Happy New Week and Happy Full Moon! I hope everyone who celebrates enjoys peaceful, joyful holidays!
Annette - Yes, Charlie is adopted. He is a real joy - we are a tiny family and he has already made such a difference. I am sitting with my sister reading this and we have laughed over your description of Santa and his 'crummy' beard!
Happy Boxing Day to all those doing nothing. Me? I'm off to Tesco to get last minute things for my cruise - so much easier from here than from home. Will be going home tomorrow, just in time to get ready to go away again for New year - then come home on 01 January and pack with a vengeance ... can't believe it's nearly here!
Evening all: Only 364 days to Christmas!
PatO: An exciting week ahead for you then. I shall enjoy it all vicariously.
AQ: Hmm, so I have two questions: Neighbor's kiddies left chalked sign on road requesting "FC" to stop? (What is FC?). Second question: Post Christmas sales for clothes and - manchester!!!??? Seriously, hope the temps moderate for you.
Took daughter out to breakfast this am to local dependable restaurant to find it not-at-all-dependable today with order lost and when it finally arrived it would sink a battleship. We left hungry and with apologies from manager. Had a more successful visit to the local library with Ms. D, who brought home 9 books and put a hold request on a DVD of the original Mary Poppins. I've heard that anyone who's seen the original will find the remake disappointing, lacking the magical quality of the Julie Andrews version
Anyway, OH and I have said our goodbyes, are halfway packed and plan to be on the road home early in the morning. Hope the ride home will be as smooth as the ride here.
Take care all.
Annette: I will guess, and AQ can reveal whether I'm correct. FC stands for "Father Christmas." The "manchester" refers to household linens, especially bedding, such as sheets, pillowcases, towels.... Here in the Midwest U.S., we would call it a "white sale," a throwback to the old days when bedding sheets and pillowcases, etc., were almost always white and were bleached in the laundry. AQ will probably tell me that I'm way off in my definitions. LOL!!!
I heard that the new Mary Poppins movie is quite dystopian in its descriptions of the social and political climate. I don't know whether that's true, but it's probably a reflection of the mood of our country.
Have a safe journey home, Annette.
Hello to everyone.
DIANE – Thanks, you are correct. FC is Father Christmas, an alternate name for Santa Claus, depending which family one is with. Manchester = sheets, towels etc. Dating back to days of English town Manchester & its cotton mills. “White sale” would confuse us as “white goods” = fridges, washing machines, dryers, etc which seem to be stainless steel (grey) these days! Obviously we do not speak the same language LOL.
ANNETTE – Aussies (not me) go crazy with post Ch-mas sale, queuing for hours before stores open. Adverts “up to 70% off”. I reckon it is a way for stores to get rid of slow-selling stock. You name it, it is for sale. Also one can buy next year’s tree & decorations cheap. No-one thinks of the horrendous credit card bill to arrive next month.
City max 43.7, a mere 40.9 here by the beach. Spare a thought for Port Adelaide with 46.8. Evening meal will be cold - salad & ham.
How can it be that I feel exhausted when my daughters did most of the kitchen work yesterday? I was making melba toast when all the family arrived at the same time. I'm not sure whether my subsequent actions would be classed as supervising or interfering!
We had one set of inlaws and a boyfriend and a girlfriend belonging to two of the grandchildren. Most of the food was eaten and daughters went home with goody bags.
I've read and enjoyed your news - thankyou!
Tomorrow night my son and family will arrive. Bella is wildly excited and called me GrannyNanny when we spoke earlier :-)
Diane/AQ; Of course! We had Father Christmas when I was growing up. I've heard White Sale, but never Manchester. After Christmas sales used to be big here, but it seems everything is on sale before Christmas here these days.
Heather: I find that merely interacting with more than a handful of people exhausting. Have fun with Bella.
We had the mos ghastly ride home - well it was fine until we were pretty close to LA and hit traffic, which was expected, but the worst part came when we were well clear of LA on the final leg home and things just ground to a stop where they usually speed up. We crawled along for about an hour, then sped up again - only to hit really heavy traffic just the other side of Santa Barbara. We were soooooo glad to finally pull into the driveway.
Ch-mas decorations still up, but already hot cross buns are in some stores. Crazy.
Agree, AQ! Having said that, Marks and Spencer seem to sell them all year round! I seem to recall you telling us about Manchester a number of years ago, but I'm famous for imagining thing things...
Glad that you are home safely, ANNETTE. I agree about interaction with a lot of folk being very tiring.
Now off to Tesco for essential bits and pieces before eldest family arrive. I have been advised what to get but have never heard of super smooth instant porridge. I guess that I'll sort something out.
Sorry for typo, daren't try and edit, something is bound to go wrong!
Annette and anyone interested: I saw THIS ARTICLE (from the Mountain Lion Foundation) on my Facebook newsfeed, and I thought you may want to read it sometime. It's about a young wayward mountain lion that wandered into Santa Barbara and has now been relocated to another place in its home range.