A CHILL IN THE AIR

Hello everyone,

A bitterly cold day here in south-eastern England.  It`s lovely and sunny but with a biting cold wind.  The only time I`ve left the house was to take Jake for a short walk this afternoon (I let Jim do the long, early morning run!) and  to go out for some lunch at the garden centre, and that was in my nice warm car so it doesn`t really count.  Jim is still full of cold but is feeling much better in himself.  I for that matter,  have painful swollen glands and an annoying dry cough,  one of those things I suppose, though I hope it clears up by next week, as I don`t want to be cooking Christmas dinner if I`m full of nasty germs..

                               

This evening I`m going to take a photo of the Christmas tree, I haven`t gone mad this year with the decorations but I think they still look nice.  Next year will be different as Roman will be older so I`ll do something extra for him.  My new tree is slimmer at the base than the old one. It was designed as a space saver and it certainly does look neater.  In past years, our old dog Hannah used to knock a bauble or two on the floor each time she swished past with her mad waggy tail!

We are going to have a nice quiet weekend with no visitors, no going out...only nice peace and quiet, what more could we ask for?  Well, a lottery win would be nice but.......lol!  We were going to go to the cinema to see Narnia, but thought it best to leave it because Jim wouldn`t enjoy it much with his cold and he wouldn`t want to pass it on to others if he could help it.  Instead we`ll settle down and watch the final of Strictly Come Dancing,  I`m looking forward to that and will miss it when it`s all over.

                               

I forgot to say, remember I told you that Slava`s car broke down again?  Well, it was the alternater and he`s had it fixed, it wasn`t as expensive as he had thought but still not cheap.  S, the mechanic told him he has been his best customer this year but not to worry as there isn`t much left to go wrong now as it`s all been fixed and re-built!  Why is it that everything seems to break down around the Christmas period?!  Well,  I`ll say goodbye for today now,  I hope you are all having a lovely day.  Take care all of you.

 

Wrapping Presents with a Cat

 

Clear large space on table for wrapping present.

Go to closet and collect bag in which present is contained, and shut door.

Open door and remove cat from closet.

Go to cupboard and retrieve rolls of wrapping paper.

Go back and remove cat from cupboard.

Go to drawer, and collect transparent sticky tape, ribbons, scissors, labels, etc. . .

Lay out presents and wrapping materials on table, to enable wrapping strategy to be formed.

Go back to drawer to get string, remove cat that has been in the drawer since last visit and collect string.

Remove present from bag.

Remove cat from bag.

Open box to check present, remove cat from box, replace present.

Lay out paper to enable cutting to size.

Try and smooth out paper, realize cat is underneath and remove cat.

Cut the paper to size, keeping the cutting line straight.

Throw away first sheet as cat chased the scissors, and tore the paper.

Cut second sheet of paper to size - by putting cat in the bag the present came in.

Place present on paper.

Lift up edges of paper to seal in present. Wonder why edges don't reach. Realize cat is between present and paper. Remove cat.

Place object on paper, to hold in place while tearing transparent sticky tape.

Spend 20 minutes carefully trying to remove transparent sticky tape from cat with pair of nail scissors.

Seal paper with sticky tape, making corners as neat as possible.

Look for roll of ribbon. Chase cat down hall in order to retrieve ribbon.

Try to wrap present with ribbon in a two-directional turn.

Re-roll ribbon and remove paper, which is now torn due to cat's enthusiastic ribbon chase.

Repeat steps 13-20 until you reach last sheet of paper.

Decide to skip steps 13-17 in order to save time and reduce risk of losing last sheet of paper. Retrieve old cardboard box that is the right size for sheet of paper.

Put present in box, and tie down with string.

Remove string, open box and remove cat.

Put all packing materials in bag with present and head for locked room.

Once inside lockable room, lock door and start to relay out paper and materials.

Remove cat from box, unlock door, put cat outside door, close and relock.

Repeat previous step as often as is necessary (until you can hear cat from outside door)

Lay out last sheet of paper. (This will be difficult in the small area of the toilet, but do your best)

Discover cat has already torn paper. Unlock door go out and hunt through various cupboards, looking for sheet of last year's paper. Remember that you haven't got any left because cat helped with this last year as well.

Return to lockable room, lock door, and sit on toilet and try to make torn sheet of paper look presentable.

Seal box, wrap with paper and repair by very carefully sealing with sticky tape. Tie up with ribbon and decorate with bows to hide worst areas.

Label. Sit back and admire your handiwork, congratulate yourself on completing a difficult job.

Unlock door, and go to kitchen to make drink and feed cat.

Spend 15 minutes looking for cat until coming to obvious conclusion.

Unwrap present, untie box and remove cat.

Go to store and buy a gift bag