Lists Lists Lists

The last three days represented my main opportunity to get stuff done before the Christmas holidays.

I duly complied my list and set to.

Extra jobs that got added included posting two small dressing-gowns back to my small friends who were staying earlier in the week.  One of the great things about having a family to stay is that when they decamp your house looks quite tidy, without you having to do anything, though it's much more fun with them than without.  One chair was entirely taken over by soft toys, then there was the trumpet (great for a blues jamming session), the books, the games and the food for packed lunches (don't visit London without them,) and the dressing-gowns.  My friend said not to worry about posting them back quickly, but I knew it was this afternoon or the Christmas holidays, so that's the afternoon.  Clearly everyone now taxes their car online, because the end of the month queues were not there.

This half-term is when I write the addresses onto most of my Christmas cards, because the week I like to post them is the last week of term and inexplicably, I'm a bit tired.  Something to do with multiple concerts and Carol Services, reports, dark mornings....  I bought quite a few cards in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge last Jan.  Now that's getting ahead.

Before I forget, if you are visiting London and don't fancy spending a fortune, may I recommend the Museum of London, which is very interesting ( has some quite good Catholic bits, including that engraving of the Pope fanning the flames of the Great Fire - top stuff), free, not desperately crowded for half-term (if you want chaos, try The Natural History Museum) and you can eat your packed lunch in the school lunch bit which was very pleasant indeed, supplemented by a few bought coffees.  There are also some Roman walls near it. If you live in SE London and have travelcards you can get the Clipper to Greenwich for not very much money, certainly much less than any boat trip or go the other way if you live out west. Great for adults in need of a sit down. And if you are entertaining small people for whom red buses are exciting you can do stuff like go over London Bridge on the top deck for no extra cost, whilst singing, 'London Bridge is falling down.'

That protest near St Paul's?  Not terribly bothersome, but we did walk round the east end of the cathedral to avoid it and so we didn't have to answer any questions about the people in tents.

Not every job has been done yet. To force myself to make the Christmas cake, the fruit is soaking in brandy.  That will not wait til the Xmas holidays....