under another sun

Christmas Day a tad lively. It started calmly enough with Beth phoning, and me taking teas into Pat and Maureen and Lorraine. There had been a problem with Pat's catheter overnight, which meant some sorting. Then Maureen got a bit het up and needed her heart spray. Everyone soon right as rain, and we got on with a perfectly nice day. Lorraine and I started cooking, and then opened some presents. I got a brown corduroy jacket and a collected George Seferis from Lorraine. Lorraine liked the necklaces I bought her.  Anton got us a bonsai tree, which Lorraine loved.  Chatted a couple of times with Mum. I was pleased she had been invited to her friends Emma and Gail down the road to have a Christmas meal in the evening.   Steve came around a bit after mid day, bearing a bottles of wine, and a game tureen and gravlax salmon with delicious sauces of his own invention. Really nice to have him with us. He is very good with Pat and Maureen, and he was very cheery company. Our Chris...

Christmas Day... Began with Beth bringing Lorraine and I a cup of tea in bed, which was rather spiffy. She said she had been up since eight. All down for breakfast, scrambled eggs and salmon. Then opening presents. All rather fun, and a good deal of rustling of paper. Beth and James being the Christmas Elves.  I got excellent presents, a beautiful green scarf, ear phones that don't poke into your ears, a book of an interesting local artist, new gym socks (my current gym socks are AT LEAST 30 years old). Everyone cheery. Also sipping wine that Mum and Mase brought.  Chatting with Mum this morning before they made off to the Waggon and Horses for lunch -- and then I called her again in the evening with Lorraine. Toby still stuck in Canada. Meanwhile in Seaford people hard at work. In men much preparation of Christmas Dinner with three generations Maureen, Lorraine and Beth at the kitchen table, preparing sprouts watching The Snowman and sipping Prosecco. Pat drafted in too. ...

Christmas Day, and Lorraine texted by Beth, who still radiated excitement about Christmas. Up and we'd only just finished breakfast before Beth and James came around. James just popping in for coffee and a mince pie while Beth was Christmas elf and we unwrapped presents, quite a few were joint ones for him and Beth seeing as they are now officially living together. Good to see him.  Then we were three, although we FaceTimed Mum, Pat and Maureen, and Sam Jade and Sian. Lots of lovely pressies. Lorraine bought me a bottle garden, which is something I have always wanted. Among other gifts, Anton gave us Woof Woof sauce, which is excellent. It briefly crossed my mind to suggest Woof Woof Turkey, but perhaps not.  Most of the day spent mucking about, with Beth our harbinger of Christmas in a dinosaur jumper. A good deal of  sitting in the kitchen laughing and drinking bucks fizz. A relaxed Christmas day, although we still laid the table and put candles on. Great food, lots of ...

Christmas Morning, and Beth up very early making the roast cabbage dish. Lorraine and I up and after cups of tea, we opened some presents. I got a bottle of Vera Wang for men, and the lovely satchel I had admired when we went to Wakehurst Place for the lanterns from Lorraine, and a nice sweatshirt from Beth and I got a great wifi speaker from Anton, and some glasses from Anne. I spoke to Mum this morning, who was getting ready to go out with Mas to the Romanian neighbour. With only five of us this year in Kenny Towers the food prep was fairly manageable. Pat and I went off for our now traditional pint in The Preston Park Tavern. It was like a summer's day, with people spread out on the tables outside, and the usual complement of children. Once we had been served, Pat and I sat outside in the back garden with a heater on overhead, and drank a couple of nice pints. People in very friendly mood and Pat chatting to several folks. Even the older woman who had been very grumpy in fro...

Up and Lorraine collecting Sian, and Sam and Jade from Beth's flat, before the great cook up. A tasty breakfast of bagels. And eventually present giving. I got an amazingly beautiful book about the sea from Lorraine, and a knitted monkey from Pat and Maureen, and a strange but incredibly face-like stand for keeping the glasses I keep losing on my desk from Beth and John. Anton and his family bought Lorraine and I some lovely stuff, including a copy of The Box of Delights, the same version as I had but this one not falling apart. Lorraine liked the watch I bought her in Convent Garden. I spoke to Mum to wish her and Mas a Happy Christmas. Couldn't help but think about Janet and Ken a bit today. A now traditional interlude of going to the pub with Pat and Sam (for the second time running) to the Preston Park Tavern. Busy, but with a fair amount of space and not so many rug rats as in recent years. A very mild day, so people happily sitting on the benches outside. Took the ni...

A day of high industry, wresting the turkey from the shed where we had stored it overnight, and hurrying it into the oven, breakfasting on salmon bagels, a good deal of vegetable peeling etc.  I also phoned Mum. Then we began opening presents, which was great fun. Beth and Sam taking it in turns to be Christmas Elf. I'm particularly pleased with the year's membership to the Tate, which means I can delight in the Crane-brothers joy of going to the private members rooms at Tate Britain and Tate Modern, while non members mill fretfully in the galleries below. This done, more frenzying around till Pat and I went to the Preston Park Tavern, to be joined by Sam, for a drink. When Pat and I entered, the place was teeming with small children. As many children as there were adults. We sat outside, as it was mild and breezy, but with the outside electric fires on. An interlude of calm, then we sauntered home in the stiffening breeze to plunge back into the festive maelstrom. Enough C...

Up early, with the excitable hellos of Jade and Beth, and Sam looking into our bed room with a penguin hat on. Up and straight down for the stocking presents, eagerly attended by Sam and Jade and Beth.  Lorraine playing the Santa's elf. Much excitement, and a tribute to Lorraine's shopping skills. We added a wrapped parsnip for Beth's stocking. We made our way to the kitchen, and then two shelves of the food cupboard collapsed as Lorraine was in it. Amazingly no breakages, and Sam handily mended the shelves again. Lorraine said we needed a new kitchen. Then with Pat and Maureen a big present-opening spree. I got a very nice bag, big enough to got to the gym with, and carry a laptop. Also Lorraine got me tickets to see my favourite comedian Stewart Lee, and a framed photo of Moulin Huet with I love Peter written in the sand. Two chats with Mum today, who my thoughts were with a lot. In the morning, she had already been round to several neighbours dropping off cards and...

Christmas Day started with Beth sitting on the end of our bed and excitedly delving into her Christmas stocking. This done, everyone congregated downstairs to have breakfast, mainly of scrambled eggs, toast and smoked salmon. Then to the living room for a strange interlude of people wearing the strange animal faces that Lorraine had been given as a Secret Santa present. This preceded the opening of presents, with Beth taking centre stage as Christmas elf. My main Christmas present had already arrived, and was my study armchair, but Lorraine bought me the perfect cushion to go with it. Mum got me a small statue of a howling wolf, which I liked very much, and Maureen and Pat had searched hard to get me a scarf like the one I liked so much but lost. Sternly admonished this time not to lose it. Then much shifting of tables and chairs to get things ready for Christmas dinner, before Lorraine, Beth and Maureen went to Beth's room to peel Brussels Sprouts, drink secret proscecco and o...

Our first Christmas day in Osborne Road. Beth the Christmas elf shouting Merry Christmas to everyone this morning, and coming up to Lorraine and my bedroom armed with cups of tea and her stocking, which she opened on the end of our bed. Then up and Lorraine and Beth prepared the turkey. Then a gradual process of getting up and gathered in the front room where presents were exchanged. Santa was kind to me, with gifts including lovely cacti and a new jade plant, wireless speakers for my study, a bottle of bison grass vodka (flavoured by grass urinated on by bison in the Polish forest from Anton). Much skyping this morning, with Derek and Laura in snowy Finland, Toby and Mum, with the Tobster just arrived after being speedily buffeted across the Atlantic. Also telephoned Mason, sadly stuck in hospital today, not in any physical discomfort but cheesing off anyway. After a toast breakfast, a communal vegetable preparing frenzy. Then Pat and I were given permission to have a manly pint...

Flu. Lorraine still really bad, and me with fiery lungs and aching. The day something of a washout as a consequence, although we opened presents, and ate the Christmas dinner I cooked. Lorraine able to taste nothing sadly.  Anton dropped off some presents and collected the bairns presents, I handed them over like someone in a plague house. Cats were given catnip mice and fun to watch them on the same rug in a frenzy. Lorraine, cats and I all slumped together on the sofa, watching TV all day. I went to bed early freezing and boiling by turn.  

Santas on surfboards Merry Christmas! Lorraine and I up and out without pausing for breath or breakfast. A few days into a partial thaw, down to the seaside to see Brighton's annual Christmas Day swimmers. From there I called Mum. There were soon lots of people, and I'd estimate at least a hundred ended up in the water. The surf club paddled around the doughnut groyne dressed as Santas, which was a wonderful surrealistic sight. Then like lemmings, people surged en mass into the water, many in Santa hats. One guy I know vaguely came out of the water and shook my hand, saying that a man of my stature (he said patting my belly) should be in there too. It was 6 degrees. Anton, Anna, Brian, Anne, Klaudia and Oskar arrived as it was ending, and after an incredibly long queue the adults sat in some winter sun drinking hot chocolates and coffee laced with a generous slug of the brandy Anne had brought with her. A really nice time. Then we wandered slowly home through the lanes carrying...

Christmas day Woke up early at Lorraine's house. Beth, who is 17 going on 7, loudly and comically insisted everyone get up for the opening of presents. A cup of tea then into big present opening session, with Beth, Lorraine, and Lorraine's folks Pat and Maureen. Santa was good to me this year (and not angered by my impersonation of him earlier in the month). Lorraine got me an adjustable beard trimmer, and a digital radio, Beth and Sam got me the new Alice Russel CD, Lorraine's folks a nice cup and shaving gel, Anton, Anna and the bairns got me a Spork (a combination fork, spoon and knife) for outdoors purposes, and self inflating cushion for when we're walking and need somewhere to squat, a book on Brighton Architecture and walks, and some coasters made from the centres of old LPs. All jolly good stuff. After a big breakfast, and people chatting to various family members by phone (I spoke to Mum and Mase), we all drove off to Beth's boyfriend Mark's house. A wa...

Kanpai Christmas Slept fairly heavily and well on my futon, getting up at around seven. Hiroko was up and Romy off walking one of the dogs. Sitting companionably around the kotatsu (which squeaks with hiding cats when you put your feet under it) we watched some TV. Some mentions of Melly Ch`istmas! here and there among TV articles about a local woman jazz singers dying of cancer, with the scowly host in tears in a box in the corner of the screen, and the dangers of wheels coming loose from trucks and hitting houses. Meanwhile Hiroko gave me tea until I could speak. Soon joined by Toby and Romy and Jennifer. And milling around with us and the five pets were a series of visitors. My favourite was an older lady in her 70s bursting with vigour and clutching big spilling bags of satsumas. Like a laughing whirlwind. Another, a nice youngish guy, appeared late at night when only me and Hiroko were about, and showed us some magic tricks. Between tricks he told Hiroko about how he had attemp...