Shops, Strictly and haikus

We were hoping that the plumber might pop round today to try to restore our central heating, but no sign of him so far. I was intending to get to church, but it'll now have to wait to Christmas Day as I left Lord H guarding the phone in case the plumber should ring, and went to do the weekly shop instead. So I am an appalling Christian but a kick-ass capitalist. Again. Mind you, if I'd been hoping that Waitrose might be the civilised face of the pre-Christmas shop, I've been proved wrong. Yes, it's Waitrose (and Surrey) so people are scrupulously polite but there was a distinct frostiness from those behind me when I dared to hesitate more than 30 seconds in front of the potatoes. Any longer, and I might even have been torn limb from limb. Shopping can be a dangerous sport, you know.

Back home, I have added another 1000 words to Hallsfoot's Battle so it now stands at 69,000 words. Only another 1000 to go to reach my end of December target of 70,000, so with the wind behind me I might just get there. It was a bit of a struggle today though - but I'm shattered from being out late last night so am blaming it on that. I am a cocoa, slippers and bed-by-9.30pm girl at heart.

I've also watched the last episode of Strictly Come Dancing which I videoed last night. I really enjoyed Tom's showdance - it was perfectly suited to them and perfect. He hammed it up beautifully and it must have been very difficult to do. But he pulled it off (as it were) and it was a pleasure to watch. Funny, smart and uplifting. So I am resigned to the fact that he won the glitterball (even though it should of course have been Austin) and I will have to look forward to next year's series. There's been a lot of bad feeling generated by this year's ups and downs in the show, but at least it's ended well.

Tonight I'm planning an early night if we can manage it and, of course, there's the glorious Lark Rise to Candleford on TV later so I must watch that. And here's this week's haiku:

The tawny owl's cry
wraps the house with haunting night,
keeps morning away.


Today's nice things:

1. Getting the shopping done
2. Adding more to Hallsfoot
3. Tom's showdance in Strictly.
4. TV.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - dancing the night away ...