Christmas Eve

While we're a long way from home this year, we're still having a big Christmas. It's been excellent to welcome my cousins Katie and Becca into our household on Monday, who will be here with us for Christmas. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of presents under the tree either, though the majority of them are either for Nick or Hayley! Following Hungarian tradition, presents from Nick's side of the family were opened tonight on Christmas eve, while other presents are waiting until tomorrow. Of course, it's already Christmas Day in Australia and New Zealand, so we've had a queue of phone calls to family on various sides. I'm still feeling quite flu-ey so found it a little difficult to hold up my side of some conversations... apologies if I sounded a little flat! Our food preparations for tomorrow are anyway complete, so with kiwis Liz and Brett joining us tomorrow to make eight, we're feeling reasonably on top of things. I'm just pleased to have my local presents wrapped and under the tree. (They're on the right, though you'd be hard pressed to pick them out!)

Yesterday Rebecca and Katie spent the day visiting family friend “Granny Totman", down in Hayling Island. In the evening, we went into the city to see the West End musical Thoroughly Modern Millie. Big dance numbers, and a good time. We enjoyed it! Just down the road we passed the quintessentially English James Smith & Sons, purveyors of umbrellas of distinction. Yes, that sign above and to the left of the corner window does indeed say “Life Preservers, Dagger Canes, Swordsticks.” We peered in with considerable interest. I've never seen a £250 walking stick before!

Today we had a civilised start to the day but at 11:30am, realising we had only four hours of daylight left, we decided we'd better get moving. We finally left the house an hour later and headed out to Richmond Park. I've been wanting to visit this park all year. I was once driven through the middle of the 2,500 hectare park by a colleague. The park is beautiful, the largest green space in London, and we enjoyed the variety of animal life including birds on the large lakes. One of the local residents took a particular interest in us, when I started eating my salad sandwich. Was it the food, or was he trying to determine whether we'd been naughty or nice? Certainly, while there were many much larger deer in the flock, as this one came striding within a few metres of us we realised just how sharp those main antlers really are. We moved on and he followed for around 100 metres before finally losing interest.

It is quite possible to live a life in London that is entirely removed from the usual concept of the metropolitan lifestyle. I walk 20 minutes to work, and within a few miles are three major wilderness areas including this park. The expansive green spaces in London make it so much more pleasant to live in this big city. And while we'd like to be closer to all our family at this time, we're enjoying our first northern Christmas.

May you all have a peaceful Christmas.