Free Parking

Yesterday we ventured on the M6 motorway(car park) to visit Andrew's brother,it seems the normal driving time is 40 minutes,due to traffic conditions we parked up on the said motorway for a couple of hours involuntarily breathing in fumes from other vehicles also "enjoying"similar post yuletide experiences,on the plus side we did enjoy free parking if you discount road tax already paid,I confess to being in poor humour at the experience.
Last night we went to the local docks for dinner in a Mexican joint,a suggestion that we walk there and back so everyone could have a drink, was generally reckoned to be a mistake in view of the black ice still lingering on roads and pavements, the two miles each way did not help.
Contrast this with the antipodean activities of our soon to be companions down under,who are luxuriating in a hot tub in more congenial temperatures as shown on Sonia's blog.

Yuletide is over

That's the end of yuletide for another year,and now it's the countdown to the big trip to the antipodes,the cat is prowling around and the sun is out in Preston,this is as interesting as life gets at the moment,I am even driven to watching the pathetic snow shovelling of Montana Mike on his blog,fingers are crossed here that the snow keeps away till after Wednesday,and there are no holdups at Ringway Airport.
The laptop was" spring cleaned" by the resident IT expert,I think that is defragged or some such technical term,I played a medley of Italian tunes like volare etc. this morning but was silenced by the other residents who were not as enamoured of my actions as I was,I am sure Sandra the pom will listen to them with more interest if I play them for her.
I hope all my many devoted readers are all in good health and that they indulge in a little jollity at the New Year festivity,during which we two intrepid travellers will be crossing the time zones in "comfort".

From our Preston correspondent

This morning Gina did her one up all up routine showering and general noise,before departing for work,luckily the two guests were already awake,and are old hands at this anyway,so here I am blogging at 7.30am having woke up at around 6am.
We survived the maniacs on the M62 motorway,and arrived yesterday complete with a pantechnicon load of food,and luggage,a bemused Andrew thought the unloading process was never coming to an end,and all three of us correctly forecast Gina's response when she came home from work,"Why have you brought all this food?",much has been made of the snow here in lancashire but conditions on the minor roads of lincolnshire were much worse,3 bridge lane(a road Sonia will know well) was particularly hazardous with the roadside dykes a threat to the unwary driver,and crossing the wolds the roads were covered in black ice,but the roadside trees looked spectacular with their coating of snow and ice sparkling in the sun.
Read Montana Mike's blog already and it reminded me of the real winter weather we encountered on our visit to their place in Kansas,we went out sightseeing in much worse conditions than the ones we are encountering here now,but the motorways were all clear though minor roads were icy and snow covered,I remember visiting Topeka a town not unlike Rotherham,and it was so cold we couldn't walk around in it,on the way back we visited Leavenworth and saw the infamous penitentiary,very forbidding.
I am off out now for a paper,strange having a paper shop in walking distance,but that's city living
for you, so today is Christmas eve,the old festival of Yuletide which the Christians adopted to suit their purpose,even moving the birthday of their "saviour"to suit,but as they say whatever floats your boat,so Merry Christmas , Huurva Juula and Buon Natale. Graham

George Clooney and Chardie Toblerone

Reflecting on the "over friendly attack" on my person by the WI "ladies"at the annual christmas dinner,I have reached the conclusion that they drank me into being George Clooney,the imbibing of much alcohol can give the impression that people are more presentable than is actually the case,but strangely enough the reverse seemed to be the outcome in this particular instance.
Sandra the pom was a picture of what a demure young lady should be, as we conversed on the webcam yesterday,her copious imbibing of Australia's finest white wine seemed to have little effect and she even offered up a new nom de plume for her SUPER MODEL role",Chardie Toblerone"which does have an antipodean flavour to it,however more care must be taken to remove traces of chocolate from around the side of the mouth,as this will show up badly on photo shoots, and she has prepared a lovely fruit cake for my arrival,but I think most of it will have been consumed before then, I am just a little concerned about the quality of the ingredients as I am led to believe they were purchased at the local Lidl Wholefood Emporeum down under.
Today we shopped for Christmas veg in Mablethorpe and Louth, we bumped into Mick and Montmorency,fellow South Yorkshire emigres in Lord Brothers outlet mall, they also were veg
shopping and are staying here beside the seaside beside the sea, for the festive season,rather than visiting relatives in Rotherham,the roads are clearing making driving a little safer and Mick was driving up to Grimsby on leaving Lord Bros,I think for last minute shopping.
The time is now 4.30 pm and pitch black outside,I mention this because I am informed today is the vernal equinox (shortest day) and it starts to get lighter from tomorrow.

Winter scenes from our house on the prairie

Cheek benders

This is the view from our window on Sat.19th December,just before we took the chickens on their winter holiday,I thought it would be nice and refreshingly cool for S&M and S&S in brisbane to look at as they are sweltering away down under.
Last night was quite eventful as can be seen on Sheila's blog,I am still recovering from the violent assault on my person by three rather inebriate "ladies" I have never been mugged by three WI members before it was "cheek benders" all round,and as I pointed out it was a dangerous action in view of Farmer Ben looking on and searching out the keys to his gun cabinet,his dearly beloved being one of the aggressors,and another of them being the wife of a local magistrate.

Lincolnshire Chicken farmers

montage

Breezy Day

Gale force winds today and last night blew out the vent on the greenhouse,which luckily was slightly damaged and is now back in place,the wind is blowing off the north sea and is allegedly coming all the way from Russia,it is very cold and scattering snow showers around.
Tomorrow is the Christmas dinner of the WI and more frequent snow showers are forecast so hopefully it will be ok for the trip to Burgh Le Marsh near skeggy.
Mick and Montmorency paid us a visit today and we had a few laughs about our travails in Rotherham in days of yore, and generally had a nag about car and house insurances and stuff,generally agreeing that insurance companies are sharks and gangsters.
It is in fact cold enough to warrant a small glass of the very expensive malt whisky I bought in a slightly inebriate state at Lincoln market,though I can't decide if I should use it as perfume or drink it.
Mary Sue made some colourful biscuits and I used this years complement of praise up all at one go,I think I was caught off guard by the unexpected bright colours,but there will be no more praise until next year as it is all used up.
Montana is now eating junk food by the cartload after his manic diet of last week,I fear for the lads health at times.
Down under is looming large now and after this weather seems ever more inviting,and Sheila is salivating thinking of the "four prawns and a bag of chips" she is intending to give a go.

Winding down

Just about finished all my posters,and now parcelling them up for delivery,only problem is some of them may not get paid before I go on walkabout,but not much I can do about that.
Its a bit like running the half marathon when I get inundated with work,and its head down and don't think about how far away is the finish line even though at first it seems a long way away,the finish eventually comes into sight,and it's the same adrenalin rush which takes a while to come down from.
The weather has been lovely sunshine but cold,and now today it's chucking it down,forecast is for some snow showers later in the week,so I may get a picture of the little house in a winter setting.
Watching Sophie the dog running around in the snow and barking,I think there may be problems with the neighbours regarding territorial rights! it might be a good idea to set up the electric fence to forestall this.
Whitefish Montana police log is it's usual entertaining self,a bit like a pit village on a saturday night.

Art Lesson

The oil painting of Rotherham Main Colliery I painted in 1966,and is a view of the pit head gear and winding engine house,from the bridge over the River Rother facing west,by this time the pit was closed and this structure is now demolished,I was born and spent the early part of my life in a colliery house around 100yards away from the pit,just over a railway cutting up on a cliff top.
The miners head is a painting I did on the computer wacom programme,and I plan to paint a large version on canvas in acrylic paint,end of art lesson.

Weekend with G and A

An eventful weekend ,our final bus/taxi trip to Lincoln,well mine at least, all further visits will be by car,we visited the seal colony at Donna Nook,about 8 miles up the coast to the north, which doubles as an RAF bombing range,but this is seemingly no problem to the seals,perhaps the fact they don't use live ammo may help.
Or visitors have now gone home to Preston West End,and the place is very quiet,apart from the occasional patter of raindrops on the windows,weather is a little cool today and I am considering emigrating for the worst of the winter.
Montana Mike is embarking on yet another masochistic diet,of seeds,water,and kit kats,he has also foolishly complained about the quality of his dear wife's haircutting abilities,so in my comments on his blog I encourage him to DIY haircut,the results are sometimes marginally worse,though I gave up on barbers here in the sticks long ago after many disappointments,and my artistic efforts are no worse than theirs,if at some future date I find myself in the position of being able to offer my services I will willingly give him the benefit of my expertise and cut his hair at no financial cost,I am a bit of a whizz with the #3 and #4 cutters.
Monseur Le Blade-Vegas is going to Sheffield to watch the Blades on tuesday and has kindly agreed to deliver a poster for me which may be my final one this year.

Democracy?

Business news today,one of Wall Streets best paid bankers Hugh Mcgee, head of Barclays capital investment banking,wants two teachers sacked at his son's private school because he claims the history teacher has a "leftist invective"because she told his son's class, that all investment bankers were" sleazeballs and dishonest",so he wants the head of school and this teacher sacked,I am led to believe that the USA is a democracy,or is that only applicable to right wing views,and when did it become a crime to tell the truth,this bloke was global head of investment banking at Lehman Brothers until its collapse last year,a quote from the teacher"somehow both Lehman Brothers andBarclays made a bunch of moneyon the Lehman bankruptcy" !unquote,maybe this McGee bloke is a student of the bible and this explains his attitude on life?
Now for the news in brief,Gina and Andrew are coming for a couple of days and cheap champagne is in the fridge( three quid a bottle Sandra from Tesco at Cleethorpes) this has been tested and found perfectly acceptable,the pheasant terrine Gina ordered,has been cooked by Sheila, and is now languishing in the fridge,this was the hen pheasant of a brace given us by our neighbour to the south,we had the male pheasant done as an Italian casserole,and may I say (Montana Mike please note)it was wonderful.
Weather is not very good,dull grey with lots of cloud but no rain,but forecast is sunny tomorrow
but the visit to Lincoln City appears to be off as there is a lack of interest among the normal crowd.