Christmas and New Year

At the OU we’re lucky enough to get the days in between the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day bank holidays as Closure Days, on top of our already quite generous annual leave entitlement. This year I also booked off the rest of the week that included New Year’s Day, I think in the vague idea that we might go away somewhere for New Year, though in the end (as has happened before) I did some brief research, decided it was quite expensive and then didn’t actually book anywhere. Anyway, even though we didn’t go away, it gave me a full fortnight’s leave, which was nice.

On the Friday evening pre-Christmas Ruth and I went for dinner at Ray's, which was adorned prettily with a red glow as per below.

On the Saturday I baked a batch of mince pies and in the evening our neighbours Kris and Laura came round for dinner, bringing with them an extremely impressive cake.

Mince pies

Kris and Laura's cake

Spent Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day morning at Dave’s place in Newport, which was lovely. Nia lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve, which added to the sense of occasion. The tooth fairy left her a quite generous £2, though did emphasise that this was only because it was her first wiggly tooth.

On Boxing Day everyone came back to Mum and Dad’s where Hannah and Henry joined us for a roast beef lunch. We walked over to Bailey Park with the children where they had a bit of a play.

Huwie looking adorable on a swing

Impressed by little Huw’s feisty behaviour during the stay – suspected he was keen to be walking, as he was not at all impressed by just sitting on people’s laps or being put down on the floor. Amused by the level of fury that can be emitted by such a tiny creature.

Nia had acquired a ghastly game called ‘Gassy the Cow – Will She Moo or Will She Poo?’ which Hannah and I nobly spent some time playing with her, though much of our time was spent trying to unblock the plastic pats from the back end of Gassy as she didn’t seem to be expelling them as per expectations. Here’s Nia with a couple of the pats.

I returned to Reading early on the 27^th, collecting Ruth from her aunt’s house on the way. She seemed to have spent a pleasant few days with Auntie, including lunch at her uncle’s house on Christmas Day and a walk to the Boxing Day Meet the following day.

Then spent an enjoyable few days in Caversham going for some strolls. Ruth and I went for a walk up around Green Park, a business park near the M4 that opened in the late 1990s but latterly has had some residential development added. It was originally rumoured that a new railway station might open there, but to date this has never happened and I don’t know how likely it is. According to this, plans were approved in 2015, but I’m not aware that construction has ever begun. As the name suggests, Green Park’s buildings all have green credentials and there’s a central lake, the Longwater, which has evidently been designed as a bit of a habitat for birdies etc.

Office building at Green Park

Went for a walk with Ray around Maidenhead on the 29th Dec, taking in some of the new riverside development by York Stream, evidently part of the Waterways Restoration Project. York Stream used to be little more than a ditch, though I remember Auntie Barbara having a bit of a carry-on re how the water had been drawn off by the Jubilee River project. Unsure what Babs would think of the latest development. To my mind, it’s quite a big improvement and definitely makes that end of town a bit snazzier.

We did a bit of a circuit and then walked back up around some of the smart roads to the west of the town centre, including spotting this striking house 'Kynam' on Boyn Hill Avenue – one to preserve, though heaven knows whether it will be.

'Kynam', Boyn Hill Avenue

Further along Boyn Hill Avenue we passed 'Brocket', an Arts and Crafts-influenced early 20th century house that was until recently a Pupil Referral Unit - not sure what's going on with it now.

'Brocket', Boyn Hill Avenue

On New Year’s Eve Ruth and I popped into House of Pine and Oak in Caversham and inexplicably purchased a new dining room table and chairs. Well, Ruth did. My new Habitat set at the flat is MY table and chairs. As at the time of writing, we’ve had it for a couple of weeks (delivery was somewhat slow) and it’s very smart.

Met up with Claire at the Jolly Anglers on New Year's Day afternoon, though it was rather a sombre gathering as one of her friends had just died.

The week after the New Year, Ruth and I went back down to Wales to spend a few more days with Mum and Dad. Did the walk up Blorenge on 3rd January, Ruth's birthday, followed by tea at the Angel Hotel. The next day Mum treated us to lunch at the Chapel café - never been there before but very nice, if artsy. On the Friday Ruth got the train back to Reading while I drove back to Milton Keynes.

The Chapel on Market Street, Abergavenny

Judith greeted me on the Monday by saying I looked relaxed. Perhaps should take a fortnight off more often.