Monthly Archives: December 2022

Merry Christmas.

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

I honestly think that I managed to meet myself coming back over the last few weeks.  To say it has been busy is definitely an understatement which is why I have not had a chance to do any posts.  I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas so far and the stress of getting everything pulled together worked well for you and you are now sitting down with your feet up having a well deserved break.  I and Coco are on our own this Boxing Day as DH and The Boys are at Eldests garage “playing” vehicles!!!  Although I am not complaining as we always have a buffet on Boxing Day so no issues with cooking, I have watched a murder mystery on TV and after this going to read my latest book. 

These are the books I got for Christmas from DH & The Boys and can’t wait to read them.

We had some wonderful gifts from Molly & Sue in the US but have not had chance to take any pictures of those yet, especially the wonderful elephant that Molly sent for Coco that was taken off straight away to be played with!!  Thank you to them both for their wonderful gifts, pictures will follow.

Coco on Christmas Day waiting for her Christmas dinner.

Youngest & DH on Christmas morning.

Eldest on Christmas morning not quite awake I think!!!!

I got the Christmas Cake and Chocolate Log done, just!

Our Christmas Table this year, we went for simple but elegant!!!!!

Anyone who has followed my Blog for a while now know that Treacle was the best at helping to open our Christmas & Birthday gifts, something she did entirely on her own not taught by us.  Well it seems that Coco has possibly inherited the knack.  Here is her sack with her gifts in.

Trying to get a picture of her opening the gifts was very difficult as they were blurred, she was moving too fast, but she did open her gifts, although was eating the paper rather than like Treacle who used to spit it out!!!!  She is very happy with all her new toys.

We now have a week in which to relax and spend some quality time doing things we want to do, after New Year we are of course back to work and the first weekend we have our Big Swimming Open which opens the Club’s 50th Celebrations.  It will be a very long two days!!! 

I will be back in a few days with more pictures. 

Hugs & Love, Susie, DH, Eldest, Youngest & Coco xxxxx

Our Garden from 2010, perhaps we will get some snow this winter!!!

Christmas, Christmas!

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I have been busy present wrapping and being Santa’s little helper delivering as I have gone along, so only a few left now to deliver this weekend and next week!

 All the cards written, below, stamped and put into the post box although because of all our mail strikes they will probably arrive in February!!!  We have not had many cards yet and suspect that, like ours will be, they are stuck.  In fact our postman only brought parcels the other day but no post!

Coco got to see Santa Claus the other evening when our local Rotary Club came round collecting for their charity this year. 

She was quite interested until he waved at her and then she got down!!!!

Jayne and I went for a Christmas Lunch here, The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow, which was all dressed for Christmas.  The lunch was lovely and this was our view, below, from the Garden Room, looking towards Chatsworth House.

In the windows were these lovely natural snowflakes!

We had a great day and got back after it was dark so got to see a lot of Christmas lights on the way home.  Jayne is also coming for coffee tomorrow morning.

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

I have home jobs to do tomorrow as well as the final Christmas presents to wrap and some more cookies to make.  Washing and ironing to do as well.  Friday night is the Presentation Night for the swimming club, Saturday we are visiting family in Nottingham and then in the evening DH is doing a Christmas disco and Sunday he is out all day at the oldies swimming event, better known as The Masters Championships!!!!!!  On Sunday I will have more cookies to make for DH to take out and about next week.  After making all these cookies perhaps I should open a bakery!!!!

I hope you lovely lot are having a great week and your plans are all going well for the Festive Season! 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xxxxx

Susie’s Friday Monthly Book Club.

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Here we are at the Last Book Club Book for 2022.  You know I love to read Christmas books at this time of year and my love of Agatha Christie so this really does the job.  It is several short stories with some of her most favourite characters in.  I won’t spoil any of the stories but they are good and I love it.

I have read other books in between ones I have done for Book Club and will have to get a list together and perhaps do a post picking out some of my favourites.  I will continue with Book Club next year and as always one of my aims is to read more.  I am always hoping at the start of a New Year to be more organised and less busy so that I can spend time reading and of course quilting but life gets in the way, but then I wouldn’t have it any other way and very grateful for all the things we are able to do.  I always think that January and February are what I call hibernating months when I can do not so much but do more of these things, as I say it will be on my New Year Aims List!!!

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Christmas is Coming!

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So DH and I were in London the weekend of November 26th until the 30th, bit of business and a bit of Christmas!  However we did find the same things as Jayne and I found in Nottingham.  The big stores had decorated and the roads were all bright and sparkly but a lot of other shops had not even got any twinkly lights, they were very Scrooge!!! 

Warning Photo Heavy Post!!!!

The Christmas Trees at our Hotel.  Normally I only like the traditional red/green themes but I do like these Blue and SIlver ones with the cream decor!

I have a think about fireplaces.  We have one but it has an electric fire in and I would love a real one eventually!

We went to Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar which is part of the London Marriott Hotel at County Hall.  It used to be the old Westminster Council offices but been transformed into a hotel.  It is on the bank of the Thames and next door to The London Eye.  The steaks are amazing but not for vegetarians!!!!  The Crown above is in the entrance court to the hotel.

The tree in Reception.

The trees next to the main entrance.

One of the Lions in Trafalgar Square

Next day we went to Covent Garden, the decorations were good here.

These are the old buildings which surround one side of the entrance.

These are the decorations in the halls.

These are the trees outside another side more traditional with reds and greens.

A wonderful red wreath.

Had to go to a Bookstore of course, this is Foyles but again not many decorations!

Buckingham Palace through the trees.

The lights above the Stage at The Old Vic.

On the Monday evening we went to The Old Vic to see “A Christmas Carol” Staring Owen Teale as Scrooge.  It was a really lovely evening and the play was great with quite a small company but it did not detract from the story.

Owen Teale as Scrooge.  He was also in Game of Thrones as Alliser Thorne of The Night’s Watch.  (©Picture from The Old Vic Website)

We also went to The Sherlock Holmes Museum which is at 221B Baker Street, Marylebone, London.  It is a lovely Georgian House from 1815 and is decked out with Sherlock’s rooms on the first floor and Mrs Hudson’s rooms on the second floor.  They had really done well creating the sort of things that Holmes would have used from the Books.  The laugh was that the Guides were talking as if Sherlock Holmes was a real person rather than a character from a book!  Some of the other people who were there with us truly believed that he was a real person!  Of course it is probably a fault of all the films and plays where Holmes has been linked to Jack The Ripper, who of course was a real person, and some people don’t read books!

On Tuesday we did a little bit of Christmas shopping.  Our favourite store, Fortnum & Mason was all decorated.  This was the down the staircase.

Their Windows are always a treat to see and have a theme.

Below are some of the Lights along the streets.

Tower Bridge all lit up, sorry it is a bit of a blur!

The Lights on Regent Street.

Again a blur sorry, but this is the monument to The Great Fire of London in Monument Street and Fish Hill Street which is not far from Pudding Lane where The Great Fire of London began in 1666

This was on loan to the Hotel and is the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland Tiara made for Queen Mary in 1893, worn frequently by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Finally we went for dinner on the Tuesday evening to The Brunswick House In Vauxhall which was built for The Duke of Bruswick in 1758.  It is a fascinating building and also a fascinating menu! 

It was a very busy few days but nice to have a break and see London at Christmas.  I have more Christmas things to show you over the next few days and yes today should have been Book Club Friday which I will get done over the weekend.  I hope you lovely lot have a wonderful weekend. 

Hugs & Love, Susie & Coco xx

Lots of Christmas Happening But First……..

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Normally I would not use my Blog to talk about things in the news but I just have to say personally how awful I feel about the latest rants from the Montecito Two!  I have not watched the Netflix series (neither did I see the Oprah Interview) but there is enough in our National newspapers to know what is being said.

Currently in the UK, USA and lots of other countries around the world ordinary families are experiencing difficulties in paying their bills, dealing with rising food prices and many other issues and yet Harry & Meghan are sitting there saying how bad their lives are, having been given £88 million for just this series, is completely and utterly tone deaf! 

Sitting in their £11 million mansion in Montecito with nine bedrooms and sixteen bathrooms (I mean who needs sixteen bathrooms?).  It also has a library, office, spa, gym, games room, arcade (!) movie room, wine cellar and a garage for five cars.  In the grounds there is a guest cottage, tennis court, large pool, tea house and another play cottage for the children.  They really are having to slum it with this very small house aren’t they?

They also keep talking about how badly Meghan was treated after the engagement, wedding and as they began doing Royal events.  I do not in any way condone racisim and sadly there are still people out there who are racist but as far as I can tell Meghan was welcomed by the UK with open arms.  Accusing the Royal Family of many, many things knowing that they will not/cannot respond is cowardice.

If Harry & Meghan feel that strongly about the Royal Family and the treatment they received at their hands then surely they should give up their Titles of Duke & Duchess of Sussex?  However they won’t because this is the hook to catch the Netflix Execs and to “speak their truths” to keep the filthy green lucre coming in.  

They have also gone further accusing the Commonwealth of being an “Empire 2.0” and basically saying that the country is oppressing these countries.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  One of the pictures that was used in the Netflix trailer shows several photographers pointing their lenses at something out of shot.  This purports to be them taking pictures of Harry & Meghan when in fact it was a press event for the release of the movie “Harry Potter & The Dealthly Hallows” and they were taking pictures of the stars arriving and there was no Royality there at all!  Now if they lie about that what else are they lying about?

I really hope that people do not believe all this pair say and Netflix stop paying them for even more programmes where they will be slinging mud at the Royal Family and the UK.  Harry’s book is due to be released in January and it is already half price in our bookstores even before it is released.  The Title “Spare” I think tells you all you need to know about how Harry sees himself along with the biggest chip on his shoulder.  Finally I personally think that Meghan saw marrying into the Royal Family that she would be set for life and all the benefits of being Royal without actually doing a lot, but then realised that she would have to play second fiddle to the Duchess of Cambridge (now the Princess of Wales) and she could not hack that!

I think that someone should tell them that they are coming across as privileged, whiny, tone deaf individuals who really having nothing to complain about!

Susie x