It has been quite a busy day, the weather hasn't been that good, but with the crowds out and about you would thing it was almost Christmas! Darren and I went off to get the last of the grocery shopping at 8.30 am, we obviously had a sausage sandwich to start the excursion! The store was already heaving, I hate to imagine what it was like later in the day. We came home and I had a lovely seasonal basket arrive from the girls at the studio.

After a bit of a rest I decided to have a go at the cranberry bread, a recipe I got from Patty when I was in America. I also made some mince pies. The cakes sunk a little bit, but I don't worry about that now as I know we have to do the best we can with the unreliable gas pressure!

Tina and I tried it and it cooked through okay, it is a bit tart but actually pretty tasty. I had a little while before I caught the bus to town for my haircut. So I tried doing a bit of the jigsaw. There must be a hundred white pieces and they are literally just white, so I have to find the places by looking closely at the shapes, luckily they are not completely uniform.

I have actually completed the white part since I took this picture. The weather was miserable when I caught the bus, grey, damp and cold. I had a couple of errands to do and then went to the hairdressers. Leaving there I walked along to the studio to see the girls and thank them for the lovely plant arrangement and to collect the trinket box which I am pleased with.

I walked home from the studio, my ankle was quite painful today but going slowly it wasn't too bad getting home. May do a bit more of the jigsaw this evening, starting the countries should be fun!

I sorted the pieces for the edge of the map of the world jigsaw last night. As the pieces are all plain blue or white I just about did one edge and found that I had missed one of the white edge pieces. It is a 1000 piece jigsaw so quite a lot of edge pieces to find. This morning Colonel still seems fine, which is good, hopefully he will stay that way for a while now. I caught the bus and went into the studio. They were quite busy today, which is great for them, I had spotted a crown shaped trinket box which I thought Isobel would like so spent a couple of hours painting one as they are doing an extra firing tonight. I just used two colours, the purple and a sparkly yellow. I haven't really used the sparkly under glazes much.

I will be able to collect it tomorrow afternoon or on Saturday morning. It had looked a lovely day from inside but actually was bitterly cold when I went for the bus, mainly due to the biting wind. When I left the studio it looked like a snowy sky, but it soon cleared and became bright again.

This afternoon I have watched quite a bit of House and have completed the edging of the jigsaw, apart from the one white piece which I will find when I start doing the actual map. I am quite looking forward to doing it and maybe improving my geography at the same time!

I slept a bit better last night, still sneezing and coughing but I think that is catarrh rather than on my chest. I thought I would have a short walk, I went through the park where the Canada geese were having a leisurely nibble at the grass on the putting green.

Then two of them had a spat!

Took a picture of the bridge over to the island but through a bush with lilac flowers, always a new angle!

I walked on down to the front, a grey day, but the sun did appear for a while later.

The tide was in and the sea quite foamy.

I walked home after having a drink at Peaches and Cream, and called in at the local shop. Had a bit of a scare when I got in as I went to feed Colonel and he collapsed onto the floor and had a fit. After shouting for Darren he came down and we sat with Colonel while he rested and he seems to be back to his usual self since that episode. He is almost 19 years old and soldiers on despite his problems. I haven't done a great deal this afternoon, watched some episodes of House and the second series of Dr Blake has arrived so I have plenty of viewing to keep me going for a while.

I had a bad night, the cold has developed and I just couldn't settle! When Tina knew I had been up in the night finding a blanket because I was cold, she told me to stay in as she knows I am not well if I start getting cold! I did stay in all morning, didn't even get dressed until lunch time. Did some washing and one or two household chores. When I was out yesterday I bought a jigsaw in The Works. It is a map of the world and I thought it would be good to do when I am laid up. My geography is also very poor so I may even get to have a better grasp of where countries actually are!

I wasn't feeling too bad this afternoon so Tina and I braved the supermarket to get some of the Christmas shopping in. It was busy but not quite as bad as I had thought it would be. We had a trolly each as we both had vouchers to use and we have separate loyalty cards. Tina got me this Christmas bunch of flowers, well, to be truthful not flowers at all, but very attractive.

Quite a while ago I ordered a microwave browning plate, it arrived a few days ago, so when we were out I bought a pizza so that I could try it out. First problem was it wouldn't turn in my microwave so  I had to take it downstairs. Luckily it fitted in that one. The second problem was that there was just a page with recipes on, it mentioned pizzas a lot but nowhere did it say how long they needed to be cooked for! This is what it looks like, you have to heat it up a bit before putting any food in.

I cooked it for a total of about five minutes. I am not actually a pizza lover particularly. The cheese and vegetables were fine, I think the dough could have done with a couple of minutes more. I will try and get more detailed instructions on line.

Have watched some House. Have started sneezing a lot again this evening and I have the runny nose back. Tina did get me some medicine when she went out this morning. Holby tonight and the second part of Last Tango in Halifax.

This morning I caught the bus to Castle Road and called in to see Sandy at the studio. they don't usually open on a Monday so it was not busy when I arrived. When I was waiting for the bus I was looking at the hydrangeas in the gardens. I think they are one of the few flowers that still look interesting when they are 'finished', still such a variety of colour, although no longer bright colours!

There is a Chinese restaurant near the studio and they have the biggest Christmas cactus that I have ever seen and it is full of flowers.

I did walk into town, my ankle was really playing up today, but I still thought I would walk home and stop for a drink at Let it Brie. I had forgotten that Let it Brie is closed on Monday and Tuesday so I just carried on home. albeit very slowly and in some discomfort. Rested for a bit when I got home, watched an episode of House and then the film Cold Runnings was on, which is really good, so I enjoyed watching that again. After that I sat and finished the little decorative crackers. They all have three chocolates in and a joke sheet. I ate too many of the quality street while making them so have taken the rest downstairs for Darren and Tina!

Last Tango in Halifax tonight, so that should be fun.

This morning Anya joined  Darren and I for breakfast at the Paul Pry which was a nice start to the day. Then Darren and I checked out and went to visit Margherita and Rose for a couple of hours. Delivered the large model dog and didn't get into too much trouble! We had a good drive home with a couple of stops en route. We were back in time for me to go to the carol service at church. Didn't take many photos this weekend but will post a few. There was a great choir singing at Van Hage when we went there with Anya and Isobel on Saturday.

Then we went to the Thomas Deaken Academy to see a pantomime put on by the Live Church. The academy is fairly new and a great building.

The pantomime was fun, I did take a couple of pictures but they were blurred but got one of the cast after the performance.

Isobel liked her balloon 'crown',and 'balloon sword' .

Took a picture when we were approaching the Humber Bridge on the way home. I make no excuse for this as it is one of my favourite sights!!

 The carol service was good this evening, a very full church which was good.

 I will write a fairly short post and perhaps just one photo as the wifi here is really terrible and goes off after a couple of minutes, so very frustrating! Darren and I went across to Morrison's for breakfast and met up with Angie and Michelle briefly. Then Darren and I went to Anya's house and joined her and Isobel to go to the pool to see Isobel have her swimming lesson. She did really well today, her group is in the main pool now. We went off to the Deacon Academy where members of the 'Live Church' were doing a pantomime, Robin Hood. That was good fun, then we went back to Anya's for a short while. This evening Darren went off to visit his dad and I went to see Rachel and watch the Strictly final. A great show, anyone was a worthy winner, and Ore had come a really long way over the months. I am back at the hotel now. Will just put a picture of Angie and me today and put a few more pics on when I am home tomorrow night!