And So, Back To Work

I have to admit that over the past two weeks and the Christmas break we have all been very much strangers to the dark morning …….. 6 o’clock in the morning (except for Nigel on Christmas Day), ceased to exist in our being ……

…….. so this morning was quite a wake up call to the system when I had to start catching the bus to work again  …..
…… shiny new buss pass in hand ……
…….. back to booking buses of a private, rather than public type nature.
On my desk, waiting for me was my new complimentary 2015 calendar ……

……. oh my goodness, all those buses….. sorry executive vehicles, all of which, I will no doubt be booking at some point during the coming year ……..

…… all “posing” amidst wonderful vistas ……..
…… what a romantic way to start the New Year!

Time To Demolish Our Rocky Road House

We all finally decided that it was finally time to dismember demolish our carefully crafted Rocky Road House as we feared if we left it much longer it would be in grave danger of becoming stale and that would be a terrible waste of good food.

Therefore, how to take it apart was the subject of much debate, none of which was excessively heated. In the end we all came to the  conclusion that we should just give it a robust thwack with the rolling pin ……

…….. however, testament to Darrell and Nigel’s skills of a chocolate construction type nature, the house did not yield up its pleasures to us willingly ……..

…….. and so it took several aforementioned robust thwacks and a couple of devil may care plunges with a carving knife before it began to crumble.

And how did it taste? Absolutely, wonderfully delicious, worthy of 10 out of 9 noms on our Richter Scale of Rocky Road House Noms! But once demolished there seemed to be an awful lot of house to work our way through.

So, after consuming a very ample sufficiency each, we decided that we should all take a piece in our lunchboxes each day until it is gone …… which looking at the mahoooosive pile of “rubble” we have left, we could be nomming almost to the end of January!  Oh joyous days!!! 

Nigel Finds More Stimulating Reading Matter Chez Castle Snake Mountain ……

Following on from yesterday, Nigel found much to ponder over on Tom and The Lovely Laura’s bookshelves during our festive sojourn ……
……. like the complete Teach Yourself Arabic
I’ve never seen him quite so absorbed …….

He did try conversing with me in said language, but to be honest there seemed to be quite a lot of unintentional spitting and face pulling involved  …… and Nigel’s broad Wolverhampton accent further confused the issue greatly.

 

So that book was eventually carefully put back in its place, and Nigel’s attention was then diverted  to Persian Proverbs ………

…… at least there were pictures and an English translation …….

……. however “A yellow dog is the brother of the jackal”, sounded more like a coded message to Nigel, so he read them out in his best ‘allo allo’ accent, so it became “zee yellow dog, ‘e iz zee brozzere of zee jackaal”, as far away from Persian as you can get, especially when accompanied by a tap on zee the nose, a nod of the head and a secretive wink!!!  What is he like?

In the end the Lovely Laura, sighed a mahooooosive, huge sigh and disappeared for a minute or two, bringing back one of Iris’s baby French books ……

…… “Nigel, mon petit chaton,” she said calmly “Perhaps,  if you would like to learn another language we should start with something simple” There wasn’t another peep out of him all afternoon ….. Bebe chat – baby cat ….. in his dreams Nigel is now almost bilingual!!!!

Nigel Explores The Book Shelves Of Tom The Scientist ……

While we were away in Evesham Nigel took time to peruse Tom the Scientists bookshelves ……

…… and made a very startling discovery ……
……. that Tom the Scientist could potentially be experimenting on Baby Iris ……

…… and as he explored the various chapters, some of the experiments indeed appeared to be very interesting, despite Nigel being a stranger to the sciences and the experimentation thereof.

However, I have told Nigel in no uncertain terms that he is NOT to conduct any experiments on Baby Iris ……

……. and added that any tint that he had would result in dire consequences, so dire that the said book was immediately put firmly back where it had come from and seriously forgotten!

Swopsies

Over the Christmas period I just couldn’t help finding myself constantly admiring Darrell’s comfy cardigan, a gift from our dear friend Dianne in sunny and romantic Florida.

If I am perfectly honest, I thought I was much more comfy cardigan and Darrell was robustly Atypical Calvin Klein!

In the end, I felt that I just had to brooch the subject  ….. because I didn’t think I could hide my comfy cardigan envy for much longer……

…….. only to find that Darrell was also fighting with his own envy issues in regards to my Calvin Klein, but didn’t know how to approach me…… the relief of this revelation was electric in both a tangible and palpable type nature, and with that I divested myself of my much mentioned Calvin Klein …..

….. as Darrell did with his comfy cardigan ……and we swopped!

Oh my goodness, that comfy cardigan felt soooooooo good and soooooooo me.

……. and Darrell was equally as happy ….. posing wildly

My envy has subsided and Darrell and I are both very, very happy ….. so I think another mahoooooosive vote of thanks is due to Dianne “THANK YOU DIANNE!” Perfick!!!!!

January 1st 2015–The Lost Day

I am afraid that we lost a day yesterday, but lesson learned, we will ever never again mix our UmBongos with Vimto, as it proved to be a most robust and heady concoction, especially after the couple of Cobras we had with our meal, plus the “snifter” at Granddad Colin’s …… hence, I suspect, the loss of a day!!!

 

I can remember coming back from Granddad Colin’s and my going into the kitchen to prepare said cocktail mix, with straws and a cherry on a stick as it was a special occasion. 

Then, I think we caught a bit of Queen (the group, not our favourite royal family member of choice), in concert , when I think I remember Darrell sighing deeply and going all whimsical, saying how much he’d love to see Queen (the group, not our favourite royal family member of choice), in real life, before he and Nigel broke into their own rousing rendition of Crazy Little Thing Called Love …… which still sounded absolutely diabolical, despite my semi anesthetised  UmBongo and Vimto haze!

At twelve Big Ben bonged and about twenty minutes of fireworks ensued, but whether they were suitably romantic or not I don’t seem to be able to recall.

I think we all then embraced ……….

…….. and sang the parts of auld lang syne that we could remember, mainly the “for auld lang syne my dear” and the uppy and downy arm bit.

But then, the next thing I remember is waking up on the settee, all of us wrapped tightly in a blanket, Darrell draped very tightly round me and one of Nigel’s arms digging into my stomach,  ……….

……… and Ideal World blaring on the tele,

I just hope I didn’t order anything incredibly silly, like ceramic pans or a Nutribullet blender in my stupor.  as my credit card was for some bizarre reason sitting beside my phone on the occasional table  ………

I promise, normal service will be resumed by tomorrow and if Darrell sent any inappropriate Tweets during our revelries I can only apologise on his behalf!

Our Last Supper Of 2015 …..

Let’s just say, last night Nigel surpassed himself with a 19 poppadum pile…….with extra dips and side dishy things…..

…….. followed by a most robust and rapturous round of spontaneous applause from all the attending waiters and fellow diners!!!

Darrell managed one and a half poppadums, as he was saving himself for his minty lamb ……..

……. and very much enjoyed two, before clearing my plate of a very acceptable chicken balti and keema nan, leaving, as you can no doubt see, nothing for Mr (or Mrs) Manners.

…… all washed down with a very cheeky Cobra beer or two.  We did peruse the dessert menu, tempting though it was, but then Granddad Colin suggested a “snifter” back at his ….. after which, it all got a bit hazy ……. I think we were home in time to hear Big Ben chime in 2015 and see the fireworks, and I seem to remember Darrell getting a little emotional thinking of Hugh partying somewhere very en trend and romantic in Notting Hill ….. but again, it is all a bit hazy ……. perhaps a little later on today, it might slowly begin to come back to me!  But in the meantime ……. HAPPY NEW 2015!!!!