One pounding headache

Himself has spent a majority of the past few days working on the N-gauge railway layout. I have been sitting on the couch for a lot of the pounding in of the track, wires, braces et al and had to hit the Excedrin by last night. Yes, this has dulled my snow knee ability. Yes, I could have just escaped to the craft room but as the ‘Lovely Assistant’ job description calls for me to provide a third hand, it isn’t worth being on another floor only to be called on every five minutes. I have the feeling I wasn’t really needed for a lot of things that I helped with….

Getting the track and points all exactly right takes a good deal of time. Next up is terraforming (okay – building levels of styrofoam for the landscape – but’ terraforming’ sounds better). This afternoon saw him tidying up the many yards of wire under the base

into something less resembling spaghetti.

Our non-Christmasy Christmas has been wonderful (despite the lack of beaches) and neither of us wants it to end. I can’t remember when we last spent this much uninterrupted time together. From the late afternoon of November 27^th until today we’ve been joined at the hip so that’s well over four weeks of togetherness. It would probably have to be that summer after he finished his Masters before starting his accountancy training at a Big Six firm. Ever since then he’s not had more than three weeks off at a time, even when for studying for his many professional qualifications.

I’m trying not to think about tomorrow, which sees him going back to work for two and a half days, or a number of early ‘10 Saturdays, which will find him working to make up the three days lost to the east coast snow storm escapade. In Hong Kong we’d have ‘Take Your Wife To Work’ Saturdays but I don’t think that’s quite cricket with The Bank’s  World HQ here in the UK.

 

Snow Knees

It would seem that my snow knees have returned.

As some of you know, I was born with uber wonky knees that were sorted out once I turned 18. The two operations left me with a gaggle of  itty-bitty scars and a very useful ability to predict snow. I don’t know the ins and outs of it (the wonderful orthopaedist who did the work calls me nuts) but I am more reliable than weather dot com and the UK Met Office combined. Because there was not a lot of snow in London the 12 years we lived there, little the two winters we were at the house here and absolutely none in HK I haven’t felt the sensation in a good long while. Only when we happened to be in New England in the winter these past 18 years have I felt like someone was squeezing my knee caps from the inside.

Because we’d taken our usual Excedrin for flying (24 hours before, then another dose an hour before) my snow knee alert was probably muffled last week during the great East Coast snowstorm. Over the days we have been home to Fife since our extended stay in the States I have had a good half dozen SKAs, all of which have been spot on. Within ten minutes the snow is falling. (If only I could pick lottery numbers).

Guess you don’t chose your gifts – your gifts chose you.

 

 

There would be funny looks

all around if I said I hate Christmas. Fortunately, I can’t see anybody’s faces if I say it on a blog. (In no particular order) I hate the commerciality of it, trying to buy presents for people because the 25^th is when you must give them, the mandated menu for meals, sending cards and – most especially – those wretched cracker with their stupid crowns (which never fit me) and decidedly unfunny jokes.

(Add tacky outdoor light decorations, which abound in my street this year).

BTW – italics were added today, plain text written a good month ago.

The last 2 have been quite bearable what with ’07 seeing us in New Zealand (picnic for two on the beach on the day) and ’08 in Australia (er…picnic for two on the beach on the day, along with three really good bottles of wine throughout the day starting with a fabulous sparkling red from Sorby Adams). In fact, these past two Christmases on vacation will make any others really horrid by comparison. Throw in returning from Hawai’i the other day and Duty Free doesn’t stock enough Baily’s to make it any better.

(I told you yesterday this post was written BEFORE all the snow December 19^th that kept us in the USA another four days).

Maybe I dislike Christmas so much because it is such a disruption to my ordinary every day life, a life that I quite like and don’t need to ‘make’ special via a holiday which has lost its origins and become a secular ‘celebration of family’ as one newscaster put it. (Er…birth of Christ anyone?). Every day I wake up and ask how I am going to make this day better than the one before for my family, namely me and the Better Half.

One can’t let these over-hyped build-ups to a single day (which is never as good as the planned version in your head) get in the way of a good life all the time. I need to not let yet another so-called festive season get to me – especially since I am married on a guy who so keen on the whole Christmas thing — so let’s try to think of some pluses, shall we? Four days off in a row for Himself and only half of one of those days is given over to the boring, unchallenging to the cook (me) meal, guests and Queen’s Speech (no offence Ma’am). There’s Hawai’ian Boxing Day (a tradition started in ’04 after our first HI trip) where we wear our Hilo Hattie gear and drink rum based things in funny glasses and eat pupu on the 26th. We’ll have plenty of NFL games to watch without having to tape the ends because the next day is a work day. We still have boxes of interesting artifacts collected on our travels that need to find spots in the house in which to dwell and over six thousand pictures on memory sticks to sort out. (And unpacking – see yesterday’s post). If I just ignore the fact its Christmas, we could have a very good time of it.

Follow up report: we decided not to set up the artificial tree this morning but have opened all our cards. Mimosas with pancakes replaced the more elaborate breakfast I envisioned a month ago. Because we have been drinking we can’t possibly go out – 10cm/4 inches of snow are predicted anyway. We know how to drive in the snow but the majority of those in the UK do not. Hawai’ian Boxing Day is off as we must go to the in-laws since they are not coming to the house today. I’m working on changing that plan if possible….

 

Hate is such a strong word

Before we left for Hawai’i I had a blog post with this title written about why I hate Christmas. I am not going to post it today, Christmas Eve, because I am too darn tired to be bah-humbuggy. It’ll keep. Christmas keeps coming back every year despite how I feel about it.

We at last arrived in the UK Wednesday night, spent the night in our usual Heathrow hotel, flew up to an icy cold Scotland this morning and went straight to The Bank’s HQ so Himself would not lose yet another day of vacation time. (Traditionally folk work a half day, so that was a small plus). After a great deal of fuss we got to our house in the snow and sleet by 2PM. We immediately cleared the driveway, started up the car and let it run for a bit before going to Asda and Sainsbury’s on the worst possible day to go grocery shopping every year. Since we were due home early morning on Sunday the 20^th I hadn’t left very much in the way of food but I had left a (now useless) grocery list for the 25^th: the meal is postponed and we are looking at a much simpler day on our own so that required some adjustment as we drove down the uncleared road. By the time we got assorted foodstuffs at the 2 shops, we had no inclination to buy a tree, though I imagine we’d have likely got a bargain.

In lieu of unwrapping presents Friday morning we’ll be unpacking the four cases, three of which actually came up on the same plane as us and one which beat us to EDI yesterday. Himself is fast asleep after watching only about half the first quarter of the taped Poinsettia Bowl. I’ve kept it on in the kitchen while I cook rice for fried rice tomorrow or Boxing Day and potatoes for potato soup at some point. A box of Bisquick was acquired during the extended-by-many-days vacation so we’ll have pancakes for our breakfast on the 25^th. We’d sort of said that the kitchen furniture was our joint present this year so we’ll stick to that. Four quiet days now on our own – I can’t think of anything I’d rather have more.

Besides, Santa/Father Christmas can’t bring me a single thing I need or want. I got that over 20 years ago on the Cape in the form of my Better Half.

 

Not home for the holidays

We are not home from holiday for the holidays. After nearly four hours onAA100 Saturday evening, the snow became too much and back to the terminal we went. Inept planning by JFK staff meant the catering was late to be loaded (despite the fact our plane had been there since 2:30 — at least — for the 6:20PM departure), which meant the plane lost the de-icing spot and then a broken down tug put the cherry on it. We spent the night, rather comfortably, in the Flagship Lounge at JFK, the driving wind and snow right outside the huge plate glass windows.  Once it was clear we were going nowhere fast, we made our way back to New Jersey to Little Sis, B-i-L and Mini Himself (the five year old going on fifty nephew). Our four suitcases were not going to get off the plane, which had a damaged cargo door, so we left with the carry-ons and our good selves only.  Airtrain to Jamaica, LIRR to Penn Station and a Decamp number 66 and that was us in Montclair for lunchtime. (Check the rules of being an IWOM: navigation of at least three major international cities is one of the things you must be able to do mapless!).

The luggage is on the way to EDI, where we will be by mid-morning Christmas Eve. We were re-booked on a British Airways flight this Wednesday morning, which will get us to London Wednesday night and we will spend the night at our usual hotel there.  Luckily Little Sis and B-i-l are of a size with us! We’d packed the carry-ons with a change of clothes and appropriate size  toiletries in case of a slight delay, but four nights…. That’s a record  even for the International Couple of Mystery.

Little Sis and the boys only got back from St. John Saturday night (last flight of the night to land in Newark around 7PM) and were schlepping when I called them Sunday from JFK to say we were on our way for an unknown length of time. First thing my sister said? ‘Great — you can spend Christmas with us!’. Family can drive you bats most of the time but that’s what you want to hear when things like this happen.

Only trouble is…Himself gave up the small portion of his green visa waiver form (stapled in his passport since we arrived) when we walked on the plane Saturday night. I guess on paper that makes him an illegal alien.

Which is kind of sexy I think.

 

A house full of introverts

Himself is watching the Thursday night NFL game, Mom is marking cider caps for tomorrow’s press, Dad is in the living room doing farm paperwork, Little Bro is in his room catching up on (I think) CSPAN and I am mending (go figure). This is somewhat ordinary when it comes to visits to the Homeland.

It’s only a shuttle flight, a trans-Atlantic flight followed by a ninety minute drive after all. No biggie.

 

Last Sunday: Maui

this Sunday, a cold, wet New England. The Pats are playing like girls so I have stopped watching today’s game for the good of my health. Himself and Little Bro are there getting wet and — quite probably — frustrated as all get out on this, their 13th game (Week 13, on the 13th) in 13 years. So far they are 10-2 for these games. It’s a Boy Thing, so I will never get to go with them. Mind, I have never wanted to and probably never will but I do pretend to be sad to see them head off to Foxboro each year.

The whole family is mentally glowering at Little Sis, Bro-in-Law and Mini Himself (otherwise known as my five going on fifty nephew) seeing how as they are in St. John’s today. Mom has me making curtains and repairing Dad’s work clothes. (Both are calling me Cinderella). Dad cut lots of greenery for Mom and me for decorating but that’s not going to happen until the rain tapers off.

 

Mele Kalikimaka

Christmas  carols and tropical fruit drinks in coconuts. Lots of strings of lights and sandals. Blow up Santas in the yards of houses on the beaches on Maui. I’m having trouble meshing these images in my head. Or maybe it’s all the rum.

Off to Gerrard’s tonight with Himself. It’s a little fancier than what we expected to be doing with our evenings (it’s more of a Cheeseburgers in Paradise sort of vacation: pints vs. fine wine) but it’s here at the lovely Plantation Inn and we are still sore from riding mules down the steep slopes of Molokai the other day and have done enough walking today. Himself had never been on a horse so I had all sorts of tips for him. My mule ‘Stripe’ was the leader of the pack so I got to lead the group down and up. I’ve not riden since my knee operations in the mid-80s but it all came back in an instant. Funny that.

 

After

I could work outside in gardens all day every day. Despite the current very sore state of my arm and back muscles, I’m seriously considering chucking the author and designer thing and going back to school for horticulture. This will likely pass when I wake up tomorrow unable to move.

If you are looking for garden help in Fife, let me know. I needed my guys for basic grunt work but my boy Stuart does all things garden related. He’ll be back in the spring for more proper retaining walls, slabs for the shed and (if Himself doesn’t fancy building it) a chunky arbour seat I’m designing.

Maybe it’s because I was a city girl again for two years — and 12 years before that in London with only a four foot by eight foot ledge for gardening – but I just can’t get enough of being out in the clean Scottish air. Another few weeks of this and I could probably once again bench my own weight but — darn it — we have to leave for Hawai’i tomorrow.

To say I am thankful for my hard-working, generous, handsome, funny husband doesn’t come close to what I feel for him every day. I’ll never need a specific day to be thankful for being the luckiest girl on earth. I am thankful for other stuff too of course but the guy taking me to Hawai’i in the big seats tops today’s list.

 

I should be out working

with my garden guys, but a broken down truck meant no skip this morning. When we found out it would be available at 4PM (keep in mind it gets dark here at half four nowadays) and considering it was and is bucketing it down, we decided to try again tomorrow.

With a to-do list a mile long at all times, I switched to carpentry/joinery.

The two palettes that came with the retro kitchen furniture last month are now three vegetable and/or fruit beds. The strawberries I got last week, currently in pots in the greenhouse, will go in one tomorrow.

In theory.