Caprica, Doctor Who, books and stuff

A number of things today, catching up with all the stuff I’ve been meaning to comment on and keep forgetting.

Firstly, when the day’s high is -12C (-24 with windchill) then it’s bloody cold. I feel that my little English self needs congratulation for not going out and starting the car warming ten minutes before I left for work this morning. My fingers regained sensation about five minutes before I got to the office.

Caprica, V and Flashforward

Secondly, I can tell that I really need to pay more attention to fandom. If I had paid attention, I would have noticed that the first episode of Caprica (after the pilot) aired on Friday. Eep! I have now seen it, though, and set up my DVR for the rest. My initial feeling is that it isn’t quite BSG, but it’s still very good and there is a lot of potential in the set-up. I’ve been a bit disappointed in Flashforward and V so it’s good to see some new genre programming that keeps me glued. I suspect that if I wasn’t watching V with a friend (so that I can mock the silly bits), I might have given up on it after two episodes. It’s really a show that needs friends, knitting and snacks to be truly appreciated.

Flashforward is sitting on my DVR. Should I take my lack of enthusiasm for watching the three episodes I have to be a sign that I can give up?

The only other significant genre show (from this is of the Pond, anyway) that I’ve really enjoyed this season is Stargate Universe. I know that it’s not caught a lot of my fellow SG fans, but the writing is good, the acting is good and they aren’t taking the obvious route with some of their stories. No, it isn’t the crack-tastic joy that was SGA, but it’s different and I like it.

I think that I’ll have more Caprica thoughts when I’m a few episodes in. So far, I’m loving the way they’re handling Zoe…

Doctor Who

In semi-related news, I have seen yesterday’s Doctor Who casting spoiler and I’m a very, very happy girl. If we can’t have him as the Doctor (that would be awesome overload, I tell ye) then at least he’ll be in an episode. Hell, I’ll be happy if he gets to be on for three minutes being awesome. As it’s the Richard Curtis episode, I think we can assume that he’ll be heavily involved in the plot.

Books! Books! Books!

In book news, I finished Firebird (a Mercedes Lackey that I had somehow never read) yesterday morning and I’ve decided that it can count to my January reading stats. After all, I read all bar five pages in January! I’m actually going to try to keep track of how many and what I read this year. January totalled seven books, only one of them a re-read. Firebird was probably the disappointment of the month: it seemed to lack the lightness of most ML books and I was a little ‘meh’ about the central characters.

The list in full:

Quite Ugly One Morning – Christopher Brookmyre
One Degree of Seperation – Karin Kallmaker
Swordspoint – Ellen Kushner
Silver on the Tree – Susan Cooper
Fortune’s Fool – Mercedes Lackey
Probe – Margeret Wander Bonanno
Firebird – Mercedesl Lackey

I bought the Girls Gone By edition of Chalet School in Exile while I was in England and that was cracked open this morning. I’m really looking forward to seeing what was cut from the Armada paperback that I’m familiar with – will it include that bit where eighteen months are summarised in two sentences? That has always bugged me.

In other book thoughts, Lynn Flewelling posted briefly in her LiveJournal (username otterdance) about a review for Luck in the Shadows. The reviewer was disgusted and suggested that readers would require a bucket to read it. As that’s the tamest of her Alec-Seregil novels, she and most of her fans are currently laughing a lot and wondering what that reviewer will do when he gets to Traitor’s Moon. It’s nice to see bigotry alive and kicking.

I suspect that this is more that sufficient for one post

Doctor Who and the role of companions

Earlier this week I did the migraine thing, which sucked but I lived through, and then I did the post-migraine hangover for two days which went a bit beyond sucking. No sooner was that over, then a massive problem came to light in Zombie project that required a lot of time, swearing and stress to fix and resulted in me missing my release. It’s going to feel good when I flee my office this afternoon.

Any-hoo…

What I actually wanted to talk about was Doctor Who. I know, total shocker there. At the weekend I held a conversion/indoctrination session for some friends. It basically involved food, Rose and The End of the World and explanations of things when necessary. We had a total blast, which is what always happens when I get together with my knitters no matter what we’re doing. I appear to have hooked at least one of them – she’s been hunting down at watching all the episodes she can get her hands on (think she just finished Aliens of London) and loves the Ninth Doctor. Yay!

As I was watching, there were a few comments about Rose’s slightly glazed look and her moments of, er, less than brilliance. She’s a great character because of the progression we see from the Rose in the first episode (bored, not precisely stupid but not given the chance to use her brain) to the Rose we see at the end of her time. In some ways, it’s a similar journey to Donna’s although Donna started from a slightly different place in large part because Donna was a number of years older than Rose.

Martha had a different journey. While Rose and Donna both had to learn that they could be brilliant and find the kick-ass woman within, Martha started out as a med student so she knew that she was competent and smart. Thus her journey was about the consequences of life with the Doctor and in some ways about the fact that it is painful for people. I’m quite excited to see the new companion: we know that she’s a police officer which implies that she’s already got a knowledge of her own competence and skills. I wonder what she’ll learn?

That thought led me onto one of the reasons that I think Doctor Who hooks people so well. The Doctor is the untouchable alien who does amazing things, but we can’t be him. The companions are us. They come from the same backgrounds and origins as us, they ask all the questions that we would and we can imagine what we would do if the Doctor gave us the chance to travel with him. The companions give the audience someone to identify with, even if they aren’t from exactly the same backgrounds as us, because they’re ordinary people given the chance to do something extraordinary. If the show was just the Doctor, it would be fun but I’m not sure there would be the same degree of attachment because there would be nobody there for us to ‘watch’ it all through.

Perhaps that is why the recent specials, while excellent, haven’t been quite as engrossing as a regular episode or even a regular Christmas special? Planet of the Dead had Lady Christina, who was Companion-ish and provided some of the best moments, but the other specials didn’t quite have the same feel. Wilf in the recent Christmas episodes was the closest we came and I adore him to pieces, but I don’t think he has quite the same audience-identification role.

I think that I’m going to have fun watching my hooked friends’ reactions as they work their way through the stories. They don’t have the same background cultural awareness of Doctor Who that people in the UK do, so hearing what they think is going to be fascinating.

Food and, er, food

There has been an overly-large chicken breast in my freezer since around two days before my mum went home in September. She was very good and packaged up the big pack of chicken that we bought in individual portions AND LABELLED THEM (so much unlabelled and undated mystery meat got thrown out of my freezer after her previous visit), but failed to take into account the amount of chicken one person could eat. It was a huge chicken breast. Enormous. Insane. So large that I couldn’t think of anything to do with it.

It was skinless and there is a limit to how much grilled skinless chicken (oh, so bland, even with spice rubs) I can eat. This thing definitely exceeded it.

The best thing about chicken tikka masala is dipping the naan in the sauce. Turning this thing into a curry would have created too much curry to stomach naan or even much rice. Er, no.

There was far too much to make a casserole for one and re-heated chicken casserole has no appeal.

In short, I needed an interesting recipe for this chicken that had few additions (stomach ache from overeating is never worth it). And, er, to make sure that anyone portioning up chicken for me in the future knows to cut up ridiculously large chicken breasts into smaller portions.

Last week I finally found it: Chicken Strips for All. Sounded tasty (I love dippable things), surprisingly healthy and an interesting way to eat a stupidly large pile of chicken. The good news is that it was just as good as it sounded. I even found panko breadcrumbs, although I need to buy a cooling rack to dedicate to cooking and cut some of the strips smaller because the bottoms were slightly soggy. The dip, though, concealed all deficiencies wonderfully. It’s definitely one to do again and I may even buy some chicken just so that I can make this. Smaller quantities would be good, though: I served this with a bit of spinach and that was more than enough. Serving with a salad or more veggies would have led to an evening of pain and misery, I suspect, and with such a healthy meat part it seems a shame not to carry on the healthy theme with a good protein to veggie ratio. Also, epically huge chicken breasts take forever to defrost.

Tonight was going to be crab and shrimp cakes (another new recipe) but I have to do some things after work. So I’ve got some stew out of the freezer than can be quickly heated with veggies when I get home and the crab cakes will happen tomorrow instead.

Ooh, I just spotted that House is back tonight. Yay-ness

I’m a lemming…

One of my resolutions, or at least intentions, this year is that I need to get fitter. Two years ago I climbed Snowdon. Today I do well to climb my stairs. Well, that’s an exaggeration but it’s a little embarrassing, really.

I hate gyms, but my company offers a corporate rate at a local one and I was thinking about doing that. The problem is that I probably wouldn’t use it enough to justify it. Let’s face it, what I’m looking for is something that I can do several times a week that only takes half an hour or forty minutes out of my day. The gym definitely wouldn’t do that! By the time I drive over, change, do a circuit, clean up and change, and then drive home it’s going to be more like two hours. Possibly more. Not practical after work (unless I eat really late) and guaranteed to eat up my entire evening if I do it after supper. I want to get fit, but not at the expense of never doing anything else!

There is a treadmill sitting in the corner of my rec room. I was good for a couple of weeks last year, but it’s very boring and keeping up my motivation is very hard. Even worse, there’s no target or incentive beyond vague thoughts of walking to Mordor and even that challenge didn’t turn out to be enough. I barely made it to Wood End. Also, a treadmill on its own isn’t enough to work on my upper body strength or core muscles.

One thought that I had over Christmas was a dance class, but most of the beginner sessions have filled up already and the one I did find is on a Thursday night. Even for dance, I’m not missing my knit nights for an entire term! I’ll take a look in a few weeks and try to get myself into a class for the summer term, when the weather will also make me a little happier about going out.

This week a lot of my colleagues have been talking about the Wii’s that they got for Christmas. Some bought them for the kids but more than a few got them for themselves. Most of the rest already had a Wii. We’re thinking about how to do a Wii night as a team event There is talk of projectors and working out how many remotes we can gather.

Anyway, they’ve all been raving about how much fun they are and how good a lot of the fitness and activity games are. Wii Fit Plus gets big thumbs up from everyone and there’s a tennis game that also sounds great. I’ve been doing a bit of research (including a price comparison against that corporate gym membership – half the price!) and I’m thinking that it might be the answer. Lots of fun, you can set goals and get motivated, I can use it in my rec room and there’s the potential for gaming evenings with fellow Wii owning friends. Hmmm.

There’s one of these “buy this plus these and save x” deals on Amazon for the console, nunchuck and Wii Fit Plus with balance board that looks very good. I could use my Christmas bonus! It seems like a good place to start, anyway. There’s a tennis game included with the Wii, but there’s also a more advanced one that I might get further down the line. I’ve been weighing up all the pros and cons of my options and the Wii looks like the best of all of them. It feels weird to be thinking of a games console as a solution to my fitness dilemma (I’ve never owned a games console!) but perhaps this is what technological progression really is: new solutions to old problems.

A post of many things

A few things to catch up on and think about:

Thing the first – new knitting project!
One of the things that I managed to do while I was in England was raid the John Lewis store for their Rowan yarn sale, which was fabulous. There is a cowl-necked sweater that I’ve been itching to make for ages, so the first bag of yarn from the JL sale is being used to make that sweater. It’s RYC Cashsoft 4ply, a gorgeous yarn, in a fantastic shade of purple called Pomegranate. I’m at the waist shaping on the back already, having started on Sunday, and loving the way that the yarn knits up. It’s 4ply so it’s light but has a nice texture, the yarn has a good twist so it isn’t even slightly splitty and it’s beautifully soft and springy. Yup, I’m in love.

Thing the second – another knitting project!
My parents gave me a beautiful book of vintage knits (they really knew how to design for shaping and fit fifty years ago) and I happen to have just the right amount of Cashsoft 4ply (in green – Folly) for a short-sleeved sweater called Sun-Ray Ribbed. I’d already decided that it would be a spring knit, but the group for the book is started a knit-along next week for this very sweater. I may be casting on for it Or at least doing a swatch at the weekend to see what needle size I’ll need…

Thing the third – my cooking mojo is back!
This weekend I shall be baking an amazing-sounding brownie recipe from my chocolate recipe book that the lovely historyterry gave me for Christmas. I’m very excited about this book and already plotting a number of forays into it. There’s a recipe for mint puddings sounds look gorgeous and, best of all, the recipe indicates that I can make them in advance, freeze them and cook from frozen. Anyone have any advice on pudding vessels that won’t shatter if they go from cold freezer to hot oven?

Also, I’ve been browsing around some foodblogs and identified two recipes that need to be tried out now now now, plus a host of others book marked for later. And I have a Tapas book to start working through, plus a couple of other cookbooks that I want to buy. Sunday I’ll be making healthy baked chicken strips with honey dijon dip (mmm, dip…) and Monday will be crab and shrimp cakes with lemon aioli (mmm, dip…). There may be a theme there

I have developed some fairly strong feelings about the kind of cookbooks I like. All those celebrity chef books (including Mr. Oliver) aren’t user-friendly for the home cook or baker, I feel. Between hard-to-source ingredients, insanely complicated preps and esoteric equipment, there are usually only one or two recipes that are even attemptable. What I want is tasty, interesting meals that can be prepared after work when I’m tired and don’t have three hours to prepare and cook things. I’m happy to do more complicated things at the weekend, but even here there are limits and I’m not likely to do it if I can’t get leftovers that can be re-used at a later date.

I’m a big one for creating my own frozen ready meals

I don’t need a fancy photo of every dish because what catches my eye is usually the title of the dish and the ingredient list more than a picture. If there’s a description or story behind it, that can seal the deal. In all honesty, I’ll never replicate the photo of the food so while it may be nice, it’s not the big selling point.

My Tapas book is fab (with only a few scattered photos) and two of my favourite foodblogs have recipe books out now that look pretty useful for a home cook, but I still find it tough in bookstores to find cookbooks that have interesting recipes that are really do-able. Lots of them look good due to the photography, but I take one look at the ingredients and long method description for a few recipes and put the book back because I’m not the person they’re aimed at.

Speaking of, does anyone have a recommendation for a really good pasta book? I love pasta, but my repertoire of sauces etc. is ridiculously limited.

Thing the fourth – no travelling this year, how about a bedroom reorg?
One of the ideas with my ‘no trips this year’ plan is to save a bit of money, but there are a few things that I’d like to do around the house anyway. The kitchen is a project Mum and I will be tackling in the summer and the parents are financing it (as it’s their house), but I’d like to change a few things around my bedroom.

I bought a bed when I arrived her and my uncles and aunts bought me a blanket box for my birthday, but that was all I did in there. I’ve got the bed, box, a bedside table and a chest of drawers. There’s a walk-in closet for most of my clothes. My room looks a little sparse and there are a few inconveniences.

The big one is my toy collection. These are the cuddly toys from my childhood, which I don’t want to give away or pack into storage, but they’re currently sitting on my blanket box so I rarely clear them off to actually put blankets away. That seems a little silly. So I’m wondering whether there is another way to sort that out, maybe by putting up a shelf for them to keep them off the floor but still out on display. I’ll have to see what my parents think before I make decisions on that.

I’d also like to get some low bookcases in there, partially because the cases in the office are getting full and also so that I can have old favourites and books to be read right there at hand. The bookcases would also give me somewhere to put a potted plant or two and perhaps a couple of boxes for CDs to get those out of my closet.

When I moved, I decided against having any kind of TV in my bedroom because I thought it might help with the insomnia issues and it felt ridiculous to have two TVs in a house with one person in it. One of the things that I noticed when I was visiting England is that I use the TV there differently to the way I use the one in the living room. I’ve missed waking up to the news (the news radio stations here put on gentle music before 7am – WTF?) and I often had nights where I watched something in bed rather than the living room so that I’d settle down earlier or watched the evening news in bed rather than downstairs or watched something mindless if I woke up from a particularly bad nightmare. I’m not very good at going from doing things in the main house to getting into bed quickly! TV in bed ensured that I settled down earlier if I needed to.

So I’m thinking that I’ll look for a small TV (and maybe a cheap DVD player) for the bedroom to sit on my bookcases. IKEA delivers, even if there is no store here, so that’s where I’ll be looking for the new furniture after I’ve done some measuring to figure out what will fit where.

I’ll do some pricing, work out how much I need to save and hopefully in a few months I’ll have some nice, comfy extras in my bedroom to make life that bit easier.

There is no thing the fifth, because this post has turned into an essay

Last day of the holiday

Er, I note that my last post said that I’d be back online on Boxing Day and this isn’t actually Boxing Day…

Christmas was lovely and quiet, just the family, and then it was all rather manic as I travelled here there and everywhere to see the various branches of my family, see friends and take advantage of the bookshops in London. I didn’t get to see everyone that I wanted, probably my biggest disappointment about this trip, but at least I got to see a lot of people and had a really fun time. The weather during my first week definitely caused problems but this week has been a lot more like Christmas in England: cold and wet!

Now I’m sitting here for the last time, preparing to watch Doctor Who. My packing has been done (made more complicated by the various restrictions imposed after the attempted attack on Christmas Day) and I’m feeling quite sad to be leaving. Christmas is always a bit dream-like because we’re all home together and doing things together. The end of Christmas has always had me a bit down because I know that I’ll not get this much time with people again for year, but leaving them all 3,000 miles away seems a bit more final this time. So I’m a bit teary, although I know that I’ll be impatient to be in my home once I’m on the plane and happy to be home after a few days in my usual routine and own bed.

I’ve been trying to think of resolutions for 2010. One of them is not to see the inside of an aeroplane again until 2011 when I finally get home! I’d also like to do something to get myself fitter and healthier, after being dreadfully lazy over the last year. Somewhere in there is a resolution to be less of a home-body because I’ve been a bit nervous about actually going out to visit people outside my own home. My sister and I have resolved to Skype more often. After playing a book-related game that I suck at completely (it’s so much fun, though!), I’ve also identified that I need to read more classics and ‘literature’ if I want to call myself a book geek.

I suppose where last year was about settling in and building a life in Canada, now it’s more about exploring my life more, fitting all the bits of me (English, Canadian, knitter, daughter, sister) together more completely and building more confidence about things.

I apologise to the people that I didn’t get to visit while I was here. Things definitely did not work out the way that I had planned, despite trying not to be too attached to plans in case I never made it here! There will be a lot less travelling for me over the next year (I think that I’ve started to distinctly dislike travelling and need a break), but I hope to be back in 2011 at some stage and this time I’m not going to be defeated by a few flakes of snow!

There may be posting from the airport, but it’s unlikely, so hopefully the next time I post it will be from home and I’ll be feeling a little more myself.

Santa’s on his way

In a couple of hours, I shall bundle up and brave the roads to attend Midnight Mass. For me, that’s when Christmas starts and it doesn’t feel right to celebrate without remembering the events we’re celebrating. Tomorrow morning we’ll pop down to church for a family service, starting Christmas “right” and then we’ll move onto the portion of the day where we eat food, open presents and watch Doctor Who.

Which is all a way of saying that I possibly won’t be on line again until Boxing Day and I want to wish everyone reading this a very happy Christmas.

{{{hugs}}} to you all.

I smell spiced ham!

So, yesterday Mum and I made our Arctic trek down to the shops half a mile away for milk. It took us a long time because the sidewalks were so dreadful.

We got home and were discussing the fact that we’d need to do some shopping before Christmas. Dad asked whether we *really* had to and we started listing all the things we’d run out of. As a lot of them were things that Dad likes to eat, he concluded that we needed to go shopping RIGHT NOW OMG. Before the roads freeze, or something.

Mum and I had planned to go today, but as he was actually volunteering to drive somewhere we decided to take advantage.

Um. Scariest. Drive. Ever.

There was a car ahead of us where the occupants were obviously taking pictures. They would stop every now and again to take photos. They stopped just around corners so that we could not see they were stopped until we were almost on them (not the kind of roads you want to do emergency stops on). They stopped at the top of a small rise so that we had to stop on the rise. Our wheels spun for a moment as we attempted to pull away. Yikes.

It was pretty, but not the weather for that kind of stuff. The store was packed and we saw a couple of people collecting deliveries that the store had obviously managed to pack but couldn’t get anywhere. Mum decided that she was glad that she hadn’t tried for a delivery! We got everything in record time, packed up the car and then proceeded home. Slightly less scary (due to lack of photographers) but still not an experience to be repeated regularly.

We spent the rest of the evening at home, recovering while watching trashy TV and drinking tea. Today has largely been about relaxation as well. A cafe has opened in what used to be one of the banks in my village so Mum and I decided to walk up there this morning to buy a paper at the newsagent (I’ve missed The Independent and Private Eye) and get some coffee at the cafe. Then we started working on Christmas lunch: the stuffing is ready and the spiced ham just finished baking. Yummy.

Now I think that I’ll curl up with knitting and Spooks for the evening. It’s Christmas Eve tomorrow!

Snowed in!

I’m going right off snow right now.

Today was my big trip up north to visit historyterry. I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I decided to come to England for Christmas. I’d treated myself to a First Class return (it wasn’t that much of a splurge, only an extra 15 quid, but it was going to be lovely) and we had plans for exploring and eating and generally making merry.

Then it snowed.

As I recounted yesterday, it snowed rather more than expected. I was watching the local news last night and apparently my little corner of the county was the worst hit. Yay? The town lies in a valley so the only way to get in or out is over some very big, steep hills. My village is on top of one of those hills. Our bus last night made it up the hill, just about, but it looks like it was one of the last. All the roads out of town were impassable by 5pm and they had to set up emergency shelters for all the people stranded.

Undeterred, I still planned to go up to Manchester. Dad and I made plans for me to catch a nice, early train. We decided to set out with more than enough time for even the worst roads. I got up bright and early, pressie for Terry packed and my knitting sorted.

Dad checked the trains and discovered that the train we were aiming for had been cancelled. Never fear! We were ready so blisteringly early that we could hop out and be there for the earlier train.

Er.

Six inches. No shovels (apart from a garden spade). A dustpan. A broom. Three adults.

Yes, we really have been reduced to using a dustpan to dig out.

Despite all that and our best attempts, we could not get enough of the big drift behind the car carved away to allow us out. At one point, Dad and I were in the car with the wheels spinning, half way into the road and unable to get forwards or backwards. Getting six miles down the road to the train station? Not happening.

My train to Manchester is probably running. I just can’t get to it. And it’s a non-refundable ticket.

I’m feeling pretty disappointed and upset right now

At least I’m not stranded in London?

Mum and Dad are out there right now trying to get some of the worst of it cleared. They sent me in because there are simply not enough implements for three people to be clearing. We really need snow shovels! We’re starting to run low on a lot of things food-wise and Mum is hoping to be able to get to a store later. Dad and I just laughed at that idea. She’s starting to worry that Christmas lunch might be a bit lacking in the, er, lunch department.

I think the best we’ll manage to today is a trek up to the petrol station to buy some milk. I can’t believe that we’ve had over a foot of snow in less than a week!

Dreaming spires

Before the snowpocalypse, Mum and I made plans to have our traditional Christmas shopping trip to Oxford. We booked tickets on the National Express coach and thought happily of dreaming spires, Blackwells and pretty streets where we could finish off the odds and ends of our shopping.

Then the snow hit and we started to feel a tad concerned.

This morning we got up bright and early so that we could get a bus that would get us to town insanely early for our coach to Oxford. We bundled up (thank goodness I brought my snow boots), grabbed the walking poles and tramped down to the bus stop to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Forty minutes later, a bus finally arrived. We were just a bit cold.

The bus took another half hour to get to town and we were feeling concerned that our coach would have already gone. No fear! The guy trying to repair the NE coach going in the other direction (to Standstead) assured us that the Oxford bus hadn’t arrive yet and he’d been there since 8am with a frozen bus. Er, not that reassuring really.

The doors for the bus station had frozen open and it actually managed to be colder there than up in the village. Thankfully our coach arrive half an hour later, just as we were debating how long it was practical to wait bearing in mind that our coach home would be leaving at 2.15pm. It took the entire trip before we regained feeling in our toes.

The contrast between home and Oxford was amazing. No snow! Warmer! My big job was finding a present for my father. Someone at his work had gone onto his Amazon wishlist, seen what he wanted and then bought the presents elsewhere. Note to people: never do this. Seriously. They bought the only two things on his wishlist and I now have to send my original presents back because they’re duplicates.

Thus I needed to find something. Anything. Something that he might like. He had no ideas. HMV in Oxford has a very good DVD section, though, and I’ve picked up two things that I’m 99% certain he’ll love. Phew!

People, be very good about how you use peoples’ wishlists. Buying elsewhere really screws things up for other purchasers.

Anyway, Mum and I did a few other bits and bobs and had some lunch. I took some pictures, spent a few minutes in Blackwells (not long enough, but several days wouldn’t be long enough) and generally soaked up the Oxford-ish atmosphere before we headed off to find our coach home. It was only a couple of minutes late so we were quite pleased.

I dozed off for a few minutes on the coach. When I went to sleep, we were driving through rolling green countryside. When I woke up, we were back in a winter wonderland and it was foggy. Then the snow started as we drove through one of the outlying villages. As we approached the bus station, the driver got a call on his speaker phone advising him to change his route because the next town was completely snowed in.

Er. Yeah.

England in the snow isn’t the easiest place to get around. It was hard enough finding a bus this morning, we were a little concerned this evening. Several buses came down to town going in the wrong direction. Buses going to our village proved to be thin on the ground. Eventually one appeared and we joined the masses trying to get onto it. Thankfully everyone squashed on – someone told us that three previous buses simply never appeared and that was why this one was so packed. Between all the people and all their shopping, it was tight but we did it. And at least it was warm.

The snow got worse as we went. Mum and I were both really pleased when the bus finally got to the top of the big, steep hill outside town: if it broke down, at least it would only be two miles of relative flat to walk home! Not that we wanted to walk home through the snow that was now coming down pretty thick, but we wanted to walk up that hill in it even less!

Thankfully the bus made it to the village and we wished everyone a happy Christmas (and good luck!) as we got out. Our walking poles were very much needed because a couple of inches had already settled on top of the old snow. It was so nice to get home. Dad had been calling our mobiles because he was worried and he kindly made us cups of tea…while we put the paper stuff out for the recycling collection tomorrow. We’re both a little unsure of whether they’ll find it under the snow…

Theoretically I’m going up to Manchester tomorrow. I’ll have to call the inquiries line tomorrow morning to find out whether the train is running and see what lines are open between here and London. This travelling concept is proving interesting.

I think that I’ll spend the evening working on a cowl and watching TV in my nice warm house.