As usual, Christmas has crept up on me and surprised me in a pile of uncompleted home-made presents and unposted cards. I always think it's a week further ahead than it realluy is, until the day before Christmas Eve at least ( Read more... )

Sert off to stock up on ingredients in Crouch End, for tomorrow's orgy of cookie and jam-making. There's something very pleasant and nostalgic about shopping when it's dark and all the Christmas lights are on, The greengrocers was especially nice, with piles of green trees and heaps of shiny oranges, making it smell lovely ( Read more... )

I seem to have acclimatised to the hot weather, and feel much more energetic, to the extent that I’ve given the kitchen counter and cooker a proper clean (huge relief when what looked like a pile of mouse droppings turned out to be spilled caraway seeds) and made it to Oxford Street for the John Lewis sale (which yielded another big bag of yarn and ( Read more... )

Paris was great fun, but tiring. I seem to have been adopted by some of the g-d’s friends as a general fairy godmother, and thus expected to sit up late drinking and cursing about the election. This wasn’t an especially cultural visit, so I spent most of my time wandering about, shopping, eating and drinking. On Friday I bought a selection of ( Read more... )

Just back from a final shop, mainly to pick up stuff the g-d ordered, but also to test-drive a new coat, because it would be awful if it turned out to be an Unlucky Coat and I wore it on holiday. I still remember the time I wore the Khaki Jacket of Doom to Cornwall. The coat is comfortable, makes me look slightly stylish, and seems to be ( Read more... )

Had a lovely afternoon yesterday, pottering around Covent Garden with the other g-d. We bought some design books in Dover Books and had hot chocolate, then I went into Lush to spend like a drunken sailor. One thing I like about buying stuff in Lush shops is that you can't actually smell anything until you get it home, but it is usually a pleasant ( Read more... )

Since I'd mentioned once too often that I had once done crochet to one of the god-daughters, she bought me a rather nice book of Vintage Crochet patterns for Christmas, so now I had to buy some yarn. Since the temperature this morning had climbed to a balmy two degrees above freezing, I headed into town to catch the last of the sales, and went a ( Read more... )

It’s really cold (by my standards, anyway), and I’m sitting here in two sweaters and a shawl, beginning to wonder if I should put on my fingerless gloves, have another glass of Winter Pimms* or just go to bed, or maybe all three. Outside, the lights on the trees in the park are shining prettily through the snow, and on the radio, people are ( Read more... )

After putting off my annual visit to Ikea, a brilliant idea came to me just as I was falling asleep last night. Since I have so much time off nowadays, there was no reason why, instead of making one journey and nearly killing myself lugging two or three huge bags of stuff home, I could make two journeys, one for new glasses and bedlinen and ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the first of my free days this week. I had been planning, repeatedly, to go to John Lewis on Oxford Street, to buy a new laptop, but as I was heading off, I found that I’d apparently lost my wallet. Fortunately, I’d only cancelled my John Lewis card by the time I found it, but this was enough to put me off the trip. Clearly, I ( Read more... )