The year closes just as Threshers the wine shop closes in Kelso, the last thing to be sold was Israeli dessert wine – so it was the online Wine Society for Christmas Claret and Chablis, together with Alnwick Ales for the Festive Kegs of Yule Fuel and Secret Kingdom. The alcohol supplements included 72% absinthe and some Somerset Cider Brandy which was matured in barrels, surrounded by bibles written in Zulu, from MSC Napoli a plundered shipwreck on the Dorset coast. Hic.
New Audi TT arrives and I can now get Saga insurance which works out remarkably cheap (no meerkat fees to pay I guess). I was awarded a ‘Flying Pig’ at the Microlight Christmas Party – for what I assume is an honour to be compared to Miyazaki Porco Rosso (the crimson pig flying ace) – or for making a complete pigs ear of my circuit at Manchester airport.
I celebrated the winter solstice with a large pan of Wassail and a naked run in the snow around the rowan trees in the blue moonlight (second full moon in the month is a blue moon).
Christmas was shaping up to be a jolly affair – and then the snow fell. It started with the BBC giving a global warming demonstration as the snow fell heavily in the window behind the presenter and ended with a snow blanket coverage on telly with reporters ‘braving’ the snow and what looked like setup slides of cars. To us it meant running very low on hay, frozen water which meant relays of water buckets for Flora trudging through deepening snow. It also meant towing Ali up the Lempitlaw hill as he got stuck and arming ourselves with snow shovels – although David came up trumps with his motorised bucket machine clearing our drive in a couple of minutes – although we were blocking the road at the time as the snow was so high on either side there was nowhere to pull off to! Stephanie’s horse was stuck up the Yetholm valley so we had a good trip out to feed it in a foggy blizzard. I had wanted to visit Antarctica but it had decided to come to see me instead this year – temperatures plummeted to minus 20 and our heating system was put to the test. We froze. Time to look at CHP as a backup and a nice local electricity generator.
A traditional Christmas Day meal with Absinthe Jelly, charades games ending up with the men asleep snoring as the women played Guitar Hero. I gave Kim a pair of wellies which were suddenly a lot more appreciated as the snow kept falling into the New Year. Stephanie bought Kim some gaiters from the guy I sailed with on my Day Skipper course and he enclosed a survival toaster as a gift for me which confused Stephanie somewhat!
Bought Lost Valley of the DInosaurs off ebay as my own version had been depleted of lava, dinosaurs and the swamp monster – great fun – and also bought the old Sherlock Holmes collection in preparation for the new movie – they are wonderful old films.
A snow meerkat graced our front garden and was transformed by melting in the winter sun and more snow falls into an unrecognisable piece of contemporary art. Drinking in a room full of people who believe that horses speak to people was a surreal experience – horse whisperers sound as exploitative as psychics – between that and the homeopathic treatments on sale at the local horse store (with a ‘they really work’ label) one can see 2010 as irrational as every other year. Still scientists now say there is no G Spot so that is one less thing to look for this year.
The snow was still falling into the New Year and was showing no signs of going away. The police advised driving in the Borders as a ‘Life or Death’ situation only – we had run out of beer we figured this was Life or Death so sent Stuart down to Kelso. Our office phones went down (ISDN groan) and BT couldn’t make it to the exchange so we had our calls diverted to Stuart’s mobile – except they accidentally diverted the council gritting service so we ended up calls from lorry drivers wanting to know where we wanted the grit – a lesser person would have auctioned them off to the councils desperate for grit…
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