Christmas 2020

Not that I ever go in for huge Christmas extravagances, but this year was even more understated than usual. Ruth and I had planned to go and spend a few nights with my parents – carefully within the five days of mixing we’d been allowed by the government announcement in late November – but this was scuppered by the exciting U-turn on Christmas plans less than a week beforehand. Berkshire, along with the rest of south-east England, was placed into a new Tier 4, banning all mixing with other households, and Wales’ First Minister kindly placed the country into a new lockdown. So that was that.

Ruth and I were then faced with having to acquire stuff to cobble together Christmas lunch. We both find turkey somewhat underwhelming, thankfully, and it would in any case have been ludicrous to buy a turkey to just feed the two of us. So we decided on chicken. Ruth went to the Caversham Waitrose on 22 December – involving a disconcertingly early (for her) start – and was slightly panicked by a dearth of birds, so I was despatched to the larger MK Waitrose the next morning prior to driving to Reading. 

We arranged a somewhat unnecessary code beforehand that would indicate whether I had been successful. There were, thankfully, a few chickens left, most of them too large for us – consistent I guess with a run on small birds thanks to newly-imposed small Christmas gatherings – but I managed to get one that was reasonably small. No success with Christmas pudding - but thankfully we both prefer a mince pie anyway.

Christmas Day was at least a nice sunny morning, so we went for a short walk around Caversham.

Thames looking west from Caversham Bridge

Ruth’s family has a tradition of having bubble and squeak on Boxing Day, explaining the two bags of Brussels sprouts she prepared on Christmas morning – I like them, but even I was slightly intimidated.

Abundance of Brussels sprouts

Cooking roasts isn't my thing so Ruth prepared lunch while I amused myself taking selfies in front of the Christmas tree. Lunch turned out very well and we shared a nice bottle of Chablis.

We opened our presents after lunch, including gifts from Ruth's family (gifts from my family are, as we speak, still marooned in Wales - I hope to open them (fingers crossed) sometime around Easter).

The Christmas lunch table

As she has done for the past few years, Ruth's aunt gave me two tins of anchovies from her local Co-op. Which, to be honest, are a perfectly acceptable present and a lot better than some ghastly ornament.

Christmas and New Year

At the OU we’re lucky enough to get the days in between the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day bank holidays as Closure Days, on top of our already quite generous annual leave entitlement. This year I also booked off the rest of the week that included New Year’s Day, I think in the vague idea that we might go away somewhere for New Year, though in the end (as has happened before) I did some brief research, decided it was quite expensive and then didn’t actually book anywhere. Anyway, even though we didn’t go away, it gave me a full fortnight’s leave, which was nice.

On the Friday evening pre-Christmas Ruth and I went for dinner at Ray's, which was adorned prettily with a red glow as per below.

On the Saturday I baked a batch of mince pies and in the evening our neighbours Kris and Laura came round for dinner, bringing with them an extremely impressive cake.

Mince pies

Kris and Laura's cake

Spent Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day morning at Dave’s place in Newport, which was lovely. Nia lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve, which added to the sense of occasion. The tooth fairy left her a quite generous £2, though did emphasise that this was only because it was her first wiggly tooth.

On Boxing Day everyone came back to Mum and Dad’s where Hannah and Henry joined us for a roast beef lunch. We walked over to Bailey Park with the children where they had a bit of a play.

Huwie looking adorable on a swing

Impressed by little Huw’s feisty behaviour during the stay – suspected he was keen to be walking, as he was not at all impressed by just sitting on people’s laps or being put down on the floor. Amused by the level of fury that can be emitted by such a tiny creature.

Nia had acquired a ghastly game called ‘Gassy the Cow – Will She Moo or Will She Poo?’ which Hannah and I nobly spent some time playing with her, though much of our time was spent trying to unblock the plastic pats from the back end of Gassy as she didn’t seem to be expelling them as per expectations. Here’s Nia with a couple of the pats.

I returned to Reading early on the 27^th, collecting Ruth from her aunt’s house on the way. She seemed to have spent a pleasant few days with Auntie, including lunch at her uncle’s house on Christmas Day and a walk to the Boxing Day Meet the following day.

Then spent an enjoyable few days in Caversham going for some strolls. Ruth and I went for a walk up around Green Park, a business park near the M4 that opened in the late 1990s but latterly has had some residential development added. It was originally rumoured that a new railway station might open there, but to date this has never happened and I don’t know how likely it is. According to this, plans were approved in 2015, but I’m not aware that construction has ever begun. As the name suggests, Green Park’s buildings all have green credentials and there’s a central lake, the Longwater, which has evidently been designed as a bit of a habitat for birdies etc.

Office building at Green Park

Went for a walk with Ray around Maidenhead on the 29th Dec, taking in some of the new riverside development by York Stream, evidently part of the Waterways Restoration Project. York Stream used to be little more than a ditch, though I remember Auntie Barbara having a bit of a carry-on re how the water had been drawn off by the Jubilee River project. Unsure what Babs would think of the latest development. To my mind, it’s quite a big improvement and definitely makes that end of town a bit snazzier.

We did a bit of a circuit and then walked back up around some of the smart roads to the west of the town centre, including spotting this striking house 'Kynam' on Boyn Hill Avenue – one to preserve, though heaven knows whether it will be.

'Kynam', Boyn Hill Avenue

Further along Boyn Hill Avenue we passed 'Brocket', an Arts and Crafts-influenced early 20th century house that was until recently a Pupil Referral Unit - not sure what's going on with it now.

'Brocket', Boyn Hill Avenue

On New Year’s Eve Ruth and I popped into House of Pine and Oak in Caversham and inexplicably purchased a new dining room table and chairs. Well, Ruth did. My new Habitat set at the flat is MY table and chairs. As at the time of writing, we’ve had it for a couple of weeks (delivery was somewhat slow) and it’s very smart.

Met up with Claire at the Jolly Anglers on New Year's Day afternoon, though it was rather a sombre gathering as one of her friends had just died.

The week after the New Year, Ruth and I went back down to Wales to spend a few more days with Mum and Dad. Did the walk up Blorenge on 3rd January, Ruth's birthday, followed by tea at the Angel Hotel. The next day Mum treated us to lunch at the Chapel café - never been there before but very nice, if artsy. On the Friday Ruth got the train back to Reading while I drove back to Milton Keynes.

The Chapel on Market Street, Abergavenny

Judith greeted me on the Monday by saying I looked relaxed. Perhaps should take a fortnight off more often.

Further autumn miscellany: part 2

On 19 November Ruth and I went to the former HMP Reading to see the exhibition Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison, run by the arts organisation Artangel. The Victorian section of the prison was designed by George Gilbert Scott and opened in 1844 as the New County Gaol. Latterly it had been a young offenders’ institution before finally closing in 2013. The future of the building appears to be in some doubt, but it’s to be fervently hoped that the Victorian building is kept – it could be a real asset to Reading as some sort of arts/cultural centre, but we shall see.

The exhibition inevitably featured Oscar Wilde prominently, but also included work by a number of other writers and artists. We didn’t bother queueing to go into Wilde’s cell, as it looked exactly the same as all the other cells, but did have a look at his collection of books, housed in the cell next door (Wilde was eventually allowed to receive approved books from outside, to supplement prisoners’ paltry book allowance). There was so much art on display I can’t remember many specifics – bits that I remember included the video by Nan Goldin of George Montague, “the oldest gay in the village”, talking about his experiences, including losing his job as a senior Commissioner in the Scouts after receiving a conviction for “gross indecency” in 1974. Montague finally married his long-term partner in 2015, aged 92. Also several paintings of a glass of water by the German artist Peter Dreher, part of the series Tag um Tag guter Tag - Dreher has painted the same empty glass thousands of times since 1974. The philosophy behind the series is apparently influenced by Zen Buddhism.

Me in a cell

Inside the prison

The exhibition also included some interesting historical material related to the 19th century prison system, including some photographs of prisoners. Interesting to learn about the Separate System, devised by the chaplain John Field and in operation in the prison in the 19th century, whereby prisoners were not allowed any contact at all with other prisoners, to the extent of having to wear hoods whenever they left their cells to avoid eye contact with other prisoners and even having to stand in chapel in individual wooden boxes so that they couldn’t be seen by any other prisoners.

The following day we took Ruth’s aunt for lunch at The Hare at Lambourn Woodlands, a pub I’ve driven past a number of times on the way to her house but never been into. Very nice. Quite posh. The pub is on the junction of the B4000 (at this point part of the Roman road Ermin Street) with Hilldrop Lane, which Mrs Spence observed used to be a back route through to Hungerford in the olden days, before the M4 cut it off.

Went down to Wales for the last weekend in November for a (slightly early) birthday tea on the Saturday for Mum’s birthday on the 30th. Dad and Dave accompanied me on my daily walk, taking in the tiny Deri Road leading from Pen-Y-Pound to the Old Hereford Road.

Mum with Nia

As Hazel was ill on the Sunday we unexpectedly had responsibility for Nia and Alys again – Mum cooked a roast chicken lunch and we took Nia for a walk in the afternoon.

Dave and Hazel’s third child Huw was born on 29 November, at 27 weeks considerably before his due date of, as I understand it, sometime in February. As at today the little lad is still in hospital but seems to be doing well.

Had our work Christmas ‘do’ on 7 December – now that we are a team of around 50 following the recent merger with the Business Performance Improvement team, the hapless organizer had experienced some difficulty booking us in anywhere, with the result that we ended up at the Jurys Inn. The Jurys has very nice rooms, having stayed there once in early 2014, but I wasn’t expecting the food offering to be up to much. Indeed it was pretty mediocre, though cheap, which does seem to be some people’s priority. As per last year, a group of all the best people went on for drinks at Missoula afterwards.

Tracy and Matt at Missoula

Paid a flying visit to Claire in Devon on 10-11 December. Not deterred by the rain on the Saturday we took the train from Newton Abbot to Dawlish Warren and walked from there back to Dawlish, via the path along the sea wall which is indeed quite exciting in windy weather. Had a wander around Dawlish, which seems quite an attractive place, and stopped at a café for a snack. Then hopped back onto a train and got off at Teignmouth, where we had a wander around and a drink in a pub – this one, I think. We returned to Newton Abbot and had dinner at the Rio Grande before going to the Union Inn to hear Audius Maximus. The band, all older chaps, seemed like good musicians but it was all a bit too loud for my taste/comfort. Claire surmised, probably correctly, that I'd have preferred the folk group that she'd seen a week or two earlier. Can't be helped. I did have a pint of Grolsch for the first time in a few years.

Sea wall at Dawlish. Train approaching in the background

Me at Dawlish

The Sunday was a much nicer day and Claire drove me on a bit of a whistlestop tour of Dartmoor, starting with a lovely shortish walk from Venford Reservoir up to a tor (whose name I've forgotten) and back. Absolutely beautiful day and lovely scenery.

Then on to Widecombe-in-the-Moor, where we stopped and went for a look around the church and National Trust shop - to Claire's disappointment the Wayside Café was closed for the winter so we moved on again, to a car park below Haytor where there was a kiosk selling teas and cake. Enjoyed a cup of tea and a quite nice gluten-free chocolate brownie. We walked a bit of the way up the hill towards Haytor, though didn't tackle the crucial rocky bit at the top. Here's one of a number of attempts to take a selfie.

Took the day off the following Friday to do a couple of bits and pieces, as well as taking the train over to Maidenhead to have lunch with Ray's mum Carol and his sisters Sharon and Caroline. We met at The Bear at the far end of the high street, a pub I and my friend Lisa were once refused entry to while out on a three-legged pub crawl many years ago. It's now a Wetherspoons. After a pleasant chat we parted company, them to Sainsburys and me for a mooch back to the station via the shops, including a couple of crafty-type shops that Caz had helpfully directed me to.

Maidenhead appears to be trying to create a posh waterside area out of the formerly unassuming York Stream, which is interesting. This site appears to have the lowdown.

The following day Gail came over with Emily in the afternoon to exchange Christmas presents - Emily continues adorable though was a bit grizzly that Saturday. In the evening Ruth and I went for a pre-Christmas Thai dinner with Ray at the ex-Suwanna, now Thai Table. I need it to offset the turkey.

Christmas 2016

Bit of a round up of unblogged stuff.

As per last year, decorated one of my little artificial trees a couple of weeks before Christmas. Charmed at how pretty it looked with its red and gold theme. Ruth decorated the other one with her eclectic mix of decorations. The display was enhanced by my newly-purchased Waitrose robin and by Lester, a small game bird ornament with real feathers by Gisela Graham Ltd, purchased at Stubbings Nursery a few years ago. Ruth dislikes Lester and claims that he looks at her funny, but this is of course nonsense.

Lester

Spent Christmas Eve with Ruth as she had elected to remain at the house over the Christmas period. Baked a batch of mince pies.

Set off for Wales early on Christmas morning and spent the day and evening with Mum, Dad, Hannah and Henry. Mum cooked a roast beef lunch; in the evening Mum, Hannah and I had a game of charades followed by a group viewing of the Hammer film The Reptile.

A batch of mince pies

On Boxing Day, Hannah and Henry left early to spend the day with Henry’s parents in Devizes, while Mum, Dad and I had a nice walk from the house across the railway and up Little Skirrid. Mum and Dad had planned a turkey crown for a Boxing Day meal; it wasn’t bad actually considering turkey’s tendency to dryness, though trying to arrange it the right way up in the pan proved tricky given its absence of legs.

The following day began with the following text exchange with Ruth – I suspect that boredom had kicked in.

Later that day, we went down to Newport and had lunch with Dave and family and Hazel’s parents Peter and Helen. Nia involved me in putting on a puppet show for Mum and Alys using Alys’ bedroom doorway as a makeshift stage. The show was supposed to tell the story of Rapunzel, though as I am hazy on the specifics of the story, my narration involved a good bit of her whispering in my ear about what was supposed to happen next. Alys and Mum obligingly sat on the landing to watch, though Alys kept coming up to the 'stage' and trying to grab the dolls Nia was using as puppets, which didn’t go down well.

Later on I went with Dave to the Royal Gwent's neonatal unit for a first viewing of Huw. Dave fed him with some of Hazel’s milk via a pipette – at the time this seemed to be going in via a feeding tube down his throat, though I gather he has since begun to learn how to suck.

Dave feeding Huw

Christmas, New Year etc

Still catching up from Christmas. Have to go with when the muse strikes.

Amused, while browsing Waitrose’s array of Christmas produce, to see this product labelled ‘Christmas mashed potato’. It appeared to be in fact mashed potato, sans any additional cranberries, holly or similar. Didn’t look to see whether they also had Christmas washing powder, tampons etc.

Spent Christmas this year at Mum and Dad’s with the family, which was lovely though a veritable slew of present-opening and three-year-old excitement. Here’s Dave lighting the pudding, failing to impress Alys who’d obviously seen something much more interesting in the garden. Nia got a pair of Anna and Elsa dolls, amid a good deal of other Frozen merchandise, and carried them and her new Olaf doll around with her for much of the time she was there.

On Boxing Day we went out for a bit of a walk down to the river meadows (the river Usk impressively full) and back via the Linda Vista Gardens and the Hen & Chickens for a Boxing Day drink. Nia made her feelings known at one point by lying down in the middle of the meadows and refusing to go on, but was eventually persuaded by Nanna. Alys was adorably smiley for the whole walk despite it apparently running way into her nap time. 

Boxing Day drink at the Hen & Chickens

Set off on 27 December to Milton Keynes to check on my flat, rather prompted by the holiday burglary post-Christmas in 2013, though as my current rented place is on the second floor I’m hoping it’s rather more secure. Everything was indeed fine. Was joined later in the day by Ruth who, after months of frankly somewhat trying indecision over what she was going to do for Christmas, had made a late decision to go to her parents’ home in Norfolk. In the event it had evidently all worked out OK, helped by her mother having had friends visiting for a majority of the time.

We returned to Reading the following day and began a marathon of clearing the living room and hallway and then stripping wallpaper in readiness for Mark the plasterer, whom Ruth had booked in for 4 January. It turned out to be indeed a marathon task – the hallway paper came off easily but the living room proved a lot more troublesome, and we had to face the challenge of how exactly to strip the paper from the stairwell. Ruth managed part of it via ladder – being slightly squeamish about heights I refused to do it, so fair play to her – and we accomplished the rest by rigging up a sort of platform of a board across ladder and stairs, such as should never be seen by either of our mothers.

Discussed who should play us in any future documentary warning of the dangers of DIY. My suggestion that I should be played by Claire Danes was rudely received; Ruth’s counter-suggestion of Dawn French was equally rudely received by me. Ruth briefly toyed with having Janet McTeer play her, but then we decided that JMcT is tall enough probably not to need the ladder in the first place.

Met Jude for coffee in Starbucks on 30 December – hadn’t seen her since the last Progress South Central get-together I attended, which must be two or three years ago now. Jude is still working at Reading, as a Health & Safety Administrator, and currently has one of the university-owned flats, which sounds a reasonable deal. We had a very enjoyable catch-up over two absurdly large mugs of hot chocolate. In the evening, Ruth and I went for a drink with our neighbours at number 47, Kris and Laura. Kris, who seems a very friendly chap, has mooted the idea of a drink before and it’s never come off, so kudos to him for persevering. We braved the Fox & Hounds at the bottom of Westfield Road, a pub I’d never been into in the now ten years I’ve lived in the house in Caversham. It was a bit rough round the edges but perfectly pleasant and we had an enjoyable few drinks – Kris seemed up for making a bit more of a night of it but I wasn’t really up to that.

The Fox & Hounds’ main claim to fame is that John Lennon and Paul McCartney once performed there in 1960 as The Nerk Twins, before they were famous (apparently the pub used to be owned by McCartney’s cousin). Not sure whether that Beatles-inspired ale has yet been created.

Met Claire at The ex-Hobgoblin now-Alehouse on New Year’s Eve for an afternoon drink. Being much more of a party gal than I am, Claire was heading out that evening to the Rising Sun with Alison to see Dolly and the Clothespegs. I headed home to, as I generally do, stay in for the evening - I think we cooked and then probably watched something, but I forget what. Like the idea of going away for New Year, preferably somewhere remote by a lake, mountains etc, but never get around to actually thinking about it in time. Perhaps next year. Maybe.

Written pre-Christmas but published a bit late

Some seasonal decorations now up at the house, including this one of my two small artificial Christmas trees. Ruth subsequently set up the second of the trees in the living room, claiming that I had used all my favourite decorations on the first one and not used any of hers. Quite right. Also these lights at the flat.

At this stage am feeling reasonably prepped for Christmas, though still have some last minute cooking to do at Mum’s. Among the slew of pre-Christmas magazines and gift catalogues, came across Museum Selection, full of an assortment of variously nostalgic and patriotic gifts, including ‘The Little Book of Whittling’, apparently an introduction to creating ‘useful and whimsical objects using a pocketknife, twigs and time’. Have a feeling it might take me quite a lot of time to create anything useful, or indeed whimsical. The catalogue also features a charming-sounding – presumably ironic?? – book titled All The Countries We’ve Ever Invaded (featuring interviews with grateful natives?), plus other books with titles along the lines of Reminders of Yesteryear, ‘Twas All Much Better Back Then, etc etc.

Whizzing back over the last month: spent the last weekend in November in Abergavenny to celebrate Mum’s birthday. We had two (2) cakes, one a coffee and walnut that Henry had baked (excellent) and one a plain sponge that Mum had bought as a plainer alternative, and also with a view to Nia decorating it. She did indeed write ‘Nanna’ quite creditably on the top of it with an icing pen. Here she is assisting Mum blowing out her candles.

A couple of nice new things have opened for public use in Reading recently. The new footbridge over the Thames at Christchurch Meadows is finally complete, and jolly nice it is too. It's lit up at night by lots of little LEDs. Link to picture gallery here.

Also, on 6 December we ceremonially walked recently through the newly opened Napier Road subway on our way to Homebase (and, at my persuading, Toys R Us to look at Barbies, Lego etc). It’s been closed for some years, but has now been re-opened for pedestrian use linking Napier Road (and hence the oddly blue-roofed flats at Luscinia View) to the Forbury retail park and the town centre without having to trail up to the roundabout to cross the railway. The tunnel apparently used to be a route for two dear little trains that carried biscuits from Huntley & Palmer to a siding at Reading station.

Ray introduced me a few months ago to the baroque quartet Red Priest so I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were giving a lunchtime pre-Christmas concert at the OU on 9 December. As he was eager to come up to the concert I took the morning off and we began with breakfast at Buskers before going for a walk around Linford Wood, somewhere I hadn’t been as yet. A few pics here. Well marked and surfaced paths – one of the finer features of going for a walk in MK, especially in the light of our later bog experience (see walk below) – and a series of cute wooden sculptures. The concert was well attended and held in the Hub Theatre rather than the church, so they must have been expecting a good few people. Red Priest are an amazingly lively act, particularly the recorder player Piers Adams, who bounds around the stage and switches rapidly between an array of different-sized recorders (far more types than I’d realised there were). Although the violin isn’t one of my favourite instruments, I was mightily impressed with the violinist Adam Summerhayes – though he’s not in fact a permanent member of the group but was standing in for their usual violinist Julia Bishop. I’d definitely go and see them again, and may seek out one of their CDs.

Linford Wood

Ruth and I went down to Chichester early on 12 Dec to pay a visit to her godmother Rosemary, as well as doing a bit of Christmas shopping in tasteful cathedral city, etc etc. We arrived at around 9.30 – actually a little later than I’d intended but the AA route planner took us on an ‘as the crow flies’ route along A-roads, which needed a bit more careful driving than just whizzing along the motorways. Parked up at the Premier Inn where we were staying for the Saturday night and walked into the city seeking a second breakfast, which we had at Artie’s Kitchen, a self-professed ‘Artisan Café’, which led to much scoffing at the modern over/mis-use of the word ‘artisan’ to mean home-made faux-rustic put together by leisured middle-class types goods. Our breakfast of muffins topped with bacon and poached eggs did indeed come with a tasteful mound of rocket on the side, which marked it out as dead classy.

My Chambers dictionary defines ‘artisan’ as ‘a handicraftsman or mechanic, a skilled manual worker’. At the time Ray worked at Temple Golf Club in the 1990s, there was an ‘Artisans’ club separate from the main club, to which working chaps such as himself could belong. (From what I recall, he had his membership terminated through non-payment of fees.) This site notes that ‘artisan golf was created in the 19th century to give working men the chance to play on good courses affordably’. I assume there are a number of such clubs across the country, as there’s an Artisan Golfers’ Association. It seems rather anachronistic these days but if it enabled play on quality courses at a reduced fee, I guess it was a good thing (though I can’t recall now whether Temple Artisans also required members to play at off-peak times, e.g. 3am, in the pouring rain, etc. Let’s hope not). The Artisans at Temple had their own clubhouse separate from the main clubhouse, presumably so as not to contaminate the company directors with their rough-hewn workaday qualities.

Southgate basin

Returning to Chichester: after breakfast, we continued into the city and did a spot of browsing, including around the Christmas market – reasonably busy but nothing like the pre-Christmas nightmare in Winchester a few years ago. We arrived at midday at the nursing home where Rosemary is now resident, to find her nowhere in sight – a member of staff confirmed that she wasn’t in her room and someone else chirped up that Rosemary had been seen leaving the premises some while earlier. In something of a panic Ruth hot-footed it back into town to the Côte Brasserie, where we had arranged to meet (I scuttled behind in manner of small panting person), to find Rosemary sitting at a table waiting for us. We had a pleasant light lunch (divine tuna carpaccio starter) though made somewhat frustrating by communication struggles due to Rosemary being slightly hard of hearing coupled with the ambient noise in the restaurant. After lunch we returned to the nursing home via a branch of Thorntons for R to buy a box of chocs for the home staff.

Bishop's Palace Gardens

We had a nice dinner at Wildwood on the Saturday evening. Made two attempts to visit the cathedral during the time we were in Chichester, but miscalculated rather as there were services on on both occasions. It looked jolly nice from the outside though. On the Sunday morning I had an early solo walk around the town, including a circuit of Southgate basin, the Chichester end of the Chichester Canal, before meeting Ruth for breakfast at Carluccio's. After breakfast we went for a stroll around the Bishop's Palace Gardens before heading home.

Had our first Strategy & Information Office joint Christmas 'do' on 15 December; pictures here. An attempt had been made to combine traditions from both former teams, which meant merging the Information Office 'tradition' of going out around 12 noon, having a largely sober lunch and coming back to work again, with the Strategy Office's rather more fun tradition of going out around 5pm after work for a meal and then on for drinks. The upshot was we went for a 2pm lunch at The Banana Tree, a pan-Asian chain that has a branch in The Hub, and around 10 of us went on for drinks at Missoula afterwards. The Banana Tree's Christmas menu contained pretty much nothing resembling a traditional UK Christmas lunch, which didn't bother me but there were mutterings to be heard beforehand from certain colleagues. There seemed general agreement though that the food was very nice. Jan and Louisa from the Strategy Office had brought several festive hats into work that day and the bar session was largely spent passing them around and taking photos of each other.

Among all the pre-Christmas chocolates being passed around in the office, Bart produced what were claimed to be dried worms, and had a good go at persuading all his colleagues to try one. I managed to resist, but several people did try them. I like to think I am quite open to trying new things, but certain things I'd have to be pretty much starving before trying.

Set out on the morning of Saturday 19th with Ray for a refreshing five and a half mile walk out of ‘Rambling for Pleasure around Reading’, this time the ‘Chapman’s Farm and Chalkhouse Green’ walk. A few pictures here. We parked in the car park next to Clayfield Copse at the top of Caversham Park Village and had a pleasant walk via alternately footpaths and country roads. VERY muddy in places, to a tedious degree that involved a choice between sinking into a bog or getting tangled in brambles (some law decrees that lanes prone to extreme muddiness must also be fringed with prickly bushes). I had artfully packed a picnic lunch, which we enjoyed sitting by the Millennium Green in Sonning Common, before heading across to Chalkhouse Green and thence down Chalkhousegreen Lane back to Emmer Green. Stopped briefly to look at the Emmer Green water tower before heading back to the car via Tower Close and Clayfield Copse.

Ray sourced me a Yule log in Clayfield Copse, after a short while communing with the woodland gods. It was duly carried ceremonially into the house, only to be immediately carried out again by Ruth shrieking about moss and spores. Carried it back in again while she was out of the room. Made it look pretty and dead spiritual.

In the evening Ruth and I went for dinner on Ray's boat - he has recently been getting back into slow cookery and had prepared us a shoulder of lamb, which was lovely. I had assumed that one could only prepare stew-type things in a slow cooker, but no. He also did a divine baked Camembert as a starter, with the result that we ate slightly less of the lamb than we might have done otherwise. Apparently it got used up though.