Monday 25th December 2017

Christmas Day (everywhere)

Each year we have many plans on what to do come Christmas Day: one of our favourite ones is to go to London on a sunny day and wander around when the streets and popular attractions have little or no other visitors. With the weather to be wet and windy, we hoped to go to Rye in Sussex as that is usually madly crowded most days, but then the forecast was worse than expected, so we decided to stay home. It also seemed to be the right thing to do with the cats being the way they are, we feel that Mulder needs to be looked after. But then he is his usual bouncy cheerful self, other than having trouble eating and dribbling more than usual.

I make bacon buttes with some of the hand cut and hand smoked bacon, all rashers cut as thick as gammon, which makes for butties fit for a Queen, of for Jools and myself anyway.

We have the radio on, listening to more Huey, easy as is sitting in for other DJs this week, so there is a high quota of disco and hip-hop classics.

And then there was the turkey.

I had ordered a twelve pounder crown, but was told that due to perfect conditions through the autumn, the turkeys were much larger than expected, and although some people complained, but I mean with free range, there is not much you can do. So, I forgot to ask how much bigger it was, so left with the problem of how long to cook it for. We have no way of weighing it, and I have no cooking thermometer, so guess it to be 15 pounds, so cook it for 5 hours, meaning it would have to be in the oven at ten if we were to eat about four.

I can remember Christmases at home, Mum spending hours in the kitchen preparing vegetables, putting the meat in the oven. Seemed to go on all day. I have streamlined the process, putting the oven in, and other than mixing the Yorkshire pudding batter and pre-boiling the potatoes, about half an hour before the meat is cooked, peel and prepare the veg, putting all of them on to steam just before the meat is done, taking 30 minutes or so to boild and cook, so they will be ready once the meat has rested. Puddings and potatoes take 15 minutes all coming together as I mix the gravy.

Which is how it all panned out yesterday, just that the meat took so long to cook, but it did smell great even after half an hour.

I have two long time friends who are Norwich fans, both have been to years of consecutive games, Shirley had just past the 900 game mark. She got a pain in her back a couple of months back, had a scan, then had to go and have another one. Since the second one, nothing from her or Ian. He posted a Merry Christmas message on Facebook yesterday, so I sent him a message saying I was thinking of them both and things were not so bad as they seemed. I received a reply from Ian that Shirley has been diagnosed with aggressive and terminal cancer in her back. There are no words. Again.

I feel like a boxer who has just taken an uppercut. Too much news. But at least I know, and although there is nothing I can do, I am thinking of my two old friends. I first me Ian on a foot crossing in Las Vegas in 1999. We were both in the RAF at on detachment. He was wearing a Norwich shirt, and I remarked on it as we passed. Years later I told him about seeing a bloke in Vegas in a city shirt; that was me he said. We ended up being posted together at Coltishall a year later, and I ended up traveling with both of them around the country following Norwich. Nearly going bankrupt meant I had to give up the football, but we keep in touch through FB. One of the good things social media doesn't get credit for.

Dinner comes together at half three, the meat is cooked, the veg steams, and the puddings and spuds nearly done. I carve the meat and dish up so that all is done perfectly on time. Jools opens some Prosecco, and we can sit down just before four, having not eaten since before nine, and hungry.

Dinner was wonderful, even if the cook says so himself; the turkey perfect and moist, the veg with just enough bite, the puddings not burnt, and the potatoes cooked in fresh oil to make sure they would be perfectly crispy.

After clearing up, we play Cribbage; one game each after a couple of hours, with a break so Jools could watch Dr Who; I even watch most of it, and seems good enough.

Darkness had fallen, and the wind began to blow.