Blog ≫ 2024 ≫ Christmas round-up
I'm on train one of four, n a long journey back from Mum and Dad's. Had a lovely post Christmas visit. Saw all the family and lots of friends yesterday too. So left Clare and the boys to drive back yesterday and I extended my stay by another day so I could go down the pub with friends. Went to the Miners Arms in Fareham, or rather Funtley I suppose. That was lovely. Had a pint there with Andy while he ate sausage and mash and we waited for other friends to arrive. Then we all went over to the Jolly Miller, also in Fareham where there was a band playing. I knew the band, or at least I recognised the name of the band, it was the same as the name of the band we used to go and see a good thirty or thirty-five years ago. It can't be the same band, and yet somehow it was, but only one original member. Everyone else there was not even born when this band used to play at the Salutation down in Portsmouth, when we used to go there on a Monday night to see them. So that was nice. It was all classic rock covers. Oh but some of these songs weren't classics then, they were brand new rock songs when they played them back in the end of the 1980s.
Had a great time, anyway, I didn't notice the time flying by until we got chucked out there at half twelve. I was going to walk all the way home, but I walked as far as Fareham town centre and jumped in a taxi. So slightly late to bed then. It might have been worse, not too much to drink because the beer wasn't so good in the Jolly Miller.
Today not done much. Just had a leisurely breakfast and packed, and I'm on my way by 12:18 from Havant. As I said in the rambled opening, this is my first train going from Havant to Barnham, then Barnham to Redhill, Redhill to Tonbridge, Tonbridge to home. Four and a half hour journey but it saves a load of money. It would have been over fifty quid to be about half hour quicker via London, but I got this one for eighteen.
The day before was really good. We went down to Portsmouth to the King's Theatre to see Dick Whittington the panto, and that was very nice. We went in O'Neill's beforehand. Got some food and a drink in the O'Neill's pub just round the corner, then strolled over to the panto in plenty of time. We thought. There were no queues or anything, so we said "are we way too early?", they said no it's already started five minutes ago. Tried to find our way to our seats. There were people sitting in our seats, so they had to move, but all good after that.
The panto had someone from Britain's Got Talent in it that I don't know, and someone from EastEnders in it that I don't know, but everyone had a good time. Clare thought the first half was dreadful, but definitely warmed to it in the second half, after a glass of wine. Whereas T2 - who I thought was going to be the big fan - loved the first half but was a bit jaded by the second half. He's quite our panto expert.
We got an Uber both ways, very handy having Uber around here. We don't have it at home.
Going back again to the day before, that is that the day we arrived. We had a lovely family dinner and played some games and watched some TV.
We had a fairly crap drive down to Portchester. just really slow going around the motorway but no actual incidents or anything but probably four hours or more to get there.
Before that, we had a huge Christmas lunch out on Christmas day in the Radnor Arms. We absolutely treated ourselves having someone else make the dinner, and it was really nice. So just to start, right at the very start, we had a glass of bubbly on the way in, and then we got a pint at the bar. I had a really, really good cask Porter I can't remember the name of. Was not expecting real ale on christmas day, nice. Then for a pre-starter starter we had parsnip and truffle soup, which I loved. Everyone else did have some but not to their tastes. All vegan so I could finish up some leftovers. Then for my starter I had vegan feta salad. I think the boys had crab arancini, which they didn't really get on with, but no need for a starter on a Christmas dinner anyway, this was all really a bonus. Everyone else had roast turkey and all the trimmings for main, and I had a really good roast butternut squash, also with all the trimmings. We'd asked especially to make sure there was plenty of potatoes and things so that was great.
Took like over four hours to eat it all. That was great. Very relaxed and a nice walk back. Nice long walk back to our house.
Also over this visit I've done two runs! So mostly poor for exercise, not really a lot of walking, but two runs in the same week. I went and did Fareham Parkrun on Saturday morning. That was good and did it with the friend visiting from Denmark. That was his very first park run. Then also I had to run and fetch our car boxing Day morning before we could drive down to Mum and Dad's. So two runs. Does this bode well for runyary? We will see.
Bit of a jumbled update, I dictated most of that on the train back from Portchester.
Light cloud and a gentle breeze, 7 - 9℃.
⬅️ Merry christmas :: Health stats 30/12/24 ➡️