Feeling festive for the weekend

I’m not a fan of Christmas commercialism. There’s too much pressure put into gift buying and overeating and getting together with people to get stupidly drunk in the name of Christmas. But there are certain traditions I do enjoy.

This weekend I’m feeling the festive vibes.

I don’t work Fridays but this week was Disability Awareness week. I’m on the Equality & Diversity networks and my Director is the Chair of the Disability one. We’d planned to do an awareness campaign involving a stand in the Atrium and a drive to enlist more supporters into the network to help support our staff with different abilities. I agreed to go in for a few hours to help with the stand. In the end it was just me and my Director and we had a good chat about all sorts. We managed to get a few more people signed up and a couple of staff with disabilities signed up for the Disability Passport, which will help them and their manager to make suitable adjustments. I felt all warm and fuzzy like you do when you’ve done something good for others.

When I got back home I decided to do an audit of the Christmas presents I’ve already bought. Whilst I was at it I wrapped them too. In the background I’d lit a couple of Christmas candles and was half watching a Christmas film. It was a pretty naff film but at least I didn’t have to concentrate. I made a list of everyone I needed to buy for, what I’d already got and started a shopping list of the missing items.

Saturday is the city Christmas Market so we agreed to take a wander in for a look. I fully intend to purchase whatever takes my fancy without having to justify it to anyone. Don’t care if it’s a bit cheesy or not. I’ll get a few things off my list too.

In the afternoon we have the #bellringing Carol Service so a bit of festive ringing, singing and mince pies. Cards are written ready for distributing, saves on postage!

I decided to dress up a bit sparkly and, dare I say it, very girly. I wore a pink sparkly top with my faux black leather trousers. I even painted my nails pink. The outfit made me feel a bit more festive anyway.

With time owing from Friday and some annual leave I’ve got Monday off work to head to Lakeside to finish the Christmas shopping. That’ll be the last of it. If I don’t get it then, I won’t get it at all.

So this weekend I’m feeling the festive. It won’t last. Next week I’ll be back to bah humbug!

Its beginning to smell a lot like Christmas

I finally got around to baking the BakedIn Winter Spice Cake. Its a test of biscuitery and cakery. Gingerbread houses, trees and stars and a cinnamon flavoured cake and icing.

It was, as you might expect, quite time consuming. Need to make the dough for the biscuits, then whilst that’s chilling in the fridge, make the cake batter. Then when the cakes are baking its time to roll out the dough and cut out the shapes. Then bake them whilst the cakes are cooling. Then make the icing while the biscuits cool. A little bit fiddly in parts but otherwise quite satisfying to put it all together.

The smell of the cinnamon and the gingerbread is just like its Christmas cooking all over again. Christmas food is just about the best.

Food smells, like any other smell, has the ability to transport us to the past, to experiences and periods of our lives.

There’s always been a smell, that I can’t really describe, that always reminds me of my grandads kitchen and the massive panty/cupboard where he kept all the crockery and some tins (peaches, pears and spam generally) and packets of food. I can’t really remember a particular smell from my nanna’s, but I do remember the food. She’d get enough in for tea that “whatever you don’t eat now you’ll have to take home with you”.

I wonder what olfactory memories our daughter will have of our house. There’s certainly been a lot of baking. I know she came in from her evening job when she was doing her A levels, and always said that whatever was cooking for dinner smelled lovely. Usually something like chilli or spaghetti bolognese.

What smell memories do you have?

Going Potty

During the first lockdown our daughter came back home to stay for a couple of months whilst she was furloughed. Along with her came at least a dozen pot plants. Sadly her larger ones that had to be left behind didn’t make it.

Whilst she was at ours she decided to do something constructive so undertook a free on line course about houseplants. She really got into it and every time we went for our daily exercise walk she’d talk about various types of plants and where they’re from and best suited etc. And every time we went anywhere near a shop she’d buy another plant. Even from the supermarket when doing the food shopping. Soon our house was getting over run.

For the last couple of years she’s given me plants for birthday, Christmas and Mothering Sunday. They usually come accompanied by a small piece of paper with hand written information about the plant. And some even have names. Howard the aspidistra is a firm favourite along with Monica the Japonica.

For Christmas we couldn’t spend the time together as we’d hoped so she sent our presents directly. Then she was concerned that the main present wouldn’t arrive in time so sent another one by next day delivery. Well, they both arrived in time and of course were both pot plants.

She’d even paid extra for a lovely outer pot for one of them which according to what she’d been told would be big enough. Well of course it wasn’t, but no matter, we can use it for a different plant instead.

Anyway, one of the plants already seems a bit pot bound and is distorting the shape of the pot its in, so we need to repot it.

His nibs decided that we would use our daily exercise to walk to B&Q to get some new pots and more potting compost. Sounds like a good plan. Kill two birds with one stone. It was only 2 degrees outside so I got dressed up in my big winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

Started off ok, nice pace, nippy around the edges but not too bad. Now B&Q isn’t exactly around the corner. The round trip there and back was 6.7 miles and took us 2 hours 22 minutes. And on the way back I was carrying the compost.

By the time we’d almost got home, my arms felt like they were going to drop off, my legs were giving up and I was actually now incredibly warm.

Just for a ruddy pot. This plant better like its new home once its been repotted. I for one can’t move now.

Someone’s trying to tell me something

I received two totally independent packages today.

One was a belated Christmas present from my brother. He had intended to be able to visit just before Christmas to deliver them in person, but the change in Covid restrictions put pay to that so he had to resort to posting. There were several little wrapped presents in the package, but one of them was a cake slice with the words “happiness is a piece of cake” written on it. 👇 Ain’t that the truth.

The next parcel to arrive was some cake decorating goodies that I’d ordered a few days ago. I don’t have any cakes to make at the moment but I was looking through some photos and came across a couple of some sprinkles pots that my friend at The Cupcake Oven uses. I’d taken photos when I was last at one of her classes to remind me of the brand name so that when I wanted to order some at a later date I’d remember. This prompted me to browse their website and, naturally one pot of sprinkles became four.

It seems rather coincidental then that two cake related items should arrive on my doorstep on the same day. And just the day after what would have my granddad’s 107th birthday (who was a master baker) and on the day that would have been my nephew’s 23rd birthday.

Perhaps someone is telling me I need to make a sparkly cake for no other reason than just because. Maybe I will at the weekend.

2020 Review of the Year

OK, so let’s join the band wagon of a review of the last year. After all, its been a very different kind of year. Every aspect of every part of life has been impacted one way or another.

Career – started the year thinking it was going to be another year of same old, same old. For the first 3 months that’s exactly how it was. When covid hit it put a lot of things into perspective and I made a decision that, to be honest, had been brewing a while. An opportunity came along to get back into project management, albeit on a secondment. I had to take it for my own sanity. Even though I didn’t start in the new role until December, the thought of it being there was enough to see me through some really horrible months.

Ringing – various ups and downs along the way. Normal routine of Sunday service, monthly quarter peals and weekly practices turned into nothing at all, then maybe 5 people of a Sunday but no practices, then down to just the 2 of us. It looked like we could have gone back up to 5 again for Christmas Day but at the last minute it was not to be. At first I didn’t want to embrace the virtual world of #bellringing. It just didn’t seem worth it. But by May I was running my own weekly practice for family and friends, joining in the odd other online practice and starting to run a monthly district practice and organise a monthly 10 bell practice. Taking full advantage of ringing methods that I wouldn’t normally get to ring in a tower.

Home life – I suppose this is where its hit hardest. We haven’t been able to gather as a family for all the usual events. Mum’s 80th birthday, the May “counting”, R’s birthday, Dad’s birthday. No holiday, no ringing weekends. No visits to North Lincolnshire or Hemel Hempstead or Nottingham. No Cake International Show. We did manage to get a couple of day trips to see R when we were all allowed to mix in small groups again but towards the end of the year it became impossible again. We did set up a regular fortnightly family Skype so we could all keep in touch and at least see each other on a screen if not in person.And of course Christmas was very different. No car boot present swap, no drinking Baileys with R. Just a low key day with C, and chatting with family on Skype.

Cakes – as we haven’t had the usual gathering I’ve not needed to bake as many cakes. I did make a small one for mum’s 80th, a friends 60th and Dad’s birthday, but they only needed to be small ones. I have tried some other bakes instead and been mostly up to date with my BakedIn boxes. I’ve tried a few other recipes too, and did manage to get to a socially distanced class with my favourite teacher at @thecupcakeoven to learn how to make cakecicles and heart gems. I didn’t need to make a Christmas cake as we’re not massive fans of it and we got so much food in the hampers that people sent us. I’m hoping that there’ll be more opportunity for cake in 2021.

I suppose I’m quite fortunately really in that I’ve still been able to go to work and keep some semblance of routine. I’m reasonably tech savvy so have been able to embrace video conferencing and Ringing Room. And of course, the most important bit is that I have managed to stay healthy, as has the rest of the family.

Nothing is going to dramatically change as the clock strikes midnight and a new year starts. But there is hope on the horizon. My colleagues are going through an incredibly tough time and are on their knees trying to keep everyone else healthy but with little support and those idiots that flout the rules and put everyone else at risk. But I do have a sense that we will come out of this the other side. Things will be different and we won’t go back to the way things were, or at least I hope not. We have proven that we can work and play differently.

Christmas gadgets

I had the opportunity to play with my new Christmas gadget on Sunday. C bought me a Hohem stabilising gimble to help record some epic videos on my phone.

I took it up the tower when we went #bellringing to record C and me doing our socially distanced ringing on two bells.

I’ve been recording our ringing for several weeks and uploading it to my YouTube channel, but taking it just on my phone, meaning it was on selfie mode, so it looks like the bells are hung anticlockwise.

I set the gimble up and set it off. It recorded well and the sound quality was good. The bells are even the right way around.

I tried several modes like the panoramic view and tracking a moving image but I was just randomly pressing buttons, without knowing what I was really doing, so it didn’t quite work. I need to watch a tutorial or two to get the hang of it.

I’m looking forward to improving my video skills and it would be interesting to record something when we have all the bells back ringing.

In the meantime you can watch my efforts at https://youtube.com/channel/UCwuReeDAGWikaBD3ZbRxkyQ

Boxing Day Brunch and embracing the Hygge

So having spoken about overindulgence of Christmas day, Boxing Day seemed much more civilised.

We had luxuriated in an epic sleep in. Having gone to bed around midnight. C had turned the alarms off, so it was lovely to wake up naturally instead of being ripped awake by a shrieking radio. Nearly 9 hours of sleep clocked up.

We had nowhere to go and nothing in particular to do, so took our time getting up, showered and dressed. C started cooking and at about 10:30 delivered a small cooked breakfast of bacon, beans, egg and toast. Just what the doctor ordered.

After a lazy morning we decided we’d go for a walk through the city centre parks. We wouldn’t be needing lunch as we were still going on brunch and yesterday’s dinner.

A 5.5m walk through the parks seemed to be precisely what half of the inhabitants of town were also doing. It was actually quite pleasant. Just the right amount of autumnal weather. Coolish but not too cold, a gentle breeze but not windy. Wrapped up against it all, and with a steady pace, we were kept warm.

I must admit at about two thirds of the way round I was starting to think my hips were aching a bit and the prospect of the road home, including the incline over the railway bridge really wasn’t helping. The thing that kept me going was getting back home for a cup of mint tea and the last mince pie.

Our walk had taken about 2 hours. I was actually worn out. I had started to think about Hygge, pronounced hooga, the Danish sense of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that gives a sense of contentment and well being. I was looking forward to snuggling under my sofa blanket, tea and mince pie in hand. Very cozy, very comfortable and very content.

And the bells are (or are not) ringing out for Christmas Day

This Christmas for bellringers, like everyone else, is very different. We would have ordinarily have rung every night this week for the various Carol Services, as well as practice night and Sunday Service. Instead, we’re at home, watching TV.

Over the last few months we’ve gone from ringing 5 bells, the two of us and a family of 3, alternating with another group of three, at socially distanced sides of the ringing chamber, to just me and him ringing 2 bells for 3 short bursts totalling 15 minutes.

A few weeks ago it looked like we might have been able to ring 5 bells again for Christmas as restrictions were being relaxed, but then restrictions tightened again, so on Christmas morning it’ll just be me and him again.

The cathedral isn’t even able to have a congregation, which seems so weird considering g it’s one of the biggest days in the liturgical calendar, but health and safety comes first. The choir prerecorded singing and Nine Lessons and Carols were prerecorded and streamed on social media. A shame there wasn’t any bells at the beginning. They already have some recordings we sent earlier in the year, so they could have done.

We shall ring our 2 bells on Christmas morning, so some semblance of tradition. I suspect that the only people to hear us will be the verger and preacher in the Cathedral and the local seagulls and pigeons. But we shall herald the arrival of Christmas Day.

Have as merry a Christmas as you can and stay healthy.

Christmas parties are a no go

Every Christmas we put on a Christmas lunch with quizzes, food, raffles and Secret Santa’s gift swaps. Last year I remember driving to the wholesalers in the morning to collect all the pre ordered party food and stressing over being able to get parked back at the office. For a team of c.70 people, thats a lot of food etc to unload.

Almost immediately after the previous years party I had already written the quizzes for last year, had already planned the food shopping and started getting bits together for the raffle.

This year, of course, that wasn’t going to happen. With my team split across two shifts now, and the need to keep sharing things to a minimum, it would have been difficult to have put on the lunch. We looked at possibilities of getting food delivered, or ordering prepacked sandwich bags. Quizzes would have been difficult too as they tend to do it as teams so sitting near each other wasn’t an option, and I’d have to do it twice which wouldn’t be practical. It seemed there was no appetite for people wanting to do Secret Santa’s either this year.

But we did decide to do a raffle. Over the year I’ve been collecting bits and pieces, buying stuff and shopping for all the things we know they’d be interested in, mainly alcohol. We managed to cover the costs and be able to put £50 in an envelope as a prize and still have some left over to give to Charity.

This year we will be sending a donation to Crisis for those who struggle expecially at Christmas time. As much as it has been nice to receive prizes and gifts, it has more meaning to give to others.

One of my team encapsulated that perfectly. He (we’ll call him S) had been talking with one of his colleagues (we’ll call him R) and they had decided which prize they would most like if their raffle ticket was drawn. S’s ticket was drawn. He picked the prize that he knew R wanted and gave it to him “in case your ticket doesn’t get picked”. R’s ticket was then picked and instead of taking something else that he wanted, he picked the prize that S had wanted and gave it to him. They were both very pleased.

There is much to be said for the giving rather than receiving. It doesn’t have to be big, bold and expensive. Giving your time, or something simple like a coffee or a chat, might just be what someone needs right now.

Yule be amazed at what I just made

Well, probably not. This weeks bake was a caramel yule log courtesy of BakedIn. This is the 2nd recipe I’ve made of theirs which requires the making of caramel. The trouble is, for some reason its something I’ve never been able to get right. The sugar and water never seems to go a brownish colour, then when I add the cream its just a slightly dirty looking yellow colour. If I wait for it to darken, it then sets rock hard. I can never getting at a pouring consistency. However, I have sprinkled said rock hard caramel instead of drizzled it. It’ll add some texture!

We’ve got proper christmassy today. Been into town for some last minute gifts and wrapped them up. Made said yule log. Then went for a wintery, night walk around our local RHS Hyde Hall to look at the Glow lights. It promised to bring the gardens to life after dark with festive food and drink and Christmas shopping. It didn’t disappoint.

The trees and shrubs were lit up in different colours, there was festive food and drink (although we didn’t partake) and everything was well set out and managed. And of course the obligatory stop in the shop.

Have had a thoroughly lovely day.