December 2014

December 31, 2014

What a truly terrible night’s sleep… Adam has picked up the house cough now, and hacked first me and then himself awake in the middle of the night. After tossing around for an hour or so, I started listening to the remaining episodes of Serial, which proved too gripping to encourage drowsiness.There was no satisfying resolution to the story, and as the narrator points out, the only genuine fact in the whole case is that Jay (sole witness and reason Adnan was convicted) knew where the victim’s car was dumped. Plenty of reasonable doubt though and cause to examine whether the verdict is sound.

Margo and Aaron headed upstairs about 9am, and I came up to join them and make a pot of coffee. Sat around chatting until their taxi arrived to take them to the airport at 11:15am. Nova spent a few hours hanging out with another friend in Crouch End today — life’s a giddy round of pleasure for that girl…

I’m always melancholy after guests leave — especially family, which I consider Margo and Aaron to be. Distracted myself by tackling the mountain of laundry and housework I’ve let pile up while we’ve been making merry…

Made a start on our annual 365-item clearout, making it to 257 items before Adam broke off to fulfill his promise to take the girls out for cheesecake at Harry Morgan.

We’ve opted for a quiet New Year’s Eve at home this year. Lyra and I made cucumber sushi and miso soup for dinner, then we settled down on the sofa to watch Elf. A few rounds of Bananagrams filled the remaining time to midnight. Toasted 2015 with a round of Blue Christmas cocktails (with a much improved balance of ingredients) then toddled off to bed…

December 30, 2014

Happy birthday, Drew! — 36 by my calculations…
It was Margo and Aaron’s last full day with us — they head back to Canada tomorrow morning, arriving home just in time to see in the new year if all goes smoothly.Since Christmas morning, we’ve been starting our days later and later. After a leisurely coffee, I set out for a run with Lyra, who has been clamouring to accompany me. We ran down to Highgate Woods and did one lap round the perimeter, walking whenever Lyra needed to catch her breath. Just over two miles in total, which is very good going for her first run…

Nova popped home briefly from her sleepover at Chloe’s, dropping off her bag before heading off to hang out with Shira in the Angel for the afternoon. The rest of us hopped in the car for an outing to the Geffreye Museum (via the post office to mail the Hugo Boss trousers Adam sold on eBay).

I love visiting the Geffreye at this time of year. The exhibition is always exactly the same — just the way I like it. It was pretty busy, and with only one narrow corridor, not conducive to crowds, but it was still well worth it.

Headed back home for lunch — yet more leftovers… Tonight’s cocktail was a Blue Christmas. They looked fantastic, but the taste was a bit of a letdown. It was too lemony, and the curaçao flavour wasn’t that distinctive.

Margo and Aaron treated us to a lovely farewell dinner at St John. The food was excellent, as always, and I loved the way they served the girl’s shared hamburger — precisely chopped in half. Margo is completely losing her voice and found it almost impossible to join in the conversation, in spite of Aaron’s helpful suggestions to speak up…;-)

December 29, 2014

Finally got up off my ass and made it out for a run — it’s been too long… Listening to my Serial podcast, I didn’t even notice the time passing as I knocked off five miles. It was pretty icy under foot, so I didn’t push it…After a bowl of parsnip soup, Adam, Margo, Aaron and Lyra set off to see “Nativity Three: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?” at the Holloway Odeon. I stayed home and made blini, while Nova did housework to earn some pocket money, before setting off for a sleepover with Chloe.

Basil and Veronika came round with the girls this evening. Tonight’s feature drink was A Cocktail of Two Cities (from the book I gave Margo for Christmas), after which we moved on to Harvey Wallbangers. Good fun was had by all…;-)

December 28, 2014

Went for a family walk on the Heath this morning. The weather was very cold but bright, and everyone and their dog (literally) was out there. I’d thought we could have a pub lunch at the Spaniards, but so did the rest of north London.

Knocked back a pint of Guinness in the frosty beer garden, then caught the bus home for soup and turkey sandwiches.

Tonight’s cocktail was a sazerac, the holiday tie-in being the Christmas in New Orleans CD I’ve been enjoying this year. It gave me a theme to build the photo around.

Went to Kiplings for a nice Indian meal, then knocked back a bottle of rosé before bed…

December 27, 2014

Last night at bedtime, I popped a half dose of Night Nurse, which zonked me out until after 10:30am. What a luxury to sleep like that…Lyra headed over to Rosa’s house before lunch, and we didn’t see her again until dinner time. Nova went off shopping at Westfield with Evelyn, and Adam and Aaron set off to run errands in Muswell Hill. That left Margo and me with a peaceful afternoon reading and sipping sloe gin.

After knocking back this evening’s cocktail of sloe gin negroni, and eating a meal of pesto pasta and Caesar salad, we left Nova in charge and set off to the West End by cab.

Margo and Aaron were treating us to an evening at the theatre — King Charles the Third with Tim Piggott-Smith. Our seats were in in the grand circle — I quite enjoyed being up high, but it would have been ideal to be a bit nearer the centre.

I really enjoyed the show, and thought it was an excellent exploration of what Charles might actually be like when he eventually becomes monarch. There was a rumour going round that the Queen was planning to announce her retirement in her Christmas speech. It was given enough credence that bookies actually stopped taking bets on it. But it always seemed unlikely given that in a matter of months she’ll be the longest-ever serving English monarch…

December 26, 2014

Poor Aaron is coming down with a cold. He was pretty stuffed up and croaky this morning. Just as well we’d planned to take it easy…Made a round of turkey sandwiches for lunch. There wasn’t as much stuffing leftover as I would have liked — it’s an integral part of the sandwich for me. I discovered a fair amount went I got round to making the turkey stock. It must have been lingering in the crevices of the carcass, and floated to the surface when started boiling the bones.

In the afternoon, Adam, Margo and Aaron headed off to the Arsenal match. The weather turned much colder yesterday, and now it’s wet as well. Just the thing for someone coming down with a cold…

At least Arsenal won, and I had hot buttered rums waiting when they returned for this evening’s cocktails. Speaking of cocktails, it was shrimp cocktail and turkey soup for dinner…

December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas everyone! Lyra popped in at 6:15 to see if I’d changed my mind about the starting time. Nope…We were all upstairs on the dot of 7am in our jammies. The girls flew at their stockings, and seemed pretty happy with what they unearthed. With six of us, there were lots of presents under the tree this year.

Each girl got a lovely piece of jewellery from Margo and Aaron, and a pair of boots from Grandpa Ed (Uggs for Nova, Doc Martens for Lyra). We gave Nova a white furry blanket, new headphones, a set of makeup brushes and a skirt and sweater. Lyra got a Furby Boo, two Monster High Dolls, a set of Japanese paints and a skirt and sweater.

I got some great books this year, including an excellent breadmaking book from Margo and Aaron, which combined very nicely with my online sourdough bread baking course from Adam.

Had our traditional Christmas breakfast, with Melton, pickles, crudités, champagne, orange juice — and plenty of toasts to family and friends.

The dinner preparations went very smoothly with the extra help. Margo stuffed the bird, Aaron peeled all the veggies, and Adam took charge of the table. There was even time for a walk in Waterlow Park…

Jane and the girls arrived about 3pm, bearing gifts, champagne, blini and a lovely chocolate tart. I had the big idea of phoning family before they called me, which meant I didn’t spend half my Christmas dinner on the telephone for the first time in years…

Idea of phoning first so as not to spend half my Christmas dinner on the telephone.

All the food turned out really well, especially the gravy — thanks to my new gravy separator. The table was excellent as well — so glad we finally did that…

Aaron and Adam did the washing up afterwards, putting away all the food and even stripping the turkey carcass. The kitchen was actually cleaner than it was this morning…:-)

After a few rounds of charades, I served the dessert. Jane’s tart completely outperformed the Christmas pudding (which I completely forgot to set alight). Once they’d taxied off home, we tried watching A Christmas Carol but dozed through half of it…

December 24, 2014

Headed down Borough Market on the tube straight after breakfast. I headed straight to Mrs King’s to pick up our melton mowbray pie. We didn’t want a repeat of the terrible year when the man in front of Adam bought the very last pie… After that, we browsed around selecting cheeses, saussiçon, olives, pickles, whatever caught our fancy…When we were sufficiently laden with provisions, Margo and Aaron caught a bus from London Bridge to Muswell Hill. The girls were meant to go with them, but Nova was nowhere to be seen when the bus arrived — so she and Lyra caught the next one. Adam and I stayed in town for some last minute Christmas shopping before tubing it back to Highgate.

We went round for tea round at Anne and John’s, who celebrated their 70th anniversary yesterday. Their son Andy, Pat and Tony were already there when we arrived. Anne was her usual grumpy self when we arrived, but I gradually brought her round.

We were chatting on the sofa, when she announced, “I want the girls to sing a Christmas carol.” I went over to where Nova was sitting and said that Anne wanted her to perform a Christmas carol. She was understandably reluctant, but after I muttered that she should do it because Anne may well not make it to next Christmas (she is 99), Nova agreed.

I was kind of hoping Anne would drop the idea, but it was fixed in her mind. Eventually I just sucked it up and burst into song. I started with Jingle Bells, and most everyone joined in. After that, we did On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, with a bit of support from Adam on the iPhone to keep our poultry and people in their rightful place. It was kind of fun actually…

Back at ours, I made a batch of sausage rolls in time for Pete and Pasc’s visit. We did our annual gift exchange, and as usual I managed to choose something they’d already bought themselves…

After they left, the girls opened their Christmas pyjamas. Lyra was keen to go to bed early — while I’d just as soon she stayed up later in the unlikely hope she’d sleep in a bit later…

I finally got a chance to sit down with my Christmas puzzle, but I’d left it too late — in spite of the help and the Harvey Wallbangers. I’ll have to finish it another day…

Did the final things one has to do on Christmas Eve, including setting out a shot of whisky and a date square for Santa and called it a night around midnight…

December 23, 2014

Everyone headed off promptly after breakfast this morning. Margo and Aaron to tour the Soane Museum, Nova to visit a school friend in Herne Hill and Adam to work at his office, leaving Lyra and I with a day to ourselves.First up, we needed to get the Christmas Waitrose shop out of the way. We bought the Christmas veggies, stuffing bread and most important of all, the turkey. I chose one that serves a minimum of eight people. Should be plenty for four women, three girls and two men. Lyra was helpful as ever, scampering ahead to get things, and unloading items at the checkout while I packed bags.

Back home, we put everything away then spent a couple of hours making snowflakes to decorate the window. She loves doing that — and they do look very pretty. We also finished the tiger sequin art she got for her birthday — at last!

We had turkey sandwiches for dinner with a curtido salad — a sort of Central American coleslaw. Tonight’s cocktail was cola de mono (or tail of the monkey), a Chilean Christmas drink, which is basically a tequila-based white Russian.

Adam is off now for a whole week… yay!

December 22, 2014

Went for a four-mile run first thing, before I had a chance to talk myself out of it…;-)The car is continuing to be a hassle. Adam has given the mechanic my key, so they can come and pick it up (which they haven’t done), then gone off with the only spare. So I have a car that I need to use, but no keys to drive it with…:-(

Margo and Aaron set off from Camden Town on the bus, and I set about cooking ham I bought the other day. Doron and Antonia and the kids are coming round this evening, and I plan to serve it with bread and a Waldorf salad (Adam’s request).

Adam prevailed on the mechanic to at least return the key, which allowed me to run Lyra to Grace’s house. I dropped both key and car at the mechanics afterwards. The electrician we’ve been waiting to look at it had finally turned up, so maybe it will get resolved at last…

I’d arranged to collect Lyra from Ann Marie at the Lauderdale House carol concert. But when Aaron and I arrived, it was a madhouse. There was an absolute traffic jam of buggies, and lots of new mums with big attitudes, not to mention half of Highgate all crammed into that little space. I circled round a bit trying to find them, but eventually gave up…

Instead, Ann Marie walked her up after the concert. She arrived bearing a chocolate biscuit cake that she generously offered up for dessert. Our guests fell upon it like a pack of ravening wolves — I think I should have made more Waldorf salad…;-)

December 21, 2014

I could have done with a slow start this morning, but I’d booked skating tickets at the Natural History Museum. It was the usual comedy act getting everyone out the door on schedule, and Margo and Lyra eventually set off first, planning to meet us at the tube station.When we finally arrived, there was no sign of them. Spent fifteen minutes scouring the area, sending out searchers in all three directions. We were just getting the station guards involved when they showed up. They’d taken a wrong turn just before Jackson’s Lane and ended up too far down the Archway Road.

We still arrived in good time — just as well, as there was a long queue for skates. In spite of all that faffing around, neither girl had gloves and Lyra didn’t even have a coat. Her skates were uncomfortable, and the rink was too crowded, but it was good fun for all that. It’s always one of my favourite Christmas things to do…

Nova shot straight home afterwards, as she and Jess had a shopping date at Brent Cross. The rest of us headed to Covent Garden, where we moseyed around the piazza before a pub lunch at the Lamb and Flag. It was packed and we were lucky to score a table.

Bought the weekend paper on the way home, and had a relaxing hour on the sofa reading this years obituaries. Eventually roused myself to mix up this evening’s cocktail — the Dandy Shandy, a mix of Guinness and ginger beer the continued the afternoon’s beer drinking theme…

Adam made sausages and mash for dinner. We were all pretty tired, and after watching The Apprentice final with Nova, everyone headed off to bed…

December 20, 2014

Adam was up all night, but finally sent a draft manuscript to Hong Kong. I fitted in a quick three-mile run before swinging back to Grace’s house to pick up Lyra. Sounds like they had a pretty good time, and didn’t give Nova too much grief.Dropped the car back at the mechanics to see if they can figure out what’s going on with that silly light. I thought maybe a wire had come loose when Adam drove it home yesterday afternoon, but everything seems to be intact. It’s a weird one…

Veggie soup and toast for lunch — our first family meal round the new table. It’s so pristine and beautiful now, that it saddens to think of how gouged and ink-stained it will be this time next year, but that’s life…

Tonight’s cocktail was the sidecar, with brandy, Cointreau and lemon juice — a nice balance of sweet and sour. Pretty strong too, especially on an empty stomach. I’d fed the girls some pesto pasta, but we wanted to take Margo and Aaron out to Les Associés for dinner.

We taxied down there so that drinking wouldn’t be an issue. He was doing a lovely seasonal menu, with fresh oysters and roast goose. We split a couple of desserts and two bottles of wine, and somehow Margo and Aaron ended up treating us…
I definitely feeling no pain by the time we got home…

December 19, 2014

The last school day of 2014… Nova broke up at 12pm and went for lunch with friends, while Lyra finished at 2pm.Adam took the car into the shop on his way to work. Aaron and Margo set out for a little adventure on the 271 bus, and I had the house to myself for the last time in the next couple of weeks. Spent the time in a frenzy of present wrapping, and made the date squares as well.

Our new table arrived from John Lewis! There must be a real shortage of delivery men at this time of year, because they sent us a right pair of clowns. They weren’t very pleased when they discovered they had to carry the box up two flight of stairs — and given they were both well past 60 years old, I couldn’t blame them.

I was dubious about their ability to assemble it as well, but they managed to get it done just in time for me to pick up Lyra. It looks beautiful — and it will be fantastic to have a table large enough to host Christmas dinner at last…

Made shortbread with Lyra after school — so that’s all the Christmas baking done now. Adam came home in time to collect the car before the garage closed. Apparently the light was working at the garage, and broken by the time I needed to take Nova to babysit at Grace’s house two hours later. Lyra is sleeping over too, which she is very excited about.

We’d been invited to a carol singing evening at the Pope’s. Adam was too busy finishing his Hong Kong draft to come, but Margo and Aaron were willing to accompany me. I wasn’t sure what kind of event it was so called Lynne, who advised turning up on time and staying for the duration.

In the event, we were the second people to arrive and the only guests for the next good half hour, which was largely spent admiring their art, and making awkward small talk. Happily the party then got going properly and was good fun…

When it was time to sing, Vince was on the piano, Millie drummed and Poppy played the sax. Most people joined in enthusiastically, particularly the teenagers to my surprise…

When we got home at 10:30, Adam broke off work and joined us for the second Christmas cocktail of the season — the whisky mac. Well ready for bed after that…

December 18, 2014

Lyra’s gymnastics club did a performance for parents this morning. I thought it was very impressive. They are running a disciplined ship now, and the kids all seem to be progressing. I remember it being more of a glorified babysitting service when Nova did it…Getting a tree was our top priority this morning. I was going to go off to IKEA to collect one, but when I called up to check, they were all out. Adam and Aaron headed off and picked one up at the Woodman Pub instead.

They were gone quite a while — long enough for me to ice the Christmas cake — and it turned out they’d had car trouble. The battery went flat somehow and they had to get a jump from the tree guy. I’d thought the car wasn’t running quite right coming back from Heathrow yesterday — it didn’t seem to have enough power in third, but Adam doesn’t think it’s related.

Now one of the headlights has stopped working…:-( Aaron had a go at fixing it, swapping the bulbs round and checking connections, but it might be a short in the wiring. Looks like the car will have to go back to the shop…

Took Margo and Aaron shopping at Nags Head. Margo had forgotten to pack her underwear, and we needed a few things from Waitrose as well.

This year’s tree is definitely on the small side… We set it up and strung it with the new lights I bought for the party — the old ones seem to have stopped working.

Lyra was keen to get decorating immediately, but I wanted to wait for Nova, who was on a school field trip. Filled the time drinking cocktails… I’m going to do a series of twelve Christmas cocktails for my food blog, and tonight’s the first one — the Santa-secco (christened by Margo).

After that, Lyra entertained us with a puppet show, which seemed to involve a lot of sleeping — her solution to handling three puppets solo…

We flew into a frenzy of decorating as soon as Nova got back. I was dubious that all the decorations would fit on such a small tree, but the girls managed to stuff them all on.

It was Nova’s turn to put the angel on the tree this year, which triggered a massive meltdown from Lyra. gets She gets so angry sometimes, and she was just beside herself. I took her downstairs for a bit, but wasn’t able to bring her round, and eventually left her to rage on her own…

Headed back upstairs to prepare our baron of beef dinner. The meat was lovely, but I’d accidently picked up a wholemeal baguette, which just wasn’t as nice for dipping. Grrrr…

Even more annoying, my Christmas cake was a bit dry this year. I’d forgotten the crucial “wrapping it up while it cools” step. Feck…

Watched the final episode of The Fall, once the girls were safely out of range. Disturbing stuff, but not disturbing enough to stop my dozing through the last half hour. I’ll have to watch it again on iPlayer or something in some of that spare time I don’t know what to do with…;-)

December 17, 2014

Headed out to Heathrow after breakfast to collect Margo and Aaron. Adam had intended to do it, but he was up all night editing a report and has lots on today as well.The website said their flight was landing early, which gave me a fright, especially when traffic on the North Circular was bad but I got there right on time. I’ve never been to the new Terminal 2 before, and I must say,it’s very easy to park and access the arrivals hall.

It was very crowded, but I managed to find a place on the fence towards the end of the gauntlet. After waiting an hour, I headed upstream to investigate. I had a bad moment when I realised that some arrivees were making a sharp left and avoiding the gauntlet altogether. I was just starting to think I’d missed them, when they finally emerged. Just as well I’d moved, as they were planning to taxi it to our place…

The drive back went smoothly — at least I didn’t get lost like the time I picked up dad. Ate the celeriac soup I’d made for lunch, then took it slowly for the rest of the afternoon. Margo and Aaron accompanied me up to the school to pick up Lyra who was very pleased to see them.

Started our dinner with a round of gin and tonics made with the lovely artesanal gin they brought (that’s made in Victoria), followed by bibimbap for dinner. They made it to a respectable 9:30pm before calling it a night…

Found out about my part in the panto this evening. I’ve been promoted from villager three to villager one, have a small part as Flo Mingo’s long-suffering assistant Joy, and will probably dance with the Slummy Mummies as well.

The bad news is someone seems to have mistaken me for a singer. Not only do I open scene two with a couple of rousing solo verses (to the tune of Do You Hear the People Sing? from Les Miserables) as well as a duet in Act 2. Gak!

December 16, 2014

Did a run in Highgate Woods for a change. It was a little mucky but I managed fine. It’s good to mix things up once in a while, and the Woods are better for shorter runs — which is all I have time for these days…Hannukah at Freddy and Beulah’s this evening. It felt sad and a bit strange not to have Jeffrey and Jennifer with us. We went straight into tea, which was lovely as always, then headed into the drawing room for candles, singing and presents.

We always give Beulah a list of what to buy the girls, and this year Adam had even gone round and ordered them for her from her computer. But somehow she’d got things muddled up.

Marni got Nova’s present, Lyra got Marni’s present, and Marni got Lyra’s present — which meant that Nova didn’t get anything from her grandparents. I wasn’t clear what had happened at first, and I the girls were too embarrassed to say anything, but there were some downcast-looking children.

To their credit, they were gracious about it. Lyra: “This grown-up jewellery box is a nice surprise…” Marni: “I really wanted another Monopoly game — it has a new cat piece!” Marni also discreetly slipped some of the toiletries intended for Nova back to her…

“What the hell is this…?”

Freddy wasn’t himself — I expect he was feeling upset about Jeffrey, and also seemed drunk and confused. He took himself off to bed early, and we left not long afterwards…

December 15, 2014

Headed into Kings Cross with Adam to work at the shared office space today. Our new associate Jane was there as well, and we took the opportunity for a little Christmas celebration lunch at a nearby pub.We were just setting off, when I got a text cancelling the playdate I’d arranged for Lyra after school. I prevailed on Christine to collect her instead, though I feel guilty squeezing any more favours from her after the Hong Kong trip.

Got home just in time to drop my bag home, hop in the car and head straight to Nova’s carol concert. Adam collected Lyra on his way home, and we reconnected at the house briefly before heading back into town.

Ate dinner with at J Sheekey with our dear friends Jules and Mary who are back from Bahrain for the holidays. They actually look younger than the last time we saw them eighteen months ago. Life in Bahrain seems to be agreeing with them — “it’s really nice once you accept that you’re living in a police state” as Mary put it. We were very interested to hear all about it, and are thinking we may visit in Easter 2016, before Jules is posted back to the UK.

Mary brought me a fabulous bag of spices from the Manama souk — dried limes, cinnamon sticks, fennel, fenugreek, and a big bag of zahatar. Looking forward to getting stuck into that!

The food was impeccable, as always. I started with a dressed crab, followed by a grilled sea bream on the bone. Ever since my encounter with a sea bream bone at Trullo, I go through my fish with a fine tooth comb so to speak…

Nova called during dinner. Adam spoke to her first, and from what I could hear of the conversation, it sounded like Lyra was sick. Adam handed me the phone. It was very noisy, but it sounded like Lyra was standing by her bed moaning, and Nova wasn’t sure what to do. “Is she awake?” I asked. “Of course she is,” Nova said. “Let me speak to her,” I said. “Okaaaay,” she replied, “but why do you want to speak to the cat?” Home about midnight…

December 14, 2014

Nice run this morning. Not as long as I would have liked, but everyone slept in until 8:30 around here which made a nice change, and we’d committed to dropping in on Veronika at her studio to see her latest work.Adam pulled together a lovely omelette for breakfast while I was out picking my way through the very muddy trails of Highgate Woods. I’ve had a great pair of trainers for the past year — with good treads and a Gore-tex lining that makes them waterproof — but it is still so slippery underfoot in places…

In the afternoon, Nova and I went to Trish and Adam’s Christmas party — a lavishly catered affair with a wonderful Scandinavian spread and delicious champagne. Limited myself to two glasses — 1pm on a Sunday afternoon is no time to be letting your hair down…;-)

Got back in time to deliver Lyra to Rosa’s house for her little Christmas party. Jemima had gone to a lot of trouble — she always does everything so beautifully and with such attention to detail. They played a series of games, had a little tea party with Christmas crackers and cookies to decorate, after which we set off some indoor fireworks. She sent each guest home with a beautiful little wooden illuminated house…

No one needed any dinner after all this merrymaking (aside from Adam who’d stayed home to work while I was out quaffing champagne and gravad lax). Which left enough time to watch Edward Scissorhands with the girls. Nova is going to see a ballet of it with her class, and I thought it would make a lot more sense if she’d seen the film first…

December 13, 2014

No run this morning… sheer laziness on my part. We didn’t get round to eating dinner until 10:30pm last night, and when we did, it consisted of a bottle of red wine, cheese and crackers. Hardly the dinner of champions, and I was too hungry and grumpy to feel like running first thing…Headed off to Brent Cross after breakfast to look at dining room tables. Found a Danish modern one we both really liked, and just went ahead and bought it. It will be delivered next Friday — very exciting!

Saw Gogol Bordello tonight at the Roundhouse, a band I’ve been wanting to see for years. They have an amazing energy on stage, and the lead singer is very charismatic, and a real character with his pipe-cleaner legs, size-sixteen, curly-toed cowboy boots, waist-length hair and thick Russian accent.

It was a great gig! Memorable moments include the pair of seventy-plus ladies sitting in front of us (an anomaly in the crusty-punky crowd), and a woman in the moshing crowd below sitting on her boyfriend’s shoulders and waving her prosthetic leg over her head…

December 12, 2014

I had a rotten night’s sleep… In spite of setting the alarm, I woke myself on the hour to make sure that I didn’t oversleep for my 6:30am meeting. A three-way Skype call with Vancouver and Delhi to coordinate capacity planning for Adam’s company. Wouldn’t have missed much if I had slept through it…Both girls were busy after school until about 7pm. So what with the early start I had the most productive work day I’ve had in ages. Built a capacity management spreadsheet, drafted an e-newletter article for Adam, and launched Bruce’s website to coincide with the publication of his second novel.

Even found time to do some dining table research. We’ve had it with our dining table. Setting aside the fact that it’s a scarred, burned and battered cheapie from the bottom-end of IKEA’s semi-disposable range, it is also perversely designed to ensure that when extended the maximum number of people have a leg to contend with.

The one thing in its favour is it’s relative narrowness. Our dining area is pretty narrow, especially since we extended the bookcase, and many tables would be too much of a squeeze…

December 11, 2014

It was a cleaner day, but for some reason it seemed less hassle than usual. Maybe we’ve made less mess? Seems unlikely… At any rate, it didn’t dominate my morning the way it sometimes does. Adam generally vacates the premises so it doesn’t impact on his day…Watched Elf with the girls this afternoon. Not being a fan of Will Farrell’s work, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I found it charming. It had me welling up at the end when the cynical New York crowd sing Santa Claus is Coming to Town, which generates enough Christmas spirit to power Santa’s sleigh…

Book group this evening round Wendy’s. She laid out a lovely spread — far exceeding the glass of wine and bag of crisps usually on offer. To thank her for being such a good friend and Ten More Bites cheerleader this year, I knit her some little Christmas tree teddies. She was so surprised and touched, she got all teary on me…

December 10, 2014

Bloody cold run this morning — I’m so glad I bought those adidas running gloves — I was being tormented by Raynaud’s phenomenon…Nova’s school phoned me this morning. Apparently, she did something funny to her neck and it was feeling stiff and achy. “We don’t have a heating pad or anything here,” the woman said, “but maybe you could bring her a scarf?”

Pretty sure a scarf wouldn’t make a fig of difference, but not wanting to appear an uncooperative or uncaring parent, I dutifully headed straight over with a wooly scarf. Tucked a couple of ibuprofen and a chocolate bar in there is well — both likely to do at least as much good…

Got the Canada parcels in the post this afternoon — only a day late, so I’m reasonably confident they’ll arrive on time. Also got stuck into the Christmas cards, getting all the international ones crossed off. There’s still plenty of time to do the UK ones — famous last words, no doubt…

Lyra worked alongside me, doing cards for her classmates, and chatting non-stop the whole time. It was very sweet, but definitely affected my ability to compose any sort of message. I always intend to be properly organised for Christmas cards — perhaps design something using our photos, or maybe even writing one of those chain letters, but it never happens…

December 9, 2014

Headed into work at the Hub today. I like doing that it some respects, but it can be hard to justify the travel time when I’m always cutting the day short to rush back for school pick ups.It was made made worse by the fact I’d arranged to meet my former job share Tina for a coffee in St Pancras. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve got together, but we picked up right where we’d left off…

She’s gone a different route to me. While neither of us had any interest in remaining in the NHS or in management, she’s left the web world as well. Instead, she’s doing straightforward admin jobs for various colleges in Cambridge. Nothing like the responsibility and stress of our old job, which is just the way she likes it…

Got home in time to collect Lyra from dance class. They’re learning a new Christmas number, which was pretty cute…

Made tandoori chicken for dinner. I’d started marinating it last night, so it was pretty straightforward to cook. It did involve rigging up some wire racks in a roasting tin, but that was the only fiddly bit. We used one of our friend Ren’s spice packets. It was delicious, but I’m going to try it again with my own spice mixture next time…

Went to the cinema with Jane this evening. We met at a weird boozer just up the road from the Holloway Odeon for a quick glass of wine first. We ended up seeing St Vincent. Pretty good, but basically a Bill Murray vehicle for him to do his Bill-Murray shtick…

December 8, 2014

Very cold this morning when I went for my run. The thermometer has really taken a dip this week. It was slippery too with slicks of black ice and wet slippy leaves, not to mention the mud. Managed four ginger miles…Did the Waitrose run and picked up tilapia for fish tacos. It’s been a while since we’ve had those. Lyra sure scoffed her tilapia this evening, which was good to see given her negative feeling towards most fish. Tilapia is pretty neutral tasting, or maybe it’s the tequila-based marinade that works for her…;-)

December 7, 2014

Rosa woke us stamping upstairs at 5:30 this morning…:-( For such a little girl she makes an astounding amount of noise. I so didn’t need that — I don’t think I would have felt too bad if I’d got enough sleep…We had no suitable breakfast options in the house, but Jemima came round before 9am to take her off to Pain Quotidien for some gluten-free fare. Our bunch tagged along; I felt much happier staying home.

I needed to be at the school by 11am to set up the class stall. There wasn’t that much to do this year, due to the new mood of control freakery prevailing in the parent teacher association. They chose what stall each class would do, designed the games for us, bought the prizes. Turns out we were expected to make our own sign, but no one communicated that to us, so we hadn’t bothered…

We had set up a rota for the manning the stall, so once the fair was underway I was able to head back home. Sorted out the house and did a bit of computer work until it was time to return to clear up.

We won a big hamper in the Christmas raffle. I was busy breaking down our stall, but Adam and Lyra were there for the announcement. They managed to get into a barney about something or other. Two different people made a point of telling me that Adam had been yelling at her. When I found them, Lyra was bawling and Adam had steam coming out of his ears. All pretty embarrassing…

December 6, 2014

Christmas party day today… The “official” opening of our Christmas season is the Saturday we attend Gilda and Steve’s daytime party, followed by Pete and Pasc’s evening event. I don’t know why these two events always fall on the same day, but they always do…With this in mind, I forced myself to go for a run as I really won’t feel like it tomorrow. Adam and I also fit in a quick visit to Costco — the girls preferred to hang out at home — and didn’t come to the party either.

Had a bit of a babysitting muddle. We were expecting Nova to babysit for us, but she made a separate arrangement to babysit for Jemima. We resolved it by inviting Rosa round for a sleepover and having Nova babysit both girls here. In the event, Ruby was so sick that Jemima ended up staying home, but honoured her commitment by paying Nova to babysit at our house as arranged.

Gilda and Steve went the catering route this year, with waiters serving champagne and endless platters of canapés. We didn’t know that many people, but had a very nice time all the same…

Popped in briefly to check that the little girls were in bed before heading over to Pete and Pasc’s. They were asleep in the bunks, but there had bit a bit of an incident with Rosa’s water bottle.

Before we’d left, the girls had asked for hot water bottles in their beds. I boiled the kettle and made two up, one for each bunk. A few minutes later, Rosa went downstairs and returned shortly afterwards giggling. She wouldn’t say what was so funny, but was still at it when we went out, much to Lyra’s annoyance.

At bedtime, Rosa’s hot water bottle had leaked and the bunk was completely soaked. I suspect she loosened the stopper for a joke. As Nova pointed out, it seems a strange thing to do to the bed she was meant to sleep in, but who knows…?

Pete and Pasc’s party was much quieter affair, and we got a certain amount of stick for arriving late. Made up for it by staying until the bitter end. Home by 1am, and straight to bed…

December 5, 2014

Friday at last — thank the Lord! It’s been a tiring week…
Lyra had a birthday party straight after school, so I had to scrounge around in order to send her off this morning with double cards and presents.When Max’s mum Ute asked me if I could help her find a babysitter for this evening, I volunteered Nova’s services — I knew she was free and that she would welcome the money with Christmas coming up, so it worked well for everybody. I walked Nova down there on my way to collect Lyra from Lucia and Saya’s pirate party.

Lyra was looking pretty downcast when I arrived. Turns out Michael had hit her in the eye with a party popper a few minutes earlier. Otherwise the party had been a great success…

With Adam’s encouragement, I managed to send an email to the Wrestlers, which did make me feel better. I gave them a chance to say if they wanted to go on without me, which might be best, as I don’t think I’m the right fit for what they want. They need more of an IT person I think..