My Christmas Jumper

For the last few weeks Rob has been teasing/taunting me with what he's bought me for Christmas. I like things to be surprises and therefore didn't want too many clues, so he limited it to 'a silly present, a nice present and an awesome present', something like that. This was the 'awesome' present:


Excuse the quality of the picture (taken with my phone) and the fact that I have no make-up on.

My guess is the Christmas Jumper is going to become a tradition in the Harrop family :).

Not So Active This Christmas

I just read my post from this time last year and was amazed at how much exercise we did over Christmas! This year, not so much. We went to the gym once in Manchester and once in the Lakes on Christmas Eve, then we played squash on Boxing Day, so that's three lots of exercise in the last week, compared to six lots in the same period last year. A decidedly more sedate pace this year, and it was great.

The casino night on Tuesday was really good - we lost all our 'money' on the blackjack table, but we definitely looked the business in our black tie get-up (no pictures I'm afraid - I remembered to take the camera but didn't remember to use it). There was a set of treasure hunt questions left in our room, so we went round Ambleside on Christmas Eve, doing the treasure hunt as we went. It was a great way to see a bit more of Ambleside - it isn't exactly a huge town, but we don't often get to wander round the back streets. After dinner we went to Midnight Mass at St Mary's Church in Ambleside.

The plan on Christmas Day was to go for breakfast, go on the Christmas Morning walk, have lunch, then open our presents in the afternoon. But we were both really tired and not all that bothered for going on the walk this year, so we stayed in and opened our presents in the morning instead. I did really well, particularly considering I told Rob I didn't need anything this year. Among other things, we both got new pyjamas for Christmas, and we put them on after lunch and spent the rest of the day watching DVDs from bed. Very relaxing :).

Yesterday evening the hotel put on a quiz after dinner, which we sucked at. We were lulled into a false sense of security with the picture round, which they gave out at the beginning and which was collected in at the end after the other 5 rounds have been answered. We knew all 10 of the pictures, but unfortunately the other rounds weren't anywhere near as easy and our strong finish wasn't enough to make up for our appalling showing in the other rounds :(. Good fun though.

We drove to my parents' house this morning and had Christmas again - turkey for lunch, then presents this afternoon. Again, I did really well: all I asked for was an iron (exciting, I know) but I got that and lots more. Mum got a cornet - see Jen's blog for a picture of Mum's first attempt to play it. Keep practising, Mum!

That's More Like It

Southampton to Manchester in 3 hours 45 minutes (not counting a 1-hour stop in Birmingham on the way) - that's much better than the 6 hours it took us to do the same 240-mile journey last Christmas.

We got here around lunchtime on Sunday and in the early afternoon we went to see Grandad, who's been in hospital for the past couple of weeks. They're hoping that he'll be discharged in time for Christmas. Rob bought him The Lord of the Rings trilogy on CD, which he loved, and which will help pass the time while he's in hospital.

After we left the hospital we went back to Rob's parents' and his sister and her kids came round in the early evening. I asked Rob's niece, Leah, if she would like to be my bridesmaid, and after careful consideration she said she would.

Yesterday we spent all day in Manchester, shopping - it was busy but not crazy. Rob decided that seeing as he didn't have his suit (again, very embarrassed and sorry) and seeing as he was intending to buy a tuxedo in the next couple of months anyway, he would buy one now then he could wear it tonight at the hotel's casino night in the Lakes. He bought the tuxedo from Selfridges and whilst the jacket fitted perfectly, the corresponding trousers were a bit big - they needed an inch off the leg and 2 inches off the waist. The guy in Selfridges pointed us in the direction of the tailor/alterations shop they use which is just down the road and they did all the alterations in 90 minutes, which we were amazed at, particularly as the place was packed with people wanting last-minute alterations to Christmas outfits. We could only imagine the kind of sweat shop they were running out the back to get all the clothes altered on time...

This morning Rob's Dad had to take their cat to be put down, which was really sad. She was a stray when Sharen took her in and the vet reckoned she was about 6 at the time, which would make her 14 now. She had a series of seizures in the space of about 20 minutes this morning, which was very sad to watch as there was nothing we could do to help her, so they took her to the vet and he put her to sleep.

We're going for lunch with the guys from Cake in a little while, then we're heading straight off to Ambleside after that.

Merry Christmas!

Change of Heart

Since I moved out of my parents' house, I've never really put up Christmas decorations, because I've never spent Christmas at home. This year, however, I had a real urge to put up a tree, so I went out today and bought one. It had to go in the conservatory because there's no room in the lounge, so before I went to buy it I made sure that the electric heater on the wall in the conservatory actually works - if it hadn't, there wouldn't have been much point putting up a tree at all because it's freezing in there in the winter. We can still see it from the lounge, so that's nice, and I'm really pleased with the way it's turned out. And yes, those boxes on the right really are all our DVDs and CDs, still unpacked from when we moved in 18 months ago... As soon as we get something to put them in, we'll unpack them.

I was going to buy the tree yesterday after work but my legs still weren't functioning very well, so I waited till this morning and hoped I'd get a bit better overnight, which I did. Today I feel slightly more achy than I usually do the day after a hard gym session - but my gym session was 3 days ago now! At least today I don't have to scooch down the stairs on my backside or spend a couple of minutes working out the best way to get up off the sofa...

An Active Christmas

We arrived at the Waterhead Hotel near Ambleside in the Lake District at around 20:30 last Saturday, having driven through the densest fog we'd ever seen to get there. At one point we got to a roundabout, where there are no cats eyes in the road. Well, given that the cats eyes were the only things helping us drive in a straight line, we careered all over the roundabout until we found our exit and the cats eyes started again. On Sunday morning we went down to the restaurant and had a massive breakfast, which put paid to our plans to go running straight afterwards, but we waited an hour or so then went out. It wasn't entirely successful because the paths were really icy, but we managed to do about 4km before giving up.

On Christmas Eve we decided to go to the gym at the Low Wood, the Waterhead's sister hotel a mile down the road. We did an hour on the cross trainer and lots of stretches afterwards. We gave ourselves the day off on Christmas Day (although we did go on the Christmas morning walk with other hotel guests) and on Boxing Day we climbed Loughrigg Fell on roughly this route - we went off the track a couple of times and aren't sure exactly which way we ended up going.

Thursday we went back to the gym - I exercised while he had a massage, then he exercised while I had a facial. Very nice! But that was the end of our Christmas exercise... We drove to my parents' house on Friday morning and I mapped out a 5km route from their house that we could run each day, as there's no gym close by, but we got up yesterday and decided not to bother ;). We'll start again the day after New Year's Day.

We had a great Christmas. Rob had loads of presents to open, which he loved, and while I didn't have much to open on Christmas Day because my present this year was the piano, he did buy me a Garmin Forerunner 305 so I can track my runs better - not an inexpensive present either, and I wasn't expecting it after the piano, so that was a real surprise.

We're having a really good time here with my parents and Jen - just eating and chatting, really :). We're leaving here tomorrow morning, going back to Rob's parents' for lunch (good job because we left Grandma's present to us there last week) then driving back down to Southampton in time to go round to Adrian and Sara's for a New Year's Eve meal.

All the idiots on the road

It took us 4 hours to get from our house to James's house near Wolverhampton yesterday - usually a 2.5-hour journey - then just over 2 hours to get from there to Rob's parents' house in Manchester. There were 4 accidents on the way, every traffic light we hit was on red, and SOOOO many people drove like they'd never got in a car in their life before yesterday. One woman was attempting to turn right at a set of lights that clearly stated 'no right turn', just after that a stretch limo was taking up the entire road performing a 27-point turn, people were weaving in and out of lanes - it's a wonder there weren't more accidents, now I think of it. And I didn't even have to drive! Rob said it was the most stressful journey he'd ever done.

But we got here in one piece, and the rest of the family is coming round this afternoon for the traditional Harrop family pre-Christmas get-together. We're going to the Lakes tonight for 6 nights, then to my parents' house for 3 nights, which takes us up to New Year's Eve.

Merry Christmas!