Sunday 13 December 2015

All's well in Ambridge... except Rob


It's the last day of the Christmas Market here, or 'Shed City' as some people call it. There is a coach-park on the edge of town, and last week it reached its capacity with 380 coaches - all parked at the same time. Cardiff comes to town this time of year, for some reason.

Today has been designated Christmas Card making day, because each year we say we are not going to do it, but then H.I. always says we really ought to, she supposes. I had a brilliant and simple idea for this year's, but it's not going to happen.

There is a pop-up bar that appears every year outside a hotel here, and it is designed along a ski-resort chalet, complete with snow. Inside, I am told, there is a photo opportunity gadget for selfies, which makes you look as though you are in a giant snow-globe which has been vigorously shaken. H.I. refuses to pose in it, so this will not be the image on our card. She hates making herself undignified for some reason, whereas I can't help it.

A few years ago, we visited the ice-rink outside Somerset House in London, and I can strongly recommend going there just to watch if you are in London for Christmas. It is both charming and hilarious.

The sight of the marshals pirouetting effortlessly whilst dressed in black bomber-jackets with 'SECURITY' written on them in huge white letters, is an incongruous sight which I will never remember without a smile appearing on my face.

Well, as I am sure you must have heard by now, the Grundys will all be back together at Bridge Farm in a week or so, and Joe will not be forced into a hostel for homeless drug-addicts.

It looks as though there is going to be a Christmas after all.


Well here it is - that didn't take long. It is a detail from H.I.'s latest painting with an opaque film of snow overlaid. That tree isn't really on fire - the sunlight through the window cast a bright shape over the top, and I photographed it before it disappeared. That was weeks ago. I can hardly remember what sunshine looks like. I still think us in a snow-globe would have been better.

20 comments:

  1. One year I wanted to stick our heads through one of those seaside, end of the pier, fat bathers, pictures and use it for Christmas cards, but Lady M refused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's the matter with them? They have no taste.

      Delete
  2. Boy's will be boy's ..... I like your Christmas card ..... H.I's paintings are beautiful and, it makes your cards very personal ..... the giant snow-globe thingy would have been tacky as would Cro's idea ..... H.I and Lady M have their head's screwed on !!!! XXXX

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well as it turns out, they are right. The snow-globe thing is just not tacky enough to be tasteful.

      Delete
  3. It is rather bleak, very fitting for Christmas 2015 I suppose. Is it blank inside for your own special messages?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I thought it was one of your candlesticks plus bird and snow.
    So glad that the Grundys are to be en famille - but for how long?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 6 months minimum - so they are saying at the moment, but you know what perfidious bastards those toffs are. The Grundys will have another disaster in the New Year, mark my words.

      Delete
  5. I like the idea of the funny cards, but I don't think my husband would go for it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I went to look at the snow-globe effect today, and it is disappointingly tacky. I wouldn't have used it.

      Delete
  6. I couldnt bare it when Rob turned up at the stag night...i had to turn it off
    What happened?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The bastard told Ian that the 'affair' between Adam and Charlie was common knowledge. I LOVE Rob - he is the perfect person to hate, and we all need one of those in Panto.

      Delete
    2. P.S. - 'bare' it, or 'bear' it? I think we need to know, but I hope it's the first!

      Delete
  7. I just looked over the facebook page for the Bath Christmas Market. City planners all over the world immitating each other. Here in Akron, just south of me, they import dozens of German vendors and advertise it as international good will as well as a German style christmas market plus a beer garten and weinerschnitzle. It's been a big deal for at about ten years now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is a spoof comedy on You Tube which features an English Market in Germany, where all you can buy is lemons.

      Delete
  8. We are in Lo don right now, and are skating at Somerset House tonight. I love Christmas....yey!

    ReplyDelete