Night falls quickly in the tropics© Pete Boyd
Following on from the immensely popular "Christmas in July", certain British-based members of the Jones clan decided to hold a Christmas in December...in December! We had to have it on the 17th, because Lucy is gwine back to Orstraya over Christmas. But we made it a suitably festive occasion.
Saturday involved going to Borough Market and buying key ingredients. I can vouch that they do have proper coffee there at the Monmouth stall. A double espresso does actually have two shots and will not cure insomnia. We also discovered some excellent fudge: sea salt and caramel sounds a bit strange, but it's damned nice. In order to restore balance, we had a croissant that purported to be fresh, but I suspect that meant it was at the time of the last ice age.
The real reason we went to Borough was to procure a 5kg (6kg with bits) goose from the poultry shop. It was a fairly solid undertaking, but I managed to fit it into my backpack. Five kilos might sound a lot for five people, but you'd be surprised how far it doesn't go after you siphon off two bowls of fat. After Christmas lunch on Sunday, we were left with approximately one goose leg and the awful prospect of a one leg goose curry.
Random note: while shopping at Tesco's, I chanced upon a can of French table wine. I bought it for £1.20, which was surely overpriced. Unfortunately when we got it home, we found it was past its use-by date: December '05. It's obviously a red hot seller at Tesco's. But it should really be illegal to even think about selling French table wine in a can.
Saturday evening, we visited Cousin Polly and her daughter Eva, who we worked out is only just a cousin. Polly's friend Rachel was also there. We consumed a modicum of wine, a hell of a lot of Moroccan food, and watched Eva getting mauled by her pet panda. I even saw Cousin Essie for about 30 seconds (she's another person I haven't seen for about 10 years).
Eva is mauled by her pet panda© Pete Boyd
L to R: Rachel, Polly, Lucy, Pete, Ant© Jeff Jones
Ant and I are in paroxysms after reading a Christmas cracker joke© Pete Boyd
The panda turns its attentions to Ant© Pete Boyd
"10 mile run" was often mentioned, but I contented myself with a 35 km ride along the Thames on Sunday morning. I went east, through a lot of docklands, and ended up somewhere near Woolwich. Interesting ride, and bloody cold. In fact, the weather at the moment has officially reached "bastard cold" status, with temps hovering just above zero and fog pervading. It's dark until shortly after 8am and around 4pm, and merely dim the rest of the time. Still, on "Christmas Day", we had a nice blue sky and it was pleasant to stay indoors and eat silly amounts of food.
For Christmas, we had a party of five: Lucy, Pete, Ant, Lucy's friend Lesley and moi. After ingesting the goose, we didn't feel so energetic. But the reality of Home Alone II: Lost in New York was too much to bear, and we watched Shaun of the Dead and then a Jackie Chan flick. A perfect Christmas, really.
The Christmas table© Pete Boyd
Lucy in zer kitchen© Pete Boyd
Ready to devour the blinis and champers© Jeff Jones
The Christmas © Jeff Jones
Your goose is cooked...© Pete Boyd
Ready to get into some serious goose action© Pete Boyd
Ant being festive© Pete Boyd
Lesley being festive© Jeff Jones
Merrie Pete© Jeff Jones
The puddin' is alight!© Pete Boyd
Apres unwrapping© Jeff Jones
Luce and Pete© Jeff Jones
Ant in recovery mode© Pete Boyd
After recovering from overeating, I then sprinted through a fairly quiet London to get the 10pm train back to Bath. Why do they always put the guard's van on the other end of the train?
This week I need to negotiate two more Christmas parties. Wednesday is the bike group's lunch at the Lock Inn in Bradford-on-Avon. We'll ride up the towpath in the fog, have lunch and not get too pissed, then ride home in the dark. It's ok if you've got good lights.
Thursday is the company Christmas party in Bristol. That could be interesting, as we get bus transport to and from the venue. Hell, even some of the folks from London are coming. Future employs around 1000 people, so it will be a fairly big affair.
I have wisely taken both Thursday and Friday off, so it'll be nearly two weeks holiday as of tomorrow. Planned visits: London and Stockholm (for NY).
Christmas party #3
I will go on the record again and say that it's bastard cold. Wednesday morning: 1 degree and dense fog in warm Bath. It was much colder once you got outside the confines of the town.
About 15 of us rode up to Bradford-on-Avon via the towpath, and it was definitely cold, muddy and foggy. But also beautiful in that cold, muddy and foggy kind of way. My tiny hands were quite frozen by the time we reached the Crew Guns, which is only about 2 miles from Bradford. It's a nice old pub, but not that easy to get to. We all had a restorative there, and I went with the mulled wine because it was actually hot, and surprisingly drinkable. Well, it didn't taste like it had come out of a can...
Lunch was at the Lock Inn - another charming pub, with bits of old and new bike memorabilia on the walls and a cosy atmosphere. The Gary Jules version of Mad World was playing when we entered. I like the song, and it has been running through my head a bit of late.
We were all squeezed onto a canal boat, which was thankfully well heated. Creamy garlic mushrooms, roast beef, mashed potato and Yorkshire pudding were all on the menu, washed down with several pints of Stella. Those closest to Doddy became the most inebriated over time. It felt very festive and it was a perfect day for tucking into a fairly substantial Christmas lunch.
We were a merrie olde bunch by the time we left to go back at around 6:30. By this time, it was pitch black and most of us had never ridden off road, in the dark, in the fog, next to a canal before. Luckily we weren't totally tanked and made good use of our lights to navigate the 2 miles back to the Crew Guns. Yes, we could even ride in a straight line. Another mulled wine for good measure, then we pushed onto the George, which was on the canal but much closer to Bath. I can tell you that it was all a surreal (and cold!) experience.
We still had eight of us left by the time we got back to the Bell in Bath. That was almost as surreal as the canal trip. There was a band playing and the place was packed. We looked rather odd in very muddy cycling kit, but it didn't matter too much except for the people who tried to squeeze past us. Plenty of mud to go around.
It was a lot of fun. Now I need a tux for tomorrow.
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