Christmas Present.

 

Sir John Betjeman in St Pancras.
My hero who saved this beautiful station from
developers in the Sixties.

Santa, masquerading as a Red Gnome,
and a laughing Snowman.

A lacuna in this blog due to festive activities and travel. I was reluctant to go back to Britain, not for the family Christmas but because of Covid risks and tests, but was persuaded and managed to stay positive, or more accurately, resigned, during the 4 hour 10 minutes Eurostar journey from Brussels on

The Meeting Point, St Pancras.

December 22 due to a broken-down train ahead which proved immoveable for about two hours. My son, waiting for me in St Pancras, responded magnificently by making up quiz questions on St Pancras about which he seemed to discover lots. I was proud to know several of the answers! When I arrived and eventually managed to locate him at the Meeting Point, he suggested a choice between going home immediately or a glass of champagne tout de suite. No prizes for guessing my grateful response for an early start to Christmas!

Colour-coordinated Californian branch.

Thus began an one of my best, perhaps The Best, Christmas Ever. Eventually we had all the family together except the Californian branch at home in very snowy Lake Tahoe. The Day passed in monumental amounts of present-opening; astonishing bonhomie and laughter; steady alcohol consumption by some; splendid walks; fabulous food; silly dressing up; more games than I could shake a stick at and altogether sufficient ‘Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Men’ to astonish Scrooge. Our Christmas 2021 certainly put Covid in the shade completely as we totally forgot about it, an achievement in itself. Two of our number, from Norwich, did not arrive due to negative Covid tests reducing our total number to 11; a very sad development for them and very much for us though, on the cheerful side, probably less cider was consumed.

Numbers resident gradually thinned out until one grandson [perhaps the most 'bien dans sa peau' of all my family] and his equally-chilled partner, plus me, departed early on December 30; earlier than anticipated as my Eurostar had been cancelled!! The young people accompanied me to St Pancras, a great start to the day, and I sailed on without mishap. A friend met me in his car in Brugge, drove like the clappers to my home thus ensuring I was not only fatigued but also queasy on arrival. It took grisailles and a Duvel to set me up before unpacking and an early night. New Year’s Eve and Day have passed in a bubble of decreasing fatigue as I try to persuade myself to think about resuming the Downsizing details to be dealt with. I start tomorrow!! I feel somewhat disloyal and ungrateful to mention that the tranquillity here and the silence have indeed been golden.

Worker bees not seen as the rest wait
in lazy anticipation!

This pre-walk photo demonstrates a personal
puzzle. How come I am now the shortest
when I used to be so tall?

A short ponder on Things I Learned over the Christmas break.

1. The rapid expertise on the phone/GSM of those not in their eighties is amazing. Realising this demonstrated my own place in the electronic pecking order, mistakenly assumed to be O.K. hitherto, as actually low! I must DO MORE on my Iphone!

2. The kindness of the young is inspiring and reminds me of how callow I probably was in my twenties!

3. The complete abandonment of Self to enjoying the moment, evident in the young, was inspiring.  Carpe Diem writ large.

4. The silliness of one individual when multiplied by eleven, is life-enhancing and probably life-extending!!