it an attempt avoid working and reconcilling spreadsheets, I've finally committed myself to posting. So here is a reallllyyy long blog to make up for it.


So, first things first. Christmas. I was really looking forward to our first Christmas in our flat. I was going to make an amazing breakfast, cooking a million things Nigella Lawson style and just be an all round domestic goddess. However I was struck down with the most horrible flu. It started on the Sunday before Christmas, and by Monday my whole body ached and my temperate was of the charts (artistic license taken). I felt like I slept for two days straight. I had to work at the restaurant on the Thursday and Friday which was no fun. And a table didn't pay service charge on Christmas Eve! It made me so mad my blood was about to boil. Did they honestly think that I work on Christmas Eve out of the good of my heart? And does six our seven pounds mean the world to you, that you can't bear to part with it. Anyway, I digress. So Christmas morning was just Dave & I and then we went to Jessi and Aaron's for lunch and ate and drank and ate and drank and played cranium and ate and drank a bit more.




Christmas cookies by Aaron

After Christmas Dave and I hired a car to drive up to the Eden Valley in the north of England, next to the Lakes District. I was a bit worried directing Dave, but thought if our marriage can survive this, it can survive anything. We had our first challenge leaving London and getting on the M1, but it was corrected and we were on our way, marriage intact. Our next hurdle was at Birmingham. There are two ways you can continue on the M6, and I was using both my iphone and the direction I had printed out from the AA. One route took you the non-toll way and the other, along the toll road. So we took a wrong turn, but it was okay, we could loop around and come back to where we went wrong and be along our away. However second time around we I made another mistake and this time it lead us in the wrong direction completely, going south on the M6 back down to London, instead of going north. We had to drive another 20 minutes before there was another turn off to go back the way we originally came. I thought it was pretty comical, but I don't think Dave saw the funny side of it. But it didn't matter, we were heading the right way again! We came to our turn off and started to drive into these country towns. There was loads of snow on the ground, but the towns were big enough that the roads were gritted. However the more we drove deeper and deeper into the countryyside, the snow became heaver and heaver. We went down some pretty steep hills and Dave said 'If we are going the wrong way I don't think we will be able to get back up'. But it didn't matter because I could see our accommodation! Hurrah! There wasn't any reception, we were supposed to find our room and just let ourselves in with a code that they had emailed me. So we were walking around looking for this god forsaken room for about 15 minutes when it all of the sudden hit me. We are at the wrong place. The company had two places, and the address that I had typed into googlemaps and the AA was their correspondence address, aka the wrong place. So we got back into the car and attempted to drive up the steep, icy windy hill. It was a disaster. The car was skidding all over the ice and then getting bogged and then it would slide down to the bottom. I was really worried, and to make matters worse, I think Dave was too. In an attempt to make the car lighter, Dave told me to get out (hmm!) and then he kept trying for another 10 minutes. He managed to get halfway up the hill and kept trying and trying to get some traction for the last half. And he did it! (I was at the bottom of the hill cursing myself for being so so stupid). I ran up, jumped in and we were off again. Still an hour and half away from where we were supposed to be. Eek!


But once we got there it was marvelous. We had a little apartment to ourselves overlooking a lovely field. We slept in, lazed about, watched movies til late and drank lots of wine. We went on walks through forests, saw Hadrian's wall, and Matt & Hayley came up for a couple of days too and we played more boardgames. It was the perfect holiday to recharge my batteries. I was dreading coming back to London, and work and reality. But here I am. Bought back down to Earth with a crashing thud.