Friday 21st December, 2012

You might not believe it, but I have been in the office all week and you know what, I'm in through Christmas as well. Taking one for the team. Having said that I am not hanging around today. Got 18 people coming for dinner and I'm cooking. An Ottolenghi recipe, Moroccan Lamb with prunes washed down with Vieux Chateau Certan 1996 and La Conseillante 2004. While I have been trudging in and out the office, a journey which has been taking considerably longer this week thanks to a continuing problem with overhead lines at Hitchin, all four of our little darlings have been home. I thought I would finish the year with an update for you from each of them: Hen has been on cracking form and, having passed her driving test at long last, has proved particularly useful going back and forward to the vetinary clinic with Twiggy who cut her leg badly on a recent outing. It transpires though she has an ulterior motive. She has developed a crush on the young vet there. She came home the other day and revealed this to Sophie telling her that was going to "wander around the garden and see if I can find any other wounded animals." Bob has been hampered in his normal activities by his dog's injury and a shortage of arrows which will be corrected, judging from the shape of parcel I received for him from his godfather, on Christmas Day. Despite this he still manages to leave a trail of destruction. His last contribution before leaving school this term was to trip and knock an enormous hole in the wall of the corridor that he was running down. On the first night home he shoved his hand through the glass of our bedroom window and on Tuesday left the fire unguarded and burnt three holes in our sitting room carpet. We have an 18 year old daughter called Jimmy. Don't normally tell you much about her as she is a more restrained and private type, but she will not mind me relating one quick tale which made me laugh. She was down in London earlier in the week with a few friends. You know what it's like. You wander around around town kind of expecting to bump into someone. On the corner of a street near Paddington Station was a man in a Father Christmas costume selling the Big Issue. "Hey, I think I know that guy" she told her buddies, excitedly. And then there's our 11 year old, Lottie. Well she just went and passed Grade 4 cello with Merit. Our normal one. Go her! Now, maybe you thought I had forgotten about the limerick competition I had set you. Well, I might as well have done. There is a slightly disturbing recurrent theme, but with all due respect to the ones I include below, these were the best of a bad bunch and at this point I simply can't bring myself to select a winner. Brush up folks or you're going to struggle in 2013. There's a salesman at CIMB Who I told "If you listened to me, You would make it a rule To go straight back to school And out from under that Tree" "There's a salesman at CIMB..... Who dreams of sailing the oceans free. He's not really that bad except when he's sad, and that's probably only when talking to Me!" There's a salesman at CIMB...... He needs to win the lottery His advice is so bad, I'm close to slapping the lad And wish he he'd stayed in Trincomalee! There's a salesman at CIMB who dwells under the Bhodi Tree But unlike most sanyassin He's truly a value assassin At least judging the advice he gives me........... There's a salesman at CIMB Whose hair loss is painful to see he tries his best though often gets stressed, But he brings lots of cheer to me. See what I mean?! Disappointing. Right wish you a very happy Christmas and a good New Year, when it comes. Meantime, before heading home to put my apron on I also have to do my bit to boost retail sales figures. News headline you probably have seen before.. " Sales of 'any old sh*t' expected to treble as men start Christmas shopping" !