Birthday, flying solo

For the second year in a row I had to have my birthday without my family. Last year I was away at a work conference.

This year Jackie and Theo were NZ.

It's pretty sad being on your own on your birthday but I had a pretty good day.

I had already received a couple of birthday cards and a parcel, which I didn't open until the 25th. I had an added surprise when I spoke to Jackie, she had hidden a bunch of presents in the flat. She told me where to find them so I was able to open them while on the phone. There were two really nice cards, one from Jackie and one from Theo. It really made for a great start to the day.

I decided to have a day in the city, a nice coffee and brunch, walk around and then go to a movie.

I went to foxcroft and ginger for coffee and brunch. I came prepared with the paper to read. The coffee was very good, pan au chocolat was ok. I had a corn and potato fritter, it was more like a frittata than a fritter but still quite nice. I also had a fresh mint tea. I was there for a couple of hours just reading the paper and watching people come and go. Being in central London, Soho to be precise, it can be interesting viewing.

I then ambled through Leicester Square to the movie theatre. Going to the movies is a bit of a treat for me, I like going to the movies but never get the chance to go. I wanted to see the Hobbit but it wasn't on so I saw Skyfall instead, I'm a sucker for Bond films. I had a big hot chocolate and really enjoyed the film.

After the film I headed back to Tooting. A friend was having me over for dinner but I had some time to kill, but not enough time to bother going home. So I went and had a pint  at a new cafe/bar call Gravney and Meadow  in Tooting and read some more paper.

After that pint I went to another bar, Tooting Tram and Social, which is just a few steps down the road for a pint and more paper reading. The tram and social is based in an old tram shed, it's pretty cool.

Then one more pint and paper, this time at The Antelope, just a few more steps down the road.

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Then it was time to go and have a delicious dinner, complete with dessert.

So all in all I had a really good day, but next year I'm going to make sure that whatever happens I am with my family for my birthday.

Snow

The week after Jackie and Theo left for NZ we had our first proper bout of snow. There were lots of warnings about disruption to travel and school closures etc.

There is always some uncertainty as to whether the snow will actually arrive but the forecasters were very certain this time. So much so that some train companies were running an "adverse weather timetable" before the snow even started.

On Thursday morning, when it was all supposed to hit  I woke up to brilliant sunshine. By the time I'd got off the train for work though it had clouded over and before long light snow was falling. By the time I got to the office the snow was really coming down and it snowed most of the day.

The snow starts coming down on my way to work

Some people spent most of the day trying to get me to suggest we should all go home. We did leave a bit early because it is always a bit dangerous getting home in the snow.

Pendle St, just around the corner from home

In front of our flat

On the Sunday I went for a jog in the snow which was good fun, a bit slippery in parts but more like running in sand because the snow was still powdery. I went for another run on Monday night, the clouds had cleared and it was quite a full moon which reflected off the snow, making it very bright despite the sun being well and truly set.

The bowling green at the end of our road

The river out the front of work

It snowed some more on Friday and we've had some snow on and off over the past week. It hasn't got much about 0 degrees so the snow stayed around for a while.

Over a week after the main snow fall this igloo made in Tooting Common  looking as solid as ever

Christmas 2012

We love Christmas, we really get in to the festive spirit with the music, movies, food, markets and general happiness and excitement which seems so infectious at this time of year.

This year was a relatively quiet Christmas for us. We did do the usual winter things though including a trip to Winter Wonderland, lots of festive drinks and meals at cosy pubs, visiting various Christmas markets, lots of baking and cooking, and of course plenty of eating.

Theo enjoyed it all although he got in to the holiday spirit by sleeping in pretty much every day of the holiday, including till 9am on one day and 7.30 on Christmas day. We enjoyed the sleep ins but sometimes were left waiting for him to get up so we could start the day.

On Christmas day we had our cousin Carla over and had a traditional turkey meal with all the trimmings for lunch with trifle for pudding. We ate way too much, enjoyed each others company and just had an all round great day.

Apart from Christmas day we went for a decent walk every day so the damage done from all the eating and drinking was hopefully limited.

It was great to have ten days as completely uninterrupted family time and was pretty tough to go back to work.

Here's a few pics from the festive period...

There are some really nice front doors around our neighbourhood, made all the better with some impressive wreaths

Once again, our tree was the best decorated tree around

Theo checking out the Christmas display while mum is doing some Christmas shopping at Bentall's in Kingston

Merry Christmas Mum!

Pretty happy with my turkey although think maybe next year we might try something different

Not my best turkey meal but it did the trick. 

This trifle served as breakfast, afternoon tea and pudding for 3 days. 

We hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable festive period where ever in the world you are.