Back to the grind...

At least for awhile longer. My employer has recently bought a competitor in a hostile takeover. At first, we were told it's business as usual for us. But this press release has all a bit worried.

All the lush ads for perfume, chocolate, food shops and liquor are swept away, replaced by ads for yoghurt, cold remedies, Kelloggs Special K (complete with the K diet) and credit management.

This year the cops started their festive season crackdown on DUIs and drunk and disorderly behaviour on "Black eye Friday", the police's term for the Friday before Christmas. Traditionally, this is the day most employers throw the office party, and many Britons see it as their duty to get raging drunk and make fools of themselves in front of their bosses. This year, the fine for such public nuisances outside pubs and bars is doubled to £80, on the spot.

Robert and I had a quiet holiday; we declined an offer for Christmas dinner because we didn't want to spend a big portion of the day on the road to Wiltshire. I always feel nervous travelling on holidays; so many accidents occur (here there's not even the excuse of snow or bad visibility).

However, apparently Thomas outdid himself with cooking a fine goose, and we missed a good meal. Robert managed a pheasant for us with traditional trimmings, and his wing-brother is still waiting in the fridge for inspiriation to strike.

We spent a lot of time reading, watching movies (British TV pulls out all the traditional favourites and lots of classics, even during daytime hours, during Christmas), and playing Scrabble. I'm not a big games player, and I clearly have a long way to go to catch up with Robert's tactical thinking - I have enough trouble using up the letters, never mind putting them in the right place to double my score.

We also trekked into London to visit with guests; one of the members from S. Africa was visiting the UK before heading to 12th night in Finland this weekend, and he and his Laurel (from Vermont) were doing the museums and bookshops with a vengeance. Heraldry Today, that bookshop pilgrimage for every comitted book herald, took a hammering. Regrettably the handweaver's studio was closed - probably saved them a fortune, as they're both tabletweavers.

I bought Robert two books for Christmas as we cruised Charing Cross Road (the bookseller's main drag); translated accounts of medieval knights from period. I was very pleased to find a copy of Finvarr's book about Charny's questions in the British Museum bookshop, along with other books published by Chivalry Bookshelf.

We did spend New Year with Thomas and Siban in their quiet Wiltshire retreat, Scrabbling until midnight and watching an awful lot of fireworks from downtown London on TV. New Year's day included a brisk walk to the "local" in their beautifully thatched village of Mildenhall (pronounced Minal - long story), and a lazy afternoon on a sofa thickly spread with books, an afghan and the cat.

Our lovely tree managed to cling to the majority of its needles until we took it down. It had dried to a crisp, and once we started handling the ornaments they just about flew off. It proved easier to cut all the branches off and bag them, then carry out the denuded trunk on its stand, than drag the whole tree out of the living room trailing needles.

I managed to stitch two new ornaments and finish a third leftover from a previous year, but I left just a bit of work to do on one, so I can finish it quickly and virtuously this time next year.

I'm discovering that while I enjoy embroidery, I get bored very quickly - I have a collection of unfinished embroidery attempts to vouch for my fickleness. My ideal project is a small colourful one that I can finish in a few evenings and hang on the tree, as a break from my longer term goal of handstitching all my medieval clothes.

Handsewing, for some reason, I can do for much longer - possibly because it goes faster, and you can see the progress more easily, and wear the finished work.

Now I'm halfway through a short week; we're taking Friday to fly to Helsinki for 12th night. It's Coronation in Drachenwald, with two peerage ceremonies thrown in, so it'll be very full for this court herald.