Heather and Andy @Home

This evening I was not performing the currently illegal act of copying my Christmas present CDs to my PC. Having not done this, I then did not while away some time listening to Kasabian and Pink Floyd followed by a bit of Tchaikovsky (did I mention that I have slightly eclectic music tastes?).
I might then have then accidentally pressed the ‘random’ button and ended-up listening to a few old Kate Bush and K.D Lang tracks that I’ve not played for a long while. It was like visiting old friends - you know most of the conversation and the punchlines, but you share an easy-going and warm companionship.

We finally got the tree and decorations up this evening and they all look mighty fine!

We had planned to have everything done last night, but decided to vacuum, clean and polish everything first… whilst trying out the mulled wine. Not the winning combination for having a job done speedily, but it was a good combination for chilling out.

I’ve got the Christmas spirit and I’m not afraid to use it!

I don’t like shopping and Christmas shopping doubly so. Oh, the joy of wandering around an overly full shopping centre, listening to canned jingles being played from shop to shop (just out of sync’) all in the vague hope that I’ll just spot that special gift…

Oh well, no more time for shopping. It is time for some concerted mulled wine action!

A night-hike and sleepover seemed like a good idea for our Scouts. Well, half of it went as planned.

The hike was successful, we did the 6 miles without getting lost or walking into too many electric fences (the sparks look really impressive at night).

Ah, but the sleepover… well, suffice to say that none were asleep before 6am. On the bright side, they were all in a foul mood when we woke them up two hours later!

Last Christmas Heather bought me a voucher for a days tank driving (I *like* tanks!). It came from one of these companies that don’t provide the gift themselves, just a voucher for the people who do.

It’s been a bit of a busy year so it was only at the start of September that we had worked out when we could make use of the voucher. Unfortunately, the company that the voucher is with was booked-up to the end of the year - they said that they would have been happy to extend the voucher it had been one of theirs, but as it was from a gift company we had to get *their* permission to extend. So, we contacted them and explained that there was no opportunity to use the gift by before it expired. They listened and said that we could extend the voucher for £20 - I pointed out that it was their inability to deliver that was the problem, but they said ‘tough’. So, I have now paid another £20 for my gift with no guarantee that I’ll ever be able to use it. To say that I’m annoyed is an understatement!

Naturally, in the future I’ll avoid the chance to buy a gift from a company in the UK (no names, no pack drill) when I should really just go to the person who’s going to supply the goods.