Playing catch in the snow

Playing catch in the snow
Originally uploaded by j0hncooke

Storm enjoying catch on a snowy Woodford community centre

Oh Sailor

Christmas day, the first I have had in the UK for two years, the last two I celebrated on the slopes of France. Today it was my parents, and grandmother for a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings; roast potatoes, parsnips, gravy cranberry sauce, peas swede, carrots, stuffing, and sausage wrapped in bacon. It was incredibly tasty, especially my dads home-made chestnut and bacon stuffing, mmm.

After lunch I took Storm out for a walk, its so nice seeing him. It has been just under a year since he came to live with my parents. Strange how things change, my parents would never have gone out and got a dog, never mind one so large as Storm. Growing up we had cats, but after the last one died they didn' make any moves to get another pet. Yet thanks to a mix of circumstance Storm came to live with us and he is great. I have really enjoyed spending time with him, going on walks. I have missed him greatly since moving out. I would in some ways have like to bring him with me here, but given I have to work during the day I don't think it would have been fair on him.

This evening I have nothing to do really I am just chilling out and chatting to Kath online.

I went out to celebrate Christmas Eve in Bramhall with Nick, Ian Bruce and Sambo. We started in the New Victoria pub. They have basically given the Orange Tree a facelift and re-nanmed it as a pub, I quite enjoyed it we had a good chat and a laugh trying to make Nick feel ill recounting stories of peoples injuries. Sambo kicked it off telling us that he had helped a girl home after she feel over on the ice (the high-heels and intoxication level didn't help) landing on her face.
We had tickets to Beluga, stopping for a swift drink at Nappa on route. Beluga was dead though they didn't even bother to check the tickets. Sambo rather jokingly asked for a refund and in the spirit of Christmas the bar manager gave us all a refund :) It was so quite there were almost more staff than customers, and around 12 the doorman announced that they were closing early.
Bruce gave us a lift home and I finished the evening watching the Matrix Revolution and drinking G & T. Near the end of the film I started hearing weird noises outside, banging and scraping. My neighbours across the road were clearing ice off the drive to try and get their car on it. They tried for about 15 - 20 minutes before giving up and parking on the road (where there was plenty of space!) who knows why they felt the need to take sure measures when in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.