Boxing Day

Happy St Stephan's Day! It means Christmas is finished and life can return to some sort of normality (well, sort of).

Rene and I spent Christmas Day relatively quietly. We got home from this unexpected drink and chat party at our neighbours across the road at 1:45am. We had walked across with nibbles and beer and wine at 5:30pm Christmas Eve. Other neighbours joined us and to top off a terrific evening, four newly arrived Finns joined our group. They are staying in a flat upstairs for a while, and they were totally fascinating to talk to.

They ranged in age from late 20's to mid 30's, and all had interesting tales to tell, so we all had a very agreeable night of chatting, laughing and drinking. Mind you, at 10pm I sort of felt hungry so I dashed across the road and got some left overs, added this and that, and finally walked back with supper for seven.

Our host was Claire, a lovely lady, who held the group together. Some folk left early (well, after the normal interval of time) and as I said, we stayed on, and on. Mind you, it made it harder to get up in time to catch a train into the city for Christmas lunch at our favourite hotel.

We met some interesting folk at lunch, and got home just after 4. The remainder of the day was spent lounging and keeping cool. We even caught, quite by chance, the Queen's Christmas message. I haven't seen one of those in years. I hope your Christmas was very pleasant and happy.