Mistetoe and Wine............

Well i’ve had my 2 days off now and its back to work......... In Barcelona at the moment, sunny and 30C, Newcastle tomorrow night, probably not so sunny and -5C. Home by 6pm (i hope) on Thursday and back to the airport again at 6am for stand by duty on Friday! Can’t wait for my days off again. Pretty crappy roster for August to be honest, all work lumped together, but that does mean that my days off are lumped together too! Yippee!

Just had a call from Jason to say that he thinks Babs is broody again! :0( But he thinks she did lay an egg today! Not sure, will have to have a look when i get home on Thursday.

We went to Salisbury yesterday and I found a Lakeland shop!!!!!! Huge mistake going in there. Managed to get some jam jars and lids for the up and coming jamming season. Need to redesign the labels and hopefully i will be able to sell some this year! They went down very well at Christmas last year so we will see.
Lakeland is one of my favourite shops after The Garden Inn, in Stockbridge - you know the kind of shop that sells ‘lovely’ things at massively inflated prices. The sort of place that I would love to own, selling gorgeous craft bits, jams, chutneys and the like, beautifully designed and wrapped in metres of cellophane and raffia! I might even ask my artist friend Clare to design a logo for me. Clare if you are reading this, then have a think for me! You have all summer off ;0)

Walking round Salisbury yesterday, you do notice the types of people that places attract. Andover seems to drag people out, unwashed and screaming, whereas Salisbury had a much more refined air about it. Yes, the shops are a higher standard, couldn’t see a Lidl or Aldi for love nor money, but everyone seemed in less of a rush. The sun was shining so maybe that had an effect, but generally it was a pleasant experience! Definately on my list of Christmas shopping places. There i’ve said it! Christmas is on my mind already. Managed to pick up a few bits in Oil and Vinegar, and it has started the ball rolling.
I have never been one to go out on Christmas eve and blitz the shops, looking for pointless presents, panicking at the thought of the shops closing and me returning empty handed. Oh no, I normally start in earnest in September, picking up nick nacks and stashing them away. This job is fantastic at getting unusual things. It just means lugging them round Europe for a couple of days.

Jason prefers to shop online, but I love going out wrapped up warm and traipsing around every shop. The look of despair on the shop assistants face as Bing Crosby sings ‘White Chritmas’ for the 47th time that morning, the realisation that they have to endure it for another 7 weeks.
(have a confession to make - all this festive writing has made me play my Christmas collection on my lap top)!

Once the shopping is done, i set aside a night to do the wrapping. Last year Jason was away on a trip, so I put the Christmas mix on the ipod, gathered the parcel paper, raffia, baubles, cinnamon sticks, dried oranges, bells, pine cones, miles of magic tape, anything else remotely festive and began the mammoth task. In all honesty, it normally takes me about 8-10 hours to wrap everything, even down to the stamped, coloured-in parcel tags!!! It looks sooooo nice though. People don’t really appreciate the wrapping but to me that adds to the whole magic of Christmas.

Anyway I am all Christmassed (?) out now (that will never happen)!

So long for now

C x x x

i have just got home and managed to post this! No internet connection in the hotel!!!!