I'm that oddity who promised you a blog post and then cruelly stripped it away from under your nose because, well, life got in the way. But now I'm back! From outer space! (Well, I'm no Tim Peake but I'm at the parental homestead and the rules of gravity are different here so, close enough.)
I should mention that I'm now on shared wifi so access will be sporadic at best over the coming days.
I'm also frantically trying to get this post done before the next social engagement/wander round the block to look at the pretty lights in the vicinity with Ma QB. So, I apologise now for the brevity and lack of inspiration/usual QB punnery.
So anyway, how can I justify the time spent not posting on the blog? Let's see, shall we?
This week, I have mostly been ...
Reading
I'm going to be honest: this book may have had huge acclaim and won an inaugural YA award ... but unlike The Handmaid's Tale {Margaret Atwood} on which it is very obviously modelled, OEY belongs in the here and now, and in ten years' time many of the quasi-subtle cultural references will be obsolete.
And thank goodness for that.
Watching
... more Christmassy things, whilst doing Christmassy things!
To wit:
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| {Love Actually} |
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| {National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation} |
Listening
... to Christmas music. Much of Christmas music. All of it. Latest additions to the QB Library of Christmas cheese:
Meeting my Voicerox Family for Drinks
On Tuesday a small, select bundle of VR Lovelies gathered in a local public house-like establishment for pre-Christmas drinks.
Admittedly it was a considerably smaller, more select bundle than I'd anticipated but it did mean I got to have a very excellent chat to one of our newer members, which transmogrified into him giving me some Pinterest-worthy life advice.
So that was nice.
Of course, the requirement to chat overrode the requirement to curate ample blog fodder so I'm afraid no photos of actual people.
But, a big thank you to those who braved the weather and pushed through the inclination to stay at home and ride out another evening of pre-Christmas panic to come and join us!
Carol Singing
Then, on Wednesday, I alighted from my train fifteen minutes late, which was actually not bad-going given the state of play across the network all week last week egads seriously Govia/Southern, woman up and fix your freakin' network with the money you extort from us yearly, you soul-sucking lugworms.
Sorry. Got carried away then. Where was I? Oh yes! Carol singing! I alighted, yada yada, went down some steps, yada yada, and found my church family singing carols in the station underpass, as is our wont every year. So I sang some carols and stuff. And it was a bit lovely. There were harmonies and everything.
I think we may have cheered up a few beleaguered commuters. Well, we tried to, anyway.
Enjoying another Christmas dinner!
By Friday night I was all ready to:
but I still had some
to do so over I went to the church hall for the annual Ladies of the Parish Christmas Meal.
Again I failed to provide ample blog fodder because of this whole talking-to-people habit I'm trying to refine but here is a picture of the rather wondrous and festive Christmas table that welcomed us!
The food was yummy (especially the puddings) and there was even mulled wine at the door; there were various quizzes (including a game that involved identifying 24 household objects through mini stockings), and crucially, good company and cheer. Oh and a Secret Santa -- always fun!
Decorating QB Heights
Yes, finally, on Saturday, I cranked up the tunes and, in between sending out the last of the cards and presents, and panic-laundering everything in readiness for the trip back to the Parental Homestead, managed to put up the last of the decorations also.
On a day-to-day basis QB Heights looks like a flippin' minefield of Belongings so I think there may be a Feng-Shui February on the horizon for 2016 or maybe even a January De-Junk.
But I overlooked that and basically chucked fairy lights, Father Christmases and candles on every available surface:
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| {Nativity scene in the Home Bar. Sacrilegious? Discuss ...} |
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| {My Special Santa, with his twisted foot and hole in the head ...} |
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| {Notice the homage to humped creatures and the TINY TREE ... #festive} |
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| {There is no such thing as too many fairy lights} |
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| {The boudoir on a Christmas tip | Notice my neat arrangement of baubles. Classy. Always.} |
No prizes for counting the flamingos this time. Sorry.
Enjoying Christmas Dinner with my Lovelies
Then ... after all that ... and a church service on Sunday morning, I headed up to the Toby Carvery (or, the Carby Tovery) for a Christmas lunch with my Lovelies. And mighty glorious it was too. The best pre-Christmas send-off I could have asked for.
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| {Photo by Jos} |
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| {Photo by Jos} |
Singing | in our annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
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| {St Matthew's Christmas Tree looking a bit splendid} |
That said, I think we got through it. At the very least we mastered the trickiest of the carols, Bethlehem Down, thanks in part to the recordings I found on soundcloud that broke down the music part by part. (#humblebrag)
When done properly, it should sound a lil' bit like this:
And I was certainly feeling a lot more festive by the end of the service.
Well, I ought to keep back a few details of this week for the next post (whenever I have time/inclination to put it up -- Homestead Time is not the same as QB Heights Time so I'm afraid I can't promise a day on which the Summary will reappear ... I'm struggling enough to carve out time to spend on Pinterest and to hunt gifs for this post while not bleeding the house wifi completely dry) so that will be more or less it this week except for, of course:
Pinterest Pin of the Week
Weekly Web Finds ...
... will have to wait until I find more things on t'web worth sharing.
So it just remains for me to wish all my lovely readers, you FOQs, you, a Merry Christmas. May it bring you all you hope for. Thank you for your continued readership and support this year. You've been epic.
qb xx
