Thread 16 - TalkLair: "Well, I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish-yet-affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on here."

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 15).

Another year over, a new one just begun...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls festooned with tinsel, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors, the tree is twinkling with fairy lights (and possibly being clambered on by cats). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey Christmas roast beast over there in the corner of the cave…

I have iced the Christmas cake and made the clementine cake and am starting to wrap presents. The house is still a tip, obviously.

If there was a hardware shop in Harry Potter, this would be it. I once went in with several different brass plates and handles from various chests of drawers of my mother's, all of which needed new nuts to hold them on. A gnome in an inner sanctum matched them all in no time and as a bonus guessed the age of each piece correctly!

A poster from our former online home who lives in Italy came to Norfolk on holiday and insisted on a pilgrimage there, as Bint and I and other East Anglian posters had waxed so lyrical about it!

Would that be bernardlion? DH and I had dinner with her and her DH at their house in Rome a couple of years ago when we were passing through that bit of Italy. Lovely people.

Yes it was! MrBL was initially baffled but then enthusiastic...

I didn't know there was a Christmas tree thread. I shall search for it and post mine up there.

That store looks wonderful. There was a big one, nothing like the size of that, in Brighton until very recently. Alas, it's closed down and hardware stores seem to be becoming a thing of the past which saddens me. There was a good one in the village next to the one I lived in until 2022 that I liked spending time in. There's something about them that makes me happy.

I did a bit of food shopping today that was all very civilised. I popped into Waitrose post therapy and then Morrison's a little later. I was delighted to pick up what Snoop and I call my "dolly bread". Warburton's do a small seeded loaf that I used to love but haven't had for over a year. I bought a loaf today and came home to have a sandwich that is both a bit moggo and a bit naice. Quorn vegan smoked ham, Jarlsberg and mayonnaise on lovely dolly bread. Oh but it was such a treat.

Therapy was a lovely pre-Christmas present not least because my therapist told me that one of the things that made her sad - I'm thinking she's going to tell me about patients who do the whole dying thing because she's a cancer specialist therapist - was that very occasionally she'll have a patient who she thinks she could be great friends with in real life but it can't ever happen even after therapy is over because it's not allowed and she'd be struck off. I'm one of those patients! She's right though. I think she's fabulous and can imagine spending time with her outside of therapy. We ran over today because I was in a fantastically positive state of mind (still am, long may it last!) so we just got quite philosophical and chatted about everything. That said I did tell her that my close friend killed herself last year but it felt, I don't know, cathartic, not sad but necessary to fill in some gaps. She's Irish as well so I feel like I'm talking with a cousin who's on exactly the same wave length as me. I'm lucky to have her but I'll be sad when the therapy finishes because I'll miss her. We have plans for the new year which will make things interesting for me if they go the right way.

I took myself into therapy for a couple of years after I moved here - the sudden loss of a beloved husband coupled with finding a beloved second husband surprisingly soon (over which I lost a couple of old friends because of their disapproval of this) coupled with moving from one country to another and leaving two of my children behind. It wasn't that I was unhappy, it was just... peculiar, and I needed help sorting it all out in my brain.

I get that @Britinme . I'm not particularly unhappy at the moment but my brain is a bit all over the place and therapy is really helping.

So late to this thread which I've just skimmed through! On the cheap veg front, I found parsnips in Lidl at 8p instead of 75p, and I really wasn't going to bother making any more stout this year, but at that price, it just had to be done!

Happy Christmas to you lovely people.

Yes indeed happy Christmas! I've just gone to bed so Santa should be coming down your chimneys about now :-)

Happy Christmas to all you lovely threadsters!

We stayed up quite late last night watching the Death In Paradise Xmas special on catch-up (not sure how we feel about the new DI yet). And then just as we were yawning our way up to bed, DDs insisted on doing the mince pie, sherry and carrot thing despite no longer believing in Father Christmas. A minor argument about where to place the plate ensued - if we put it right in front of the woodturner door, would "he" step on it? It's very sweet that DC have decided this is part of our family festive traditions.

I still woke up at my regular 5:30am time though, as did DH. It did mean we could stuff DDs stockings over a leisurely mug of tea. Also got the excessively giant lump of beef out of the fridge to reach room temperature. DH has A Plan for getting all The Things roasted, in shifts, in our tiny air-fryer-oven.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Lovely news regarding your bread, Mouse! I hope you'll be able to enjoy more festive treats.

On films, we watched Nativity last night, which is a total cringe fest, with a happy ending. Last night, l learned that in Ukraine, kids put their front door key out on the front door, to let Father Christmas in and out refugee girl was adamant that she had to do it. In the end, she hung an old key on the washing line. ... She 12 in a couple of weeks.

NoBinturongsHereMate · Yesterday 16:19

Here's an interesting¹ thing I missed earlier in the year - a whole new phylum of viroids:

That's fascinating, do they kill their hosts, or just insinuate themselves into their genomes? It's a bit much to read at this bleary eyed hour!

I've come downstairs and found our meat in the fridge. I got it out at 8 last night, to lose its chill. I hope it cooks properly now, it's a 4 kilo rib of beef.

Happy Christmas everyone, hope you all have a lovely day.

We're having lunch with Mr Veg's cousin and various family and friends. Not sure what the meat will be but there will very likely be beef and pork. The cousin is a chef so it will very excellent. Before cheffing he was a butcher, as were his dad and grandfather. The dad would buy a big piece of beef and hang it in the garage for a week for extra flavour and it was always really tasty.

a 4 kilo rib of beef

That sounds good, hope it cooks well!

Happy Christmas folks.

I'd left a not very big salad to eat after Mass last evening (not very late, I was home at about 8:30) and felt the need of something hot after it so finally cooked the Christmas pudding I bought some time ago (prob 2022) and couldn't face eating until now - claimed to be Best Before April 2024. I think they were lying because it was perfection (most of it is left over so it will be cold perfection for a few days). Mature is the way to go, clearly.

For today I'll be having the trifle - I'd better not make too much at one go.

A friend who has gone away on a cruise had asked another pal to keep and hand over her gift, and the hander-over decided to give me something too, so I have delicious marmalade, chutney and (my favourite) black cherry jam - and a parcel yet to open. Someone else gave me chocs and wine, so I feel very lucky - but also that I need to do something to reciprocate. Will have a think.

I'm also looking to opening the books that are my-present-to-me.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

We've started the day with croissants amd pistachio butter.

Not sure about the obelisks, Sinner. It didn't mention them exploding their bacterial hosts the way phages do, so perhaps they toddle along happily together. Doesnt look as if they do any known harm to the humans carrying them - in fact if I read the table about crohn's and colitis correctly they may even be beneficial.

Last night we prepared ourselves for the festivities by binge watching Nisser en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elves_(TV_series)

Happy Christmas all! An advantage of baby weasel being a whopping 19 is that I’m still in bed, waiting for her to get up for her stocking and open it in my room. The novelty of a Christmas Day lie in still hasn’t worn off, even though it’s been the pattern for the last three or so years.

Hope you all have a lovely day in whatever way you are celebrating or not celebrating

I cooked the turkey and ham yesterday so today will be comparatively leisurely with just the veg to prep. The ravening hordes are due to descend at 2pm so I'm having a cup of tea and reading emails in bed while DH somehow manages to stay asleep next to me despite it being almost 8am, and no sound has yet emerged from DS1's room.

We had a lovely dinner and get-together with DH's DGD, now aged 24 and studying dental hygiene in NC but visiting her mom here for Christmas. I've known her since she was 2 and she is now absolutely gorgeous and a generally lovely and sensible young woman. She brought her boyfriend, who seems very nice but turned out to be allergic to our cats so they didn't stay late because the poor guy was sniffling and sneezing and itchy-eyed.

Happy Christmas all and I hope everyone has had a lovely day.

Snoop, her chap and I had a lovely dinner. She'd been in search of a last minute bargain but none appeared so we ended up eating a Tesco extra special duck and turkey thing wrapped around a pork, duck and plum stuffing. It was delicious and although I didn't eat too much I did suffer a little afterwards. I think it was the meat being rather rich but it was worth it. The rest was lush gravy made from the oozings of the meat, carrot and swede mash, red cabbage, Brussel sprouts, roast potatoes and roast parsnips. Dessert for them was Christmas pudding and clotted cream and for me it was some Mackie's ice cream. Poor Snoop had been in search of a good Christmas pudding only to discover that I don't care for it and she was getting it for me!

We had an absolutely lovely day. Stopped in it at my local where the lovely young barman and barwoman were dressed as a very pregnant Mary and her Joseph. There followed a conversation about marriage, the chances of having a boy later in the day, angelic impregnantion and prostitiution. The latter may seem out there but for reasons of comic hilarity it wasn't.

She loved her orange presents for Gina the small van camper and I am in love with a jumper she got me which is just like one she has that I have lusted over for ages. Funnily enough before we'd got to present opening she was telling me how obsessed she had become with the colour orange and I was telling her how lovely she looked singing at the Pavillion last weekend in sad lush jumper. It made the fun of opening presents every bit as great for the giver as the receiver.

I am now happily sated on food, Call the Midwife and the final ever Gavin and Stacey. Huzzah for being alive and almost well at Christmas.

Oh and Seamus the least affectionate dog in the world went to Snoop after he'd eaten for love and cuddles and left his water bowl to come and give me some love and cuddle time when I told him I was going to be leaving soon. His Christmas gift to us poor ladies who are always longing for just a hint that we are more than bearers of food to him.

That sounds a lovely day.

We only had half our 'serves 2' sage & onion pie for lunch, but were still too full for trifle until after and snooze and a walk. The trifle was also 'serves 2', but that turned out to be 'serves 2 if you have it instead of dinner'. Still quite full.

And wondering how Kuc's air fryer shuffle went.

I'm interested in the air fryer shuffle as well.

I really fancy trifle right now. If the supermarkets are open tomorrow, which I imagine they will be, I might pick up a small one.

My Black Forest trifle was nice, but I made the custard too soft so not my best effort. Other than that we had turkey, ham, roast potatoes, roast parsnip, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots and stuffing. My carrot cake was excellent and mostly disappeared. We have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow, and probably a day or two after that. DS2 and his family joined us for dinner and the afternoon, along with his SIL and her family, and my DDIL and her sisters DF and DAunt. We have a binful of wrapping paper and all the kids made out like bandits. I got book tokens (how well they know me) and a sweater and some smelly stuff, some chocolate and a few other things, all very nice. DH was given a santa hat with reindeer horns that had flashing lights on it, and I was given a headband with a Christmas tree on it, all of which we of course wore all afternoon. It was a very nice Christmas. DH and DS1 are currently unloading and reloading the dishwasher and clearing up the living room, and I am knackered and going to bed.

I forgot that I introduced Snoop and her chap to a series of sketches from SNL that I discovered a month or so ago. The star of them is Kirsten Wiig and she's a member of a sort of 50s type group of sisters. She's always the last one to introduce herself (singing) as "I'm Dooneese". The woman is a comic genius, Dooneese is all manner of wrong, disturbing and hilarious. There was much laughter. I particularly liked one sketch co-starring Elton John.