Merry Christmas!

Mike, Sally-Ann and Hamish wish all visitors to our blog

a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Carol Singing

Tonight was the annual carol singing event which is held outside the Portreath Arms in the village.

Jo and Paul came down to join in and Hamish came along too ...

Illogan Sparnon Silver Band provided the music and Portreath Improvements Committee provided the mulled wine and mince pies. It was great.

I'm feeling really festive now!

It's Christmas Time!

The tree is up ...

the decorations have been dug out of their box ...

and we've gone a bit overboard on the outside lights ...

The upstairs window has little robins which light up the computer room for me. Unfortunately I don't take good photos outside in the dark!

New Fire

We've been looking for a new fire for a while now and then an email from Screwfix dropped into Mike's inbox showing some Sale items. There it was - just what we wanted and £40 cheaper than we'd seen anywhere in the shops! We didn't order it immediately thank goodness because a day or two later another email came from Screwfix offering a discount of £10 if you spent over £100 and our fire was priced at £102.76. We very quickly put in an order and the next morning our fire arrived for £92.76!! Bargain or what?

MX-5 Christmas Dinner

Yesterday afternoon we loaded the car with all our things for a night away and Hamish had his rucksack and bed as he was going to stay with Fred for a sleep-over. After delivering him to Jo and Paul's we set off to meet our fellow fivers at Fraddon before driving on up to Trethorne Golf Club at Launceston.

We checked in and found our room which was very nice and in a Lodge close to the main building.

Everyone gathered by the bar at 6.30pm for a pre-meal drink and then it was time to start the important part of the evening - the food! It was scrumptious!

After dinner the Disco got going and we managed to work off some of the calories we'd consumed! In between dances we sat and chatted ...

By the time we left to walk back to the Lodge it was already very frosty and gave us an idea of what we'd be finding this morning when we looked out of our window.

On our way up for breakfast I took these photos of our poor little car which normally leads such a sheltered life with a cosy garage for a home but had to endure freezing temperatures and was covered in a very heavy frost ...

The rest of the members were going on a short drive today but we wanted to get back and collect Hamish. We'd heard from Jo that Paul had spent the night on the sofa as our little monster wouldn't stop barking. Check out Jo's blog - Cornish Beach Brummie - for photos of the boys.

A big thank you to both of them for having him to stay.

Hamish and Buster

I only have to mention the name 'Buster' and Hamish appears from wherever he is hiding in the house to sit in front of the TV and look at his idol!

Tech Day or Shopping? What Do You Think!

Mike and I went our separate ways today!

It was a Tech Day at Collins of Probus and definitely not my scene or Jo's so we hit the shops of Truro while Mike and Paul did their 'thing' at the garage ...

gleaning loads of useful info on the cars, eating fish and chips (naughty, naughty!) and generally chatting all day about engines and all those parts that mean nothing at all to us but are to do with an MX-5!

Jo parked at the Park and Ride and I got to use my new bus pass - great - a free trip into town. There are certainly some perks when you get older. She had a list of presents that she needed to buy and I only had a couple of things that I wanted but it was good to have a mooch around and not be feeling guilty that I was dragging Mike along where he didn't want to be. We had lunch in our favourite haunt - The Lounge - and then it was back on the shopping trail before getting the bus back to the car.

It was Redruth's turn to have their Christmas lights turned on tonight and so Mike brought Hamish over to Jo and Paul's and we all walked into town. We just missed the actual turning on but we had a wander around and Jo took these photos ...

our local radio Pirate FM were in attendance ...

and the boys met some new friends ...