Getting ready for Xmas.

Yes, we're all ready for spending Xmas with our daughter L and her family
in London ... we're setting off early tomorrow morning, despite the snow
and ice ... but with London daytime temperatures forecast at 2 deg C. for
the next 2 days, hopefully a slow thaw should be occurring.

We'll be setting off in our car with lots of food and pressies on board ...
I should really get a Santa outfit, and shout out a few "Ho, Ho, Hos" on
the way. Mrs C has been cooking in the past few days, so we taking with us
a fish pie (made with mixed sea food), a veggie loaf and some of Mrs C's
special gravy, with the end of a bottle of red wine poured into the mix ...
de-eelicious.

We're even taking our Remoska electric oven with us, to help L out with
extra oven space ... we'll be cooking Aunt Bessie's roast potatoes in that,
on Xmas Day, for a large family gathering.

I've been fairly busy in the past few days ... playing guitar with a couple
of mates, putting yet more photos onto Flickr, preparing a talk (for my
local U3A) on how to create a simple website, and spending 2-3 hours a day
updating the U3A website (with the contents of our latest newsletter). As
I've got editorial control over this website, I've started putting some of my
my photos up on it (one per month) to brighten it up ... you might recognize
the current photo I've put on the home page.

We tend to keep our house on the cool side during the day, partly due to
Mrs C's thermostat being set rather high (much higher than mine) and also to
save some dosh (and help conserve our fossil fuels, of course). Whereas
Mrs C tends to be lightly dressed, my usual daily attire at present consists
of 2 vests, a fairly thick cotton shirt, a thicker cotton sweater (with a
high collar), a woollen jumper, and a fleecy jacket. On my lower half,
thermal leggings, undies and socks ... and in the evenings when the heating
is off, we snuggle under blankets while watching TV ... I sometimes wear a
thick cotton dressing gown in addition to all the above, and sometimes a hat
... so all I need are a white nightcap and a pair of fingerless gloves to
complete my Ebenezer Scrooge appearance.