Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas time and will have a fantastic New Year.

It is nice to write this at half way between the two celebrations. Does anyone battle round the shops during the sales? Or nowadays is it done online?

We went to Bristol today, but not for the shops or sales. Our grandsons wanted to go the museum. Now I really like that in this technological time and despite the new toys to play with that they really wanted to go round a very traditional museum. It was further encouraging to see other families were doing the same. The dinosaurs were the big draw and we spent almost all day there. The only bizarre part of the day was that the cafe was closed between 1pm and 2pm. But we went out for something to eat and drink.

Have you all finished your turkey?

Baby it's cold outside

 It is a freezing cold day. We have a plant tray which I clean and fill with water regularly and the birds use as a bath. When I looked this morning it had three quarters of an inch of solid ice all over.

I broke it out and filled it again with water and very soon birds were having a drink - and a bath. 

I also put out bird feed but like me the local birds do not eat wheat. It seems to be in every bird feed but none of the birds we encourage, blackbirds, robins, sparrows, blue tits and great tits, goldfinches eat the wheat. Unfortunately the ubiquitous and greedy wood pigeons do and will eat everything they can. The only plus side is that the wood pigeons by eating everything left mean that we don't have any rodents scurrying around.

Advent calendar time

 Does anyone buy traditional advent calendars?

Whilst the modern trend is for chocolate filled advent calendars and latterly all sorts of items, there is much to said about a beautifully illustrated advent calendar.

The build-up is far more real and reminds us of Christmas in its best meaning.

You can't bank on it

 We used to have several banks in our town and gradually they have closed one by one. Now we only have... one.

It is odd as the last two that closed were always busy.

Not everyone banks online or ever wants to.

November already

 The shops are beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Does anyone else visit shops We do and find it more depressing each year that fewer shops and certainly independent shops exist.

Amazon is sheer crap and anyone who blindly uses it thinking they are getting a cheap deal is wrong. Often the prices are more than in a local shop.

Reading

 It is exciting watching our Grandson learning to read. Being able to translate black squiggles into words must be amazing.

Especially as he has jumped two levels in a a week.

I remember the first book I read instead of a comic - it was an Enid Blyton compendium. Fantastic little stories.

The modern world

Accidentally my mobile phone dropped out of my pocket on the bus.

Unfortunately the bus was on its way to the cesspit that is Bristol. So it was stolen. Some months ago someone had dropped their phone on a bus and I handed it to the driver. It is the way of the world that is a rarity nowadays. There is so much scum around these days.

It is a real pain having to get a new phone and replace all the programs and passwords.