every day should start with chocolate. Orange flavoured chocolate sponge dealies covered in milk chocolate. Mmmmmm....

And they're diabetic friendly! Yay! (unlike the huge box of Thornton's Christmas Collection chocolates also sitting on my desk - those I'll save till later in the day!)


Yesterday was weird, I was supposed to be going to my sister's house for lunch which would be around 3 o'clock. Fine, no problem. So I load up the car with my dining chairs and a pasting table (don't ask) and the presents I bought for the kids and head up there around 11.30 ish. (She's only a mile or two away at the most - one of these days I'll work out exactly how far it is, but it's eminently walkable so long as you're not carrying four dining chairs and a pasting table...) I walk in the door and can smell honeyed ham cooking so things are looking on schedule and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Get the kids their presents - lots of noise-making stuff for 11 month old neice and a pirate ship plus Spiderman dvds for nephew and get given presents from them, even thought I felt kinda guilty about that since I don't really celebrate Christmas and feel like a hypocrite half the time. Impressive for the most part - MP3 player, hair straighteners and Return of the King (extended version) on DVD. And the ugliest watch I think I've ever seen.

Seriously, it's nasty! It's fifteen squares of some turqoisey looking paint on top of steel, with fake shells and fossils stuck onto each square. Around the face there's a couple of crystals - rose quartz definitely and I've no clue what the other is since it's attached with so much glue. I genuinly don't know anyone who would like this thing and have no clue why sister thought I might. But I really don't want to hurt her feelings so I kept saying "it's unusual isn't it?" and "it's not something I'd have looked at in the shops".

I don't want to sound ungrateful at all but I really don't think I'll be wearing it...

By this point the kids are knackered and settle down for a quick nap. It's around half two by that point and I'm seriously wishing I'd eaten breakfast for a change.

Another hour passes and G (sister's partner) says he's not happy cooking the duck because it's been at the back of the fridge and has frost on it. Fair enough, if it had been part frozen then we really didn't want to risk it. But he mentions this at the time we were meant to be eating?!!

So another half hour later and finally the rest of the stuff goes in the oven, by which point I can feel my blood sugar levels gone kablooie.  I figure this is becoming noticeable to people when sister keeps saying "Are you alright? You've gone all quiet." I finally manage to convince her that a freshly diagnosed diabetic should really eat regularly and she bustles off to get me some food.

Bread.

Nothing on it, just bread. Not even 'fancy' bread, just two slices of Kingsmill  'Whole & White' pan loaf.  "I don't want to spoil your appetite for dinner" says she and since I'm still in the 'not hurting her feelings' mode I go with it.

By the time dinner comes around it's past 7 o'clock at night.

Dinner consisted of three slices of toast between five of us with smoked salmon. followed by game soup which would be nice hot. Then duck with the typical seasonal veg all smothered in this odd sauce. Plum and ginger. Should have been really nice but wasn't. G thinks it's a great idea to double the quantities of the ingredient he likes in recipies - in this case ginger. (don't even mention his French Garlic... sorry Onion Soup) Plus he believes 'letting it rest' when the meat comes out of the oven means taking the foil off and leaving it on a cold windowsill for an hour.... (everyone else had ham as well - I'm not a fan of it which they surprisingly remembered)

So dinner was... not nice and since I was crashing at the time conversation pretty much went over my head.

About an hour after dinner and I was starting to feel a little better but decided it really was time for me to take my leave - since it was well past the time I was thinking I'd be back home. I take one step outside and nearly break my neck - the snow that had fallen in the morning was now ice. Sheet ice. Like walking on glass.

So I go back inside and say can they call me a taxi and end up sitting around for another hour waiting for the taxi to come. G gives me a fiver and says "it shouldn't come to any more than that" I just look at him, it was Christmas day, fares were going to be at least double and probably triple normal. I genuinly had no cash on me so he grudgingly gives me some more money. Another pound.

Wow.

Luckily the fare ended up being 4.50 so I still had a little bit to give the guy a tip but it was closer that I'd hoped.

Ah well. So today I have to walk back up the road to their place and collect the car (I had some wine yesterday which is why I didn't drive back myself). Right now I'd be quite happy to just curl up on the couch with my chocolate orange sponge thingies and watch the documentaries about Egypt on Civilisation.

*Sigh*



So, I hope everyone else had a good Christmas!