I had wanted to do a before and after photo of the dining-room but it wasn’t to be. So here’s a photo of the new carpet which as you can see is a sort of oatmeal colour and has a slightly textured pattern on it which you can’t really see here. The carpet fitter was absolutely brilliant at his job – how often can you say that – and I’m really pleased with it especially as it won’t show up the crumbs so much! The old carpet was charcoal grey, a big mistake as it showed up every speck.

The boots are new too, I bought them when we were in England recently. My legs are normally covered up, this is a rare outing for them. My Dad always commented that he didn’t know I had legs whenever they got an airing! I’m not a shoe person at all, in fact I view shoes as objects of torture because I’m always bleeding from my heels and blistered so I tend to avoid them and wear clogs and flat boots all the time and then my feet are fine. I couldn’t walk in high heels to save my life. As a kid I dreaded the start of the new school term and new shoes. Those Clarks shoes were agony, I might as well have worn biscuit tins!

I haven’t been able to blog or visit blogs much for the last few days as I’ve been doing so much running around and trying to finish off things in the house before everyone gets here. So tomorrow I just have to bake the birthday boy’s cake and make the birthday meal – and then it’s Christmas! I hope your Christmas plans are on schedule.

I usually do a wee Winter Solstice blogpost, but not this year as I was so busy. The 21st here was indeed the darkest most dismal day and I could’ve been doing with a party then to cheer me up . It was one of those days when you needed a lamp on all the time – positively dreich. I’m so looking forward to having more light soon.

In Scotland we’re being encouraged to dose ourselves up with vitamin D, the easiest way is to take cod liver oil (yeugh). Apparently it’s the lack of sunlight here which gives us the highest rates of MS in the world. I’m going to be making my way to the health food shop soon and on that cheery note – cheerio.

If you’re in need of a bit of a laugh at the moment, give yourself a treat and watch good old Dick Emery. If I wore high heels I would walk like the ‘charming young lady’!

I’m wondering why Saunders does a Scottish accent for this because I don’t think that Stella Gonet has one in The House of Eliott, although she is Scottish – or is it just that I can’t hear it!

I hope you enjoy it too.

We haven’t been able to get to our relatives to give them their Christmas presents either so Christmas is going to be delayed this year, until the roads are safe to drive on again.

Winter has come, the snow has fell,
Wee Josie’s nose is froze as well,
Wee Josie’s nose is frozen skintit,
Winter’s diabolic – intit!

I thought that I would inflict a terrible piece of Scottish doggerel poetry on you, just in case you weren’t feeling bad enough!

I was lucky enough to be given the Dad’s Army boxed set as a Christmas present. It has taken me till now to finish watching them all but I’ve had a great time doing it. Amazingly there were a few that I don’t remember ever having seen before. They were an absolute life saver during the past couple of months when I kept thinking that the news couldn’t get much worse – and then it did. I think they should be available on prescription for people with depression. I read recently that sufferers improved hugely when they watched hours of comedies. It actually changes the brain patterns. Well, it’s got to be better than popping pills.