[365, Day Fourty-One, Friday 30th November 2007. Good days come when rainbows happen.]

I can sit here and smile because it’s the end of November and write about what I’ve achieved this month. Firstly, as I always write in my paper diary, this month has seemed to drag on and on, and yet when I look back and remember beginning NaBloPoMo 30 days ago, it seems like no time at all. I can’t believe another month has slipped-by with such ease.

I didn’t have high hopes for NaBloPoMo - I definitely didn’t think I’d manage to get it finished but when given a deadline it shows that it’s actually enjoyable to think and plan a post each day. Blogging has changed a bit for me; at times before it felt like a chore, which I thought would be exaccerbated by having to do it daily - and it has certainly made reading other people’s blogs also on the challenge excedingly difficult - but I have found that there is a certain enjoyment to blogging daily and although I’m not sure it’ll continue at the rate it has, I definitely would like to make more time to blog. I’ve also noticed that there have been less comments, I’m guessing that’s because there are far more blogs to get around. Posting comments on other blogs has become like an olympic sport, with so many more posts to read and people to get around. However, the number of “unique visitors” has increased slightly - up to 1625. I hope to take part in it again next year, too. And perhaps I might push the boat out and tryNaNoWriMo, too!

I’ve also been a busy knitter. I modified this pattern heavily, changed all of the stitch counts, different yearn on different needles but boy I love these. I’m going to play with a slightly-different cast-off technique as these are a tad tight around the topm, but I love making them and a pair will be going to a work colleage for Christmas. I used Twilleys Feedom Spirit in “soul”. They are so warm and easy to knit, and have made knitting in the round a pleasurable experience!

We also got our tree today, it’s a Nordmann Fir which “spoke” to us as we walked around and saw the hundreds of trees on sale. The fact that it had some ivy clinging onto its trunk made me smile, and it’ll be delivered tomorrow afternoon. Not as wide as last-year’s, it is a bit taller, at around 7′ tall.

It is the last day of November, we have a gorgeous chicken in the oven roasting, lots to be thankful for and lots to look forward-to, too.

December here we come!

It has been the longest day today.  It started off with a late night last night, an early morning and a lot of waiting around.  We took my car in to be checked for what I thought was a brake problem.  We left the car in the capable hands of our local garage (who are angels, and have come to know me pretty well over the years) and decided that, as it would take a couple of hours to test and fix and wander off into town.  It was a beautiful Winter day, with a bright blue sky and lots of sunshine - the first day we’d had like this for a long time.  We made it half way (a mile or so) into town when I got a phone-call saying it was going to be tested somewhere else and would likely be ready to take home in a couple of hours.  We took the decision to make our way back to the garage thinking we’d have to wait a couple of hours at most.  Wrong as usual, we were informed that it would most likely take the best part of the afternoon so we thought we’d catch the bus home.  Except we missed the bus.  By 20 seconds.  And had to wait another hour for a bus that would stop for us *grizzle*.

It was icy-cold and it made me realise that public transport is wonderful but woefully inadequate if you happen to live outside of a city.  They are also dreadfully expensive.  It’d be nice to think that, if worst ever came to worst and we were without a car for any length of time we’d be able to manage.  Which to some extent is true - there are shops less than half a mile away in one direction and just a mile in the other - but they don’t stock the produce that we like, and they definitely aren’t farmshops.  Mr. VP would be able to get to work as he does currently use buses daily - but for my job which is quite a distance off into the countryside I’d have to catch at least two different buses, neither of which run on Sundays, when I work.  Public transport is excellent.  But the system running it and costs involved are no incentive for those who really need it.  I won’t even mention the fact they are often full of abusive teenagers who feel it their right to deny the elderly seats, swear like little gutter-snipes (as my dearest grandmother would’ve proclaimed) and push and shove other passengers…

*Gets down from soap box*

Anyway, back to the car.  Long story short it took a lot longer than anticipated (and more than one bus journey) to be diagnosed, and the problem turned out to not be the brakes at all, but something called an ABS ring (a sensor telling the ABS to kick-in is telling the ABS to kick-in too often).  After keeling-over at the thought of a £298 bill, we decided to wait until after Christmas to deal with the problem.

Feeling considerably cold, drained (physically and mentally - I started stressing the moment they mentioned ABS and needing expert advice) and very tired but also resolute.  I’m really glad Mr. VP was there with me, and we’ve proclaimed that tomorrow is the day we’ll get our tree.  And Saturday will be the day we dress it (we think!).

[365, Day Thirty-Nine, Wednesday 28th November 2007. The day we made the puddings.]

Today we made The Puddings. Following my well-loved recipe from the Radiation cookbook, we had a slight panic when I noticed we didn’t have enough bread to make up the 8oz of breadcrumbs, and that in the circumstances, an olive loaf (with big chunks of black olives) wouldn’t achieve the desired effect. We got around it in the end and made 2 x 1-1/2 and 1 x 1/2 pint-pudding-bowl’s worth of wonderfulness.

We put them on to steam, set the dehumidifier going at full speed and promptly forgot about them entirely. Thankfully it was the 1/2-pint pudding which we smelled burning, the plastic bowl having blackened, charred and then disintergrated entirely. I blame Mr. VP - I always watch puddings when they are steaming, topping them up every hour. Him being at home has muddled my schedule no end! We now smell like kippers. Even after a bath. And we have sore throats from the smoke inhalation. But apart from that? Dandy!

The other two 1 1/2 pint puddings (the large ones) were steamed to perfection and will now be kept refrigerated until the 15th when we have a parent-in-law visit and the other for the Big Day which, in case you need to be panicked a little more, is just a mere 27 days away.

It has rained solidly all day. The puddles were no longer puddles but lakes. The roads were soaking. And we got very wet when we went to the market this morning.

We were planning to choose our Christmas tree from our favourite place tomorrow, seeing as it’s the first day they are open (but don’t worry - we wouldn’t put it up until at least the 1st!) but I’ve booked my car in to the garage to have some new brakes fitted, which is likely to mean we won’t have the car back until mid-afternoon. Perhaps Friday instead!

It’s also coming to the end of NaBloPoMo - it seems like ages, and yet like no time at all. I am immensely proud to have managed all the days so far (and touch-wood will make it to the full 30 days!), and to not just post a photo or a poem every single day as I had seen myself doing. This does just prove that I may one day be crowned England’s Biggest Mouth.

I finally got an email out to you and I’ve written an email to you. Late but there nonetheless.

And I forgot to take my 365 photo last Sunday. I am not overly worried about this (and have proclaimed that it Will Not Happen Again) and I’ll just make my challenge 366 days to compensate.

How is everyone?

—————-
Now playing: Sarah McLachlan - Mercy

[365, Day Thirty-Eight, Tuesday 27th November 2007. The king of all birds, with the most beautiful plumage. He was not afraid, instead he stayed low to avoid the gun-shots ringing loud from neigbouring fields.]

If you like me, work in an environment which allows you to meet members of the public you are very lucky because you get to see a snippet into the lives of others, without even batting your eyelids. People-watching you can do at any time; I often just sit down in a café somewhere, with a latté in hand, and watch these people walk by. Always with purpose, with something to do. Somewhere to be, someone to meet. But always with a resigned look of determination.

When you work with the general public at close-quarters, apart from contracting more coughs and colds, you get to learn little life-lessons; pleasant chit-chat to the customers gives you a little window into that person. Almost like someone brushing the curtains aside as they walk past, you see the light from below. It’s rewarding in ways you don’t anticipate. Of course, it can also be grizzly too - not everyone is that pleasant - but the good bits do make up for that.

When I see couples, as I often do, I watch them. Perhaps these individuals, more than any other, are the most interesting to watch. We often get older couples coming to visit (my PlaceOfEmployment), some of whom are very elderly, and who have perhaps been married to their spouses for half a century or more. These couples never fail to rouse a smile from me because often the man will anticipate the wife’s requirement for an item or a need she has for him to do something. Like a well-oiled machine they work in perfect harmony - and I think what time and devotion has gone into that lifetime’s work of marriage. I think that is what many people forget - that effort and time have to be lavished upon a relationship, for it to continue to grow, to support the troubles you inevitably come across during your life.

I also come across young couples, more and more now; some with children some without. There are some couples you can tell work well together, but I also see a lot of those who are like magnets when you put north and north or south and south together. They oppose, fight each other. They’ll parry until one pushes the other one away. You never know if this is a one-off thing, or it’s a sign of something more long-lasting. I only get a tiny morsel of their lives, by reading their gestures or body-language, or sometimes over-hearing a muttered word. I think that’s why people-watching is so enjoyable. Because unlike watching a soap on TV, the lives of those you get to watch aren’t scripted. They are real, happening all around you.

I imagine Mr. VP and myself as 60 year-olds, and I wonder what life will be like. How life will be and what our lives will have told us, how time will pass and who we will become. I hold very close to my heart, the thought that we’ll be growing old together, with dogs by our side, in a little house somewhere remote.

Today we packed the dog up, I made a picnic and we enjoyed our local National Trust property all to ourselves. And we fell in love all over again. I followed a pheasant who didn’t mind being followed and saw more yew-berries than I ever have before.  We held hands, walked through bowers of golden leaves and bare branches - listened for the call of moorhens and crows and talked about times-past.  I’m sure anyone watching would’ve had no doubt that we were in love.  Not to say that we don’t parry, we don’t have our opposing moments.  We do.  But that’s the thing about relationships.  You learn from your mistakes and you find other ways to deal with confrontations.  You compromise.  And you build the foundations for something you hope is going to last forever.

[365, Day Thirty-Seven, Monday 26th November 2007. Pines.]

I’m a very lucky gal this week - Mr. VP has some days holiday left over and so he elected to spend them at home with me, which means I get a week of unadulterated us-time. It’s been really nice, as my weeks have been hectic as has his of late (hence the lack of comments on other blogs!) but with him at home we have a running list of things that we’ve got to fit into this time together.

We went to the garden centre this morning and after a coffee and a wander around I paused, like a spaniel that has caught a scent, and a wall of the purest Christmas scent (pine resin) met me and tugged me toward the Christmas-tree section they had. It was so nice to be wrapped up in snuggly coat, thick tights and warm boots looking around the Christmas trees with my beloved. It was a very surreal moment, but a very happy one. We resisted a tree from there though, as we have somewhere else we get ours from - and even for a Christmas-obsessive like myself, November is still too early to actually have the tree at home.

In the afternoon after we’d had our lunch and watched Neighbours (feeling for all the world like school truants) we took wrapped ourselves up again, with dog in tow and headed out for a walk just as the sun was beginning to wane. I suggested doing this as the trees all around us are pines - and there is nothing nicer than collecting fallen pine-cones (you must never take anything from a tree that it does not give willingly and freely) and walking the dog with your beloved.

On our walk we discovered some mushrooms, too. We have no idea what these are - they are quite yellow underneath but there are a good many mushrooms matching that description. It’d be nice to think it was one of these, but don’t think it is. Boo!

The sky was turning a milk-glass shade of pinky-grey as the sun was setting. It marked the right time for us to head back home. We got home thoroughly cold and rosy-cheeked, with a small bag’s-worth of pine-cones. All the happier for a walk. And all the happier for seeing pine trees growing wild, magically springing up everywhere; happy.

After our walk we came home and had the most luxuriously wonderful nap before continuing with dinner and some things I had to get done. Tomorrow busy-ness, and many more miles to go before I sleep…