Friday 10 December 2021

Friday: Advent day ten

 Morning everyone.  It feels really chilly outside this morning, probably because of the breeze.  I was glad to get back in  from my visit to the freezer!

Yesterday turned out to be lovely and sunny until later on when we had some drizzle in the evening.  I had a great hour with Chris who had provided some festive nibbles.  I will be returning the compliment next Thursday but we've decided not to meet just before Christmas as there will be so much to do and Chris' son might very well be there by then.

The pastry for her (home made) mince pies was absolutely delicious and, as I am shocking at making shortcrust pastry (although my puff pastry is good, thanks to Thermione), she took a photo of the recipe and sent it over.  For the life of me, I could not work out how to get this photo off my phone from where she'd sent it and onto my hard drive so I did a bit of searching and found how to link What'sApp to my PC, something I have wanted to do for a while.
I'm not particularly technical and stuff like that scares me rather so I was really rather pleased with myself!

Then I popped out to do a bit of shopping, mostly Christmas related stuff as some of the use by dates now include the festive week.  The more I can get in advance, the easier the last shop will be.

The rest of the day was homey stuff - plenty of ironing, some tidying up and so on.  The new Pinch of Nom book arrived but I have earmarked the weekend for having a good look through.  I was expecting to be out on Sunday but poor old Alex messaged to say that now he has the horrendous cold that Beth had last week so is cancelling again.   I'm glad he did - I really don't want what they have/had.

Today is SW day and, after an extremely naughty week, I am dreading those scales.  However, what will be will be so no excuses and take the consequences.
Once home again, the day is pretty much free.  There's no Christmas stuff to get out today but I do need to take the decoration boxes, etc, upstairs to the front room where they will sit until twelfth night.
Also, I want to do my Christmas cards.  I don't send many, preferring to make a donation to a homeless charity instead but I do send online cards (using the Jacquie Lawson site) to people and, as I can date them for when I want them to arrive in mailboxes, it's a good idea to get it organised nice and early.

Then, come the evening, we have our Girls' Online Chat so I will be in Messenger at seven, ready to invite the girls along!  Should be great!

Today's Christmas music is another two for the price of one, two of my favourite versions of the joyful carol 'In Dulci Jubilo' (or, as I learns it as a child, 'Good Christian men, rejoice')

The first is the fantastic Mike Oldfield version where he plays all the instruments, pretty innovative for the time.


The second is my absolute favourite, the Pearsall choral version, favourite of school and church choirs everywhere (which is where I first learnt it), sung here by King's College choir.


So completely different and yet both so joyous in totally different ways.  One makes me want to dance, the other fills me with warm happiness.

22 comments:

  1. It is chilly here this morning - I've just popped my head out of the door to shoo away a cat :) I think there might even be a light frost.
    I love both versions of this carol. X

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It just is a lovely carol, isn't it? So singable and upbeat.
      xx

      Delete
  2. It feels a bit warmer here this morning and doesn't look to be too bad a day. The pounds are starting to creep back on me but I am not going to worry to much until after Christmas. New year will see me firmly back on the wagon and though I am not going to go mad over eating I intend to enjoy the festivities.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, it was more that a few pounds for me but some of that is fluid retention, some is - er - bunged-up-ness and some because I took the opportunity to wear heavier clothing. The idea is to wear much the same each week and I was getting tired of leggings - jeans are warmer!
      xx

      Delete
  3. I haven't opened the blinds to look yet but I expect it might be gloomy - though we did have sunshine yesterday lunchtime which was nice. I am making a note of your music to listen to when I do my ironing later. x🎄🎄

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, it is gloriously sunny here which is lovely. Cold, though.
      Enjoy the music!
      xx

      Delete
  4. I hope the weigh in wasn't too much of a shock. It's a bad time of year for dieting, let alone all the sad and stressful house stuff you've had going on. You know you'll get there in the end, Joy, it's just taking a bit longer than you'd hoped. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was bad but it wasn't a shock really, after such a naughty week. Thanks, Sooze, I will get back there, I know I will and I can still fit into everything so it could be worse. :-)
      xx

      Delete
  5. Is there a theme to the new Pinch of Nom book and, once you've had a chance to have a good look at it, please will you let me know if there are plenty of vegetarian recipes? Are you getting the Slimming Eats book as well?

    I hope you had a successful weigh in today, and that your day has gone well. xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is subtitled 'Comfort Food', Eileen. Yes, I'll let you know about vegetarian recipes. I fear I also have the Slimming Eats book on pre-order. I'm just a sucker for them. :-)
      xx

      Delete
  6. If you have the charging cable for your phone you should be able to plug it into your computer and transfer the photos that way, or you can always email them to yourself and open it up and save onto your computer that way.

    I hope it went well at SW.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I could do that with photos I had taken but I couldn't see how to get into What's App to grab the one Chris sent. I'm sure there's a way, I just couldn't see it. There wasn't anything to click on (that I could find, anyway).
      Never thought of emailing to myself. I'll see if I can work that out.
      Thanks, Sue.
      xx

      Delete
    2. All the images I've received via WhatsApp are also automatically saved in the 'library' option of the Photos folder. I can transfer images from this folder without needing to do it from WhatsApp. Hope this makes sense xx

      Delete
    3. It probably will make sense once I've read it a few times. Thanks.
      xx

      Delete
    4. Yes, it makes sense. Next tine I need to have the phone attached to the PC, I will check that one out, many thanks.
      xx

      Delete
  7. What a lovely carol. Thank you for sharing it with me.

    God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Souds like you are really in the spirit. That hand knit Nativity is amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm definitely feeling festive now, yes. Thank you for that lovely comment - I made four sets of them for others so It's quite nice to have one of them back again, just a shame about the circumstances.
      xx

      Delete
  9. Sounds like you've been really busy! Hope Alex isn't too poorly and recovers quickly. It's probably best to stay away so you don't get ill. Hope you have a lovely weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think so too and Alex was very definite that I shouldn't come. I think he will be fine; it isn't Covid, 'just' a cold.
      I'm very much looking forward to today - there's some nice stuff planned.
      xx

      Delete