D Day + 94: Sunday 14 November 2010 - Getting into the Spirit

As C's weekly breakfast liaison with Neil is underway on a regular basis again (Neil's been poorly so didn't want to risk passing it on) I took the chance to do some nice festive things this morning while he was out of the house!  It's not that he doesn't like Christmas, he just doesn't get into it until December, a lot of which is possibly down to him having his birthday on 13th, so we try not to get too festive before that or it all gets caught up and missed a bit.  But I get into it quite early, on a hopefully subtle basis, because we start rehearsing the choir Christmas repertoire in September!!! Can't help but get into it after a few weeks of trilling carols....So this morning, once the coast was clear, I put on some Christmas music, lit the Cranberry Chutney Yankee candle, and started making some more Shaker hearts.  Such a therapeutic and relaxing pastime...with a nice end product; but made slightly more difficult due to Her Majesty Fleur the Cat deciding that this morning she wanted to curl up on my lap - she doesn't normally 'do' laps!  But the time passed quickly and before I knew it C was back and Christmas was put away again for another time.

Things have been fairly quiet at home, as I've mentioned before, what with Romilly housesitting at Kealy's and our life ticking away nice and steadily.  It's nice to feel calm and relaxed, a lot of which is down to not having to squeeze work into the equation I know, and it is suprising (or is it) how much more you are aware of things when you are not running around chasing your own tail - like how the garden is changing all the time with the seasons, how clear the sky is when the sun is shining, and how busy everyone seems to be!  I take comfort in knowing that things are carrying on as normal, and hope to jump on the 'normal' train again; it's just been nice hanging around the station for a lot longer than usual.  In fact I realised today that C and I have never spent so much time together in all our married life - even before we had Romilly.  There was always work, family, then kids, then kids' activities, etc etc etc.  It's been a fairly steep learning curve but thankfully we've weathered it well, a lot of which I put down to us being comfortable with each other after over 22 years!!
Now to a confession...I have been very excited today, and anticipating this evening with much enthusiasm.  I've done my chores, I've cooked a roast dinner for C, Rom and Dan, walked the dogs, got the laundry and some ironing out of the way and generally been the model housewife.  So tonight I am going to treat myself, and here's my guilty confession...

I'M A CLOSET 'I'M A CELEBRITY GET ME OUT OF HERE!' FAN!

Or I was until I typed that.  Don't judge me too harshly; I don't watch Big Brother, X Factor, Pop Idol, Strictly Come Dancing, or any of those reality programmes, nor am I hooked into any soap operas or anything like that.  In fact there isn't really much on TV that I make an effort to watch these days...but there's something about these Z-list 'celebrities' (in the loosest use of the word) that keeps me hooked.  So I'm lighting the fire, opening the wine, and settling down for an hour's entertainment with these has-beens...or could it be I harbour a secret crush on  Ant and Dec??????? Well, Dec, perhaps......