The Cwtch Again

Finally my Christmas stint of working is over with and I can actually enjoy myself, even if all the festivities are all over with.

My two night watches were relatively uneventful, and I was glad to get to bed on Monday morning and sleep till lunchtime.

Yesterday was Chris' birthday and we headed over to St. Davids about 6pm for another evening out in the Cwtch. We had a few drinks at the house before heading across the road. There were 7 of us altogether, Chris, Julie and Clare, and some friends of their, Nicola and Simon (Nicola is the one who accosted me in the street the other day and said she recognised me from Julie's Facebook!!!)



Chris, Noel, Simon, Nicola, Julie, me and Clare

When we arrived at the Cwtch there were a couple sitting at one of the tables and you know when you think you know someone but you are not sure, well I was pretty sure it was Gerald Davies (for those not up on famous Welsh Rugby players from the golden age of the 1970's - he is a living legend!!). So I sort of mouthed at Julie "is that who I think it is?" and she nodded... apparently he has a holiday cottage in St. Davids and is often seen around the city (yes St. Davids is a city... the smallest in Wales). I was well made up seeing one of my heros in the flesh.

We had another amazing meal - rare roast beef with walnut chutney and beef dripping toast, followed by ribeye steak in red wine sauce and lemon sorbet and vodka to finish.

Once again they had made Chris a birthday cake which they brought out at the end of the meal.

Afterwards we went back to Chris and Julie's where we had a really good laugh playing on the Wii fit whilst drunk... not an easy thing to do.

This morning we came home about 10am and have spent a very lazy day lounging in the hot tub, watching TV and generally not doing anything at all. Tomorrow night is open house here and I hope we get a few people round and have a great New Years Eve.

Keeping a Straight Face

Ok you try keeping a straight face when you have to call a ship called the WILLY!!!

Aftermath

Well the little bit of Christmas I did get to celebrate was very nice. The day actually went quite quickly. I wore my Santa hat all day and it kept my head nice and warm. I cooked a full english breakfast for us both about 10.30, we had a visit from the Harbourmaster bearing a Christmas Cake for the troops and we moved about 5 ships in total (so I couldn't sing I Saw Three Ships go Sailing by!!)

I got home about 6pm and the house was filled with the smell of Christmas dinner well under way. The fire was lit in the living room and I was handed a glass of champagne and orange juice as I walked through the door so it was a very nice home coming.

We had a lovely traditional dinner but were too full for the cheesecake I had spent ages making on Christmas Eve. After dinner we exchanged presents with Noel's mum and dad, then my Mum and Wayne arrived and we did more pressies. Meurig also arrived and there were yet more presents, so all in all we did pretty well. I had Ray Gravell's autobiography from my Mum which I shall really enjoy reading (and having a little cry about). She also got me the Doctor Who Almanac which I will study in great depth and a toilet bag of lovely Sanctuary stuff. Meurig got me a bottle of Cointreau and I had a bottle garden from Noel's mum and dad. Erin got me a huge bag of smellies and bath stuff and a Doctor Who DVD (The Five Doctors) and Ffion got me the Stephen Fry America book, so I have plenty of reading material.

Eventually everyone left and we spent the rest of the evening having a quiet glass of wine and watching the totally crap evening of TV before crashing out fairly early.

Today was back to work and again its been fairly quite. I did another cooked breakfast for Brian (Noel was making whinging noises about how I never make him cooked breakfast) and we have spent the rest of the day stuffing our faces with all the goodies his wife Wendy sent in with him, including Rocky Road, homemade mince pies, coconut macaroons and homemade Christmas cake. I now feel so stuffed I'm not sure I want any tea when I get home!!

Just Another Day

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you are all having a lovely day with your families, stuffing yourselves with choccies and drinking plenty of alcohol (well maybe not the alcohol for Ellie... but the rest of you!).

I unfortunately am stuck in work for the second year running, and it just feels like any other working day except I had choccies for breakfast which is the normal thing to do on Christmas Day. Some kind soul put a tub of Terry's Chocolate Orange segments up here and I have been dipping into it quite a bit.

It was a very early start in Chez Smith this morning. The girls had been given the choice of opening their presents Christmas Eve, getting up at 5am to do it before I came to work or waiting till I got home at 6pm this evening. They chose 5am so it was a very bleary eyed family that gathered on the bed this morning to open the stockings.

We then proceeded downstairs to do the main present opening which took somewhere in the region of 30 minutes to complete... and hey presto Christmas was over with!!

Despite agreeing with Noel that we wouldn't go and buy each other big expensive presents this year the bugger still went out and bought me some gorgeous jewelry

This lovely Clogau Gold necklace which is pearls and blue topaz and the matching earrings. I was very very pleased they are gorgeous

I also had books, dvds and a Tardis keyring from Ffion which I am very chuffed with!

Ian and I are having a relatively quiet Christmas day work wise. I cooked a full english breakfast for us both at about 10am and we have just had some homemade profitar rolls made by Ian's partner Bev, but I am saving myself for my Christmas dinner when I get home, prepared by Noel's Mum and Dad with some help from the girls no doubt.

My Mum is coming over later tonight and I am going to have a couple of glasses of wine, but not too many as I am back in work again tomorrow. Roll on next year when I can have a normal Christmas again.

Once again hope you are all having a lovely one. Happy Christmas everyone xxx

Because JoJo is Nosey

Last night we went to the Druidston for Noel's Christmas "Do". Not really party time because there were only four of us. But it was a very nice meal and the place had been decorated really nicely and looked very festive . There were the two of us, Julian (the other joiner) and Nathan (the apprentice). Now for the culinary bit. I had chorizo and tomato bruchetta, follwed by best end of lamb with caramalised onion mash, followed by warm chocolate brownie with double chocolate ice-cream... and very nice it all was too.

Today and for the next two days I am going to be busy preparing for a Christmas Day I going to spend working!!. I have presents to wrap, presents yet to buy, food to shop for and preparations to do so that my Mother in Law can cook Christmas dinner for when I get home from work.

We decided this morning to change our bedroom around, as an experiment to see if it would be more practical. We have always had the bed under the window but, we decided to move it to the other corner of the room, if this layout works we will be able to put a flat screen TV on the wall at the bottom of the bed, when we finally get round to decorating and building wardrobes, hopefully next year sometime.

I just happend to mention this to JoJo this morning and she insisted I post pictures...so here you go.

The bed used to be under the window and the chest of drawers where the bed is now.

We are hoping to build built in wardrobes where the hanging rails are now and behind the wall with the radiator is the en-suite. The cats are optional.

Hammered

We were well and truely hammered at Pub Quiz last night.

Our time finally came to play the mighty Sir Charles Whetham (with one team member, who legend has it once appeared on MasterMind!!).

It was a humiliating experience. Mind you saying that we lost 98 v 67 and other teams have been beaten with over 100 so maybe we didn't do that bad.

We were at a distinct disadvantage in one round which was "Local Knowledge" and comprised questions on what some of the roads around Neyland were known as by the locals. Seeing as Ianto and Myfanwy are from Nottingham and have only lived here 8 months and I didn't grow up in the Neyland area then we were slightly handicapped.

Blodwyn continued to know all the answers after they had been given but did pull some obscure facts from somewhere to help out a bit. We did have quite a good laugh though, mostly at the expense of the guy who had set the questions and is obviously well known on the pub quiz circuit as being a "bit of a dick"!!

No quiz now till 7th January, but hopefully we can pull some games back in the New Year.

Secret Santa

Today was Secret Santa at work. It is mostly for the office staff but I always put my name in for old times sake as it is a chance to see everyone and have a bit of laugh, get a pressie and have a mince pie!!

This is me on Santa's lap getting my pressie this morning. It was a lovely print of Martha's Vineyard, which is the pub we usually go to on the Marina, so it was quite apt really. I also enjoyed my TWO mince pies!!

My Babies

It's not often I get a chance to show off my babies but tonight they all gathered in the kitchen at the same time, mistakenly thinking it was "DINNER TIME". Dinner time is that time of night (usually 9pm) when Noel feeds them all and they all come running and wait expectantly for him to fill their bowls in the garage.

Anyway tonight they got their little body clocks wrong and were all in the kitchen about 7.30pm so I took these photos.


Skittles.. the little girly tart

Chicken .. the boss cat and grumpy old man.

Henry... the handsome one.

Nugget... the gay one!

And finally all my babies together.

Lazy Weekend

Its been a very lazy weekend in Chez Smith. I slept till about 11.30 Saturday morning, then didn't do a lot for the rest of the day. Noel and I had a quiet night in watching the X Factor final. I think Alexandria deserved to win, but I don't think she will do nearly as well as Leona.

Sunday Noel lit the fire in the the other room and we had a lazy day watching TV before I cooked a roast pork Sunday dinner which was very yummy.

Today I went to Haverfordwest to have lunch with my cousin-in-law Bella. She had asked me to get some photographs from my In-laws to put on the digital photoframe she has bought her father-in-law for Christmas. We met in the Bristol Trader and had a very nice girly lunch and caught up on all the family gossip.

I also did a bit more Christmas shopping and have now nearly finished. Just the wrapping to get out of the way.

On a very sad note, today one of the boys that Ffion was in school with was killed in a car accident with a road tanker. I think Ffion is pretty upset although she has not said much. I know these things happen all year round but why do you always hear of one just before Christmas?

Wild and Windy Night (the weather not me!!)

Well it's 5am and my last night watch of my first group of four watches back is nearly over. That means only four weeks before more time off \0/. The four days I work a week actually go pretty quickly, probably because they are such long days. I am always really tired after the day watches and after the nights I just sleep lots.

Not much to tell about what has been going on really. Erin went to the Clothes Show live in Birmingham on Wednesday and spent most of the money we gave her for Christmas. I just have to wrap the things she bought now so she will have something to open on Christmas morning.

Wednesday was also Pub Quiz night and this week we were away to the Yacht Club.

We lost :0( but again it was pretty close 97 v 91. The questions were more cryptic than really quizzy which was a bit disappointing, its not that hard to guess that the opposite to Abdication Lane is Coronation Street!! There were three rounds along those lines including TV, Films and Music, as Ianto, Blodwyn and Myfanwy are all a little older and not really into TV, music and films we struggled a bit, but I did manage to pull back a few 2 pointers but I must hang me head in shame for getting Tom Jones' real name wrong, I shall never live it down!!

Yesterday was my Mum's birthday so later today I shall be going round to see her. She had her two new hearing aids fitted last week so now Wayne and I won't be able to talk about her behind her back any more!! She does say its a great improvement though, she didn't realise she had got as deaf as she was.

I suppose I had better mention a bit about the title of this post otherwise it will seem odd. It was a very wild night last night with 50 mph winds and driving rain, this meant it was pretty quiet so I managed to get all my Christmas Cards written, these will be in the post shortly so I hope you will all be standing by your doorstep in anticipation!!

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Just reading Donna's blog of how she enjoyed watching Bad Santa and it got me thinking about my favourite Christmas films.

Personally it has to be National Lampoons Christmas Vacation for me. We watch it every year and I still laugh at all the same places even though you know the joke is coming.

I also love Scrooged with Bill Murray and Karen Allen.

So come on folks.. what is your favourite Christmas Film?

I'm a Survivor

I am loving Survivors! I loved it in the 70's and have that series on DVD and I am equally loving this new series.

It is one of those series that really make you think "what if that really happened?... how would I cope?"

I've always been a bit of a sucker for post apocalyptic things. Stephen King's The Stand, for me is his greatest novel and I have read it more times than I can remember, as well as also having the DVD of the serial (probably one of the few adaptations of a King novel that is relatively true to the book).

There is such a threat of menance running through this new series, I found last night's episode with the community of teenage boys very like Lord of the Flies and very menacing. Also the "eco" community run by the ex-government minister is really spooky with their rules and levels of "acceptability". The whole thing is just really great TV.

I have also really enjoyed Spooks this series, especially as you have never quite known who is "expendable" in the cast, so some twists really have been unexpected. Although I do wish they hadn't killed off Adam Carter (the gorgeous Rupert Penry Jones!!). Maybe I shouldn't admit to it but I may be developing one of those "wrong in so many ways" crushes on Harry Pierce!!

See I can do Festive

It has been a very heavy and tiring weekend. No sooner had I recovered from my hangover from Friday night, we went out again on Saturday. This time for a meal, but with another over indulgence in wine as well.

We got to Phil and Karen's about 6.30pm and had a glass of wine while we waited for Adrian and Rose to arrive. We then all went down to Stone Hall which is only about a mile down the road from Phil and Karen's house. It is a really lovely old mansion which is decorated in a very period manner and the dining room has low beams and an open fire, it is really atmospheric.

We had a wonderful meal. I had a twice baked cheese souffle, followed by Welsh lamb in a garlic butter sauce, which was cooked to perfection. For dessert I had chocolate ice-cream with Amaretto. As usual the company was brilliant and it was one of the best nights out we have had for ages.

Phil and Karen's daughter Becky picked us up later and we all went back to their house, where we stayed up talking until 3am. Sunday morning we had a long lazy lie in and didn't leave until 1pm.

When we got back we set about putting up the Christmas Tree. Personally I think it is too early and would prefer to do it next weekend but as usual Noel insisted with the excuse that we needed to get the tree early in order to get a big enough one! This year I have gone for silver and purple and I am really pleased with it. Below is a pic of it taken with the flash on.


And below is one without the flash but with the lights on. It looks very prettyful!!

I know these pictures are nearly the same as last year but I tried to be artistic again and take a reflective one in the hall mirror.

And this is a close up of some of the decorations.

Today I cleared the kitchen and had to go to Haverfordwest to run some errands and pay a pilgrimage to very big Tescos which as usual was a nightmare. When I got back I put the rest of the decorations up and embarked on a bit of a cooking marathon, making spaghetti bolognese, chorizo and red lentil soup, spinach and ricota cannalonni and lamb meatballs for tonight's tea.

Tomorrow I am back in work... yes my 16 days off is over again and my next one isnt until 14th January. I'm not particulary looking forward to it but there you go such is life.

A Tad Hungover

Wow the time is just flying by!! I'm back in work on Tuesday. I have made large inroads into the Christmas shopping and have got most of it done now. The wrapping of it however, has not been done yet. Ffion and I went to Haverfordwest yesterday and had a very nice girly shopping time which included lunch at the Moon and Sixpence.

Last night was the Port Control Christmas "do", at the Horse and Jockey pub. There were only actually 4 Port Control staff there, me, Ian, Brian and Julian. The rest were assorted management, contractors and agents, but it was a good mix and the meal was ok. Throw in free drinks and a pretty good time was actually had. I think I may have over indulged in the Amaretto hence the slight hangover this morning. I resisted the temptation of going with Ian and Julian into town afterwards and came home in a taxi with Mike and Ian Kendrick who both live just up the road from me.

This morning I woke up about 8.30 feeling pretty dire, and have just slumped on the settee watching TV and blogging. My dad just visited briefly, the girls are also slumming around in PJs and Noel has gone out to find a Christmas Tree.... yes JoJo we are starting to get festive in chez Smith!.

Tonight we are going out with Phil, Karen, Adrian and Rose to Stone Hall for a meal and we are staying over at Phil and Karen's. No doubt it will be another gastronomic feast and I shall report tomorrow!!

Home Again

Well we are back and we had an amazing time. There will be a full report shortly on my Holiday Blog. We had every kind of weather you can imagine from lovely sunshine to snow but it all added to the fun of the weekend. We chilled out in the spa, cheered Wales to victory in the rugby on Saturday and swam in the snow on Sunday. Then yesterday we called in at Bath on the way home for lunch in the Green Tree and a bit of shopping.

Got home about 5pm yesterday and started the mountain of washing we seemed to have accummulated over the weekend. I still have a week of my time off left and I really must get down and do some serious Christmas shopping. The house also needs a good sorting out before I get back to work.

I am now going to do the first installment of the Center Parcs holiday blog complete with pictures!!