I had allowed an additional day to sort myself out after our return from our long break, so the delayed return…
…was less problematic for me than it was for Janie.
Janie has not made that mistake again since – we both tend to allow plenty of leeway and sorting out time after our travels.
I had some pleasurable things to do as well as hard work on our return – a NewsRevue Smoker on 16th December – the concept of such smokers is explained in my 40th anniversary piece – here and below:
…and a BDO Consulting Xmas lunch the next day. Not sure where we ate that year – but it mught have been the Bleeding Heart again – in any case I won’t have been interrogated in the 1988 mode – click here or below for that story:
Janie took quite a bit of work over that first weekend back – 18 & 19 December. My diary is silent about the weekend. there was talk about meeting up with Kim & Micky on Monday 20th for dinner, but I think we canceled that out, again perhaps pressure of work and dread of meals out during that holiday season.
Janie even took a couple of clients on Christmas Eve, whereas I (still a BDO salaryman for the last holiday season) needed to use up my accumulated holiday days to avoid losing them. I had Microbee come to look at my cockroaches that morning instead.
I went to my parents on Christmas Day and Janie saw her mum. Janie and I got together for the holiday season on Boxing Day.
We spent part of the Twixtmas period at Janie’s and part of the time at mine. Phillie, Tony & Charlie were around that season and when they wanted to stay at Janie’s, we decamped to mine.
I think we took the three of them to the flicks at Whiteley’s on Tuesday 28 December. For sure we took them to see The Secret Garden at some point during that period. I think Charlie (aged 6 or 7 at that time) got a lot more out of that experience than any of the rest of us. I am pretty sure it was on that occasion, while walking from my flat to Whiteley’s, that Tony opined to me on the sanity (or otherwise) of Janie’s family; judging Janie to be the sanest one but not delving into where that assessment might stand on other benchmarks or spectra of sanity.
It was my good fortune to be spared the family trip to Bristol during Twixtmas, not least because I had some client work to do that Twixtmas (the International Transport Workers Federation didn’t shut down for Twixtmas).
Janie and I got together again for new years eve – a quiet one if I remember correctly.
I think we spent a fair chunk of that time going through our holiday pictures, and why not?
After spending the first couple of days of the new year at mine, as the family were still around, we then switched back to Janie’s place after another of those Worm family meals on Bank Holiday Monday (3rd January) at the North China Restaurant – still there as I write in January 2020. (The restaurant, not the Worm family).
So we spent the next weekend (8th/9th) at Janie’s; a quiet weekend by the looks of it.