I didn't write last week, I was on holiday from work and just couldn't face going near a computer! Last year we were locked down at Christmas and it should have felt strange, but oddly it didn't. We had loads of fun. I think it helped that I was on furlough and so I had lots of time to think of things.
This year was very different, I think mentally I expected things to be more open than they actually were. Then of course a couple of weeks before Christmas we suddenly had the new Omicron variant (or Comicon as I fondly call it). Nobody knew what it would be like. All reports were that this one was ok, but the Government just started on their fear mongering thing all over again. As a result everything just shut down because we wanted to see our families at Christmas.
Picture is from where we took the dog for a walk down at the Marina. In my mind we'd walk around the sea wall and take a look at the Christmas lights in Brighton from the sea. Like so much these days that little dream didn't happen because the bloomin sea wall was shut! It's possible it's been shut at night for ages and I just don't know. However, it's not always been like that as I vividly remember walking the wall with husband on something like our second date.
With so little other 'stuff' going on I wasn't going to be defeated and we walked to the wall on the other side of the Marina - where we could only get out a bit of the way because they continue to build the worlds ugliest flats in the Marina for foreign investors to purchase.
As a country we simply have to stop this 'building for foreign investors'. They are destroying the countryside building properties because there is a property crisis in the country - then they let people from other countries buy all the properties that are built. It's totally crazy. I'll bet a load of it is money laundering as well which is just sickening.
Aaaaanyway, back to the view. It was actually quite stunning. The Christmas fair is on in the Stein and there's a huge big wheel. (I'll get back to the Christmas fair in a minute). Unfortunately my camera simply didn't do it justice, but that's what you get when you're using a low end mobile phone camera!!!!! But it at least prompts the memory.
We were going to head down to the Christmas Fair, but all reports of it were that it was pants and I was also avoiding crowds so we could see my parents at Christmas. I was actually quite concerned I already had COVID as I had a horrific cold that made me feel really ill for about 10 days. I did about 100 lateral flow tests though and they all showed clear.
Fortunately I felt well in time to do the catering for husbands family - 14 of them (there are more!) came over the Sunday before Christmas and I did a full Christmas meal. Quite an undertaking. I took the Friday off work so I could start the cooking and ended up cooking all Friday and Saturday as well as Sunday morning.
I had this GREAT idea that I'd make the mince pies myself as we had vegetarians and also somebody with a nut allergy. Problem was I discovered that I can't actually make mincepies. It was a total disaster. Then I remembered son doing mince pies at school in Y7, we'd made these at home as well. So I dug out the recipe and gave it another go. Fortunately it worked, though actually ended up spending about 3 hours on mince pies - rubbish!
I have a very small kitchen and my annual catering for husbands family always tests space to the max. It sort of works, right up until we start plating up and then it becomes a real challenge. We have to create something of a work line, with all items laid out in a row. Then one of us holds the plate whilst the other piles on the food and then son takes it to table. All was going ok until my microwave pinged telling me the red cabbage I'd heated up was ready. As I took it out the microwave plate stuck to the bottom of the cabbage container. Promptly smashing on the counter (not near food fortunately) and then half a broken plate bouncing off the counter and onto my big toe!
Now I have a real phobia of broken glass, not sure why, I just do. So I'm standing there in bare feet surrounded by broken glass with huge mounts of blood coming out of my big toe and I'm unable to move because I'm surrounded by broken glass. Add to this the fact that 14 people were sitting at the table waiting for food.
I let out a little sob and husband and son were amazing. Son went and got a dustpan and brush and husband got some kitchen paper. Within 5 minutes the kitchen was sorted, I had a pair of shoes and I'd investigated my toe to discover it was just a cut and there was no broken glass in my foot.
Then within another 5 minutes we were all sitting down smiling as if nothing had happened.
So instead of going to the Christmas Fair I had the idea of going to the garden centre in Ditchling with son. Not even remotely the same, but they do Christmas reasonably well. They have those singing reindeer that doubtless you've seen in other garden centres, but they are at least something Christmassy. They also have a great range of Christmas trees and decorations - so we went around those and pretended we were having a great time. We topped that off with a hot chocolate and a gingerbread muffin. So there you go - almost like being at the Berlin Christmas Market that we had to cancel last year because of COVID (didn't even bother to try this year).
Hopefully we can travel soon as I'm planning to go to Glasgow to visit a friend. At this rate it's going to be easier to just hire a car or something to go up there. Though am travelling with a friend who has just had Stem Cell replacement (I know that's not the right phrasing - but I can never remember what I should call it). So we need to do whatever is least tiring and safest for her.
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