I’ve been meaning to put this picture up for a while now. It’s our bedroom, and it shows the gorgeous quilt that Tom’s Mum made for us (all by herself!), which she gave us back in July on our visit to S.A.
We’ve been cosying up under it in front of the TV for a while now, but with the onset of an extra cold snap, it got the promotion to its proper place on our bed where it fits in beautifully. 
We spent Christmas with our somewhat unconventional, but rather fun, friends Simon and Nicola. As a Christmas present, they gave us a little bag of googly eyes attached to a suggestion booklet. This was, perhaps, inadvisable, as is witnessed by their hammer and phone:
Although, in fairness, our flat in London also didn’t escape the madness.
One of the great things about Tokyo is our office location. Here is the view from the 44th floor of Mori Tower, where my team in Tokyo have their desks:
Here is a zoom on the cluster of buildings in the distance:
Finally, here is an open-air theatre just outside our building:
Just when we were thinking that the mild temperatures of autumn were going to follow us through to January, winter startled us by coming from behind and making rapid progress earlier this week!
Out of the blue, the streets of Shepherds Bush were wreathed in a rather picturesque mist when we emerged the other morning. And the helpful ABN Amro clock near work declared that it was 5°C! Two more days of the same and today the temperature was reading 0°C – serious ear-tingling, hand-numbing cold. Brrr!
After 5 years languishing in storage, the little tree that I’ve owned since I was too young to remember, is back in its rightful place at Christmas.
We’re still fairly short of space in the lounge so it has the slightly unusual position of the dining room table this year. Nevertheless it helps us to feel Christmassy even if our presents from Amazon don’t come in the most cheery wrapping!
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(And, no, it didn’t just go up now — I put it up while Tom was away in Tokyo last weekend!)
Somehow, in all our going-on 10 years of marriage, we’ve managed to get by without ever having to purchase a new fridge. All our fridges to date have come to us via some form of inheritance.
So it was an exciting moment, two Saturdays back, when we handed over the credit card for our very first brand new fridge-freezer. And this wasn’t a casual splurge on a new appliance — this was the first piece of our new kitchen! (The rest to follow in January.)
I arranged to work from home so they could deliver today, and I had barely turned my PC on when there came a knock at the door.
The chap at the door was tut-tutting over our narrow, oddly-curved stairs when I opened it. He was rather gloomy about their chances of getting the unit round the corner and into the entranceway with the limited and badly-angled space that was available.
(I forgot to mention that we’d ordered a BIG fridge. At just over 1.9m it’s one of the tallest they do.)
Nevertheless, he went off to fetch his friend, and the fridge, and that got them all as far as the top of the stairs. His friend came down the stairs to consider all the angles and was equally pessimistic about their chances. The light spattering of morning rain making the stairs look dark and slick wasn’t helping.
Of course, I made all the appropriate noises of disappointment at the thought of giving up our new fridge (!) and they decided that they would have to give it a go. Especially considering that there was no other way in!
Between them there was much heaving and sweating, tugging and wrestling, and with scant inches to spare on the sides they finally got it to the narrow gap at the bottom of the stairs. Where this time, all the clearance problems were at the top to get it under the arched entranceway. And between all the walls, there was barely any space at all to tilt backwards or forwards. (I wish I’d had the camera handy to show how tight it all was.)
But they were too close to give up then, so with a great show of brute force, they heaved it over the tiny step and wiggled it into the covered area outside our front door. At this point, they finally gave in and took off the outer packaging so that it would fit through the door without being tilted (because there was no room for that.)
I’m not sure who was more relieved, them or me, when it finally stood in the kitchen alongside our (suddenly very short) old fridge-freezer. 
Probably a good thing for them to start the week with — it would make everything else look easy!
(Tom’s off on a work-trip to Tokyo for a week [boo-hoo!], and he’s got the camera with him so no pics till he gets back. Once he does, I’ll be sure to pop up a picture of our slick silver monolith towering over its old white cousin!)
It all started back in Anglesey in August when a mobile speed camera caught us doing 35 just inside a 30mph zone. 
The penalty was £60 and 3 points on Tom’s licence, OR attend a £60 speed awareness course and no points on the licence. We decided to take the course.
Which was held on Friday, at 09h30, in Holywell, North Wales.
Figuring I’d be woken up when Tom left anyway, I decided to take a day off too and go along for the ride. That started at 04h50 in London :yawn: (the sun only came up 2 hours into our drive!) and ended 230 miles away at 09h10 in the business park next door to Holywell.
Armed with our camera, I left Tom to his fate, crossed the nearby railway lines and made off on a walking path along the coast. (Actually the estuary of the River Dee.) 
Not the most exciting of coast lines, and the nearby water treatment plant gave quite a lot of atmosphere to the first few hundred meters but it was at least out in the open.
And unlike the south-east, where we had been rained on rather steadily, the sun was shining out of a gorgeous blue sky that echoed with sea gull cries.
At the end of my 40 minute walk I found the lightly-rusted hulk of the Duke of Lancaster. Clearly a long way from her sailing days…
(Some internet research back at home showed her to be a former “railway steamer” in the 50′s and 60′s. In 1979 she was bought and docked in this site, near Mostyn, to become a static “leisure centre” — an attempt that failed.)
After a half hour spent in the sun, tapping out this entry on my PDA, it was time to head back to the car for some of the refreshments I’d foolishly omitted to transfer to my satchel.
At 12h30, Tom emerged and we moved on to a nearby pub for a quick bite before setting off for home.
Unfortunately the trip home wasn’t nearly as smooth with the the rain down south having caused several accidents along our route. But 5 hours later (bringing us to a total of 11) we were back at home, armed with our own copy of The Highway Code, and firmly resolved not to get caught again!
