Christmas time is never boring. Especially when it snows. I had quite a lot of travelling planned, off home to Cornwall, then to Leeds to see my sister before coming back to Cornwall with her for Christmas Day. We had arranged a Williamson family moot, so I flew to Northern Ireland on Boxing Day for that. Finally I would come back to Bristol on New Years Eve for a party. This was going to be fun. (And no, I wasn't going to calculate my carbon footprint as that was going to be huge.)
Waiting at the station for the train to Cornwall, the snow was falling as hard as snow could. All flights to Northern Ireland had been cancelled due to the heavy snow in the province. The train was frozen and when I finally managed to struggle on it was packed with everyone heading away for the christmas break. Maybe not the best day to travel.
The train in Bristol Temple Meads
I spent a couple of days at home, where we celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday. In our town we have a turkey auction every year. I had been there with my Mum a couple of times, watching her bid on a turkey and normally returning with several. This year, Mum was working so I was left to buy the turkey. I was determined to return with only one instead of Mum's normal rafter. I have never been in an auction before. It was tense, watching all the people getting over-excited bidding on turkeys. It was fun to see who was there because they hadn't bought a turkey yet and were desperate to get one, no matter what the price, and those who were just there to get a good deal. I fell into the second category as we had another turkey already if we didn't manage to get one. When the price was about right I bid. A couple of times I didn't get it, the price went too high, but after about an hour of being very careful I ended up with 2 10lb turkeys for around £30. When I got home my Dad just laughed. My aim of the single turkey just didn't happen...
Preparing the turkey from the auction for Christmas Dinner
After a couple of days at home I left again, heading up to Leeds to meet my sister. The train to Leeds was even more crowded than that back from Bristol. There was pandemonium throughout the 7 hour journey, and at most points during the trip up I had an elbow or backside in my face. Always nice. The drive back from Leeds with Mary was interesting, the snow started falling very hard as we past Birmingham and I wondered how far we'd make it down. But with Mary's careful driving and a lot of luck we made it back for dinner.
Christmas at home is always fun. My parents, children at heart still, give my sisters and I some of the same presents as we used to get when we were little. We always spend some time on Christmas morning sitting on their bed and finding out what Father Christmas has brought for us in our stockings. This year was no disappointment, I found a lot of chocolate (yum), some trivia cards, the standard facecloth, toothbrush and toothpaste and the ubiquitous small orange in the toe of the stocking. I absolutely love Christmas dinner, and didn't have any breakfast so that I would be able to eat lots of it. After church, I helped cook the dinner of turkey, gammon and all the trimmings before devouring it with the ferocity such a feast deserved.
After peeling myself out of the dining room chair we watched the Queen's speech before opening our presents - a Williamson family tradition. This was always annoying when I was small, having to wait until mid-afternoon to open any presents, but now I find it more fun as it spreads the day out nicely.
I left for Northern Ireland on Boxing Day, and after a couple of attempts to land in Belfast, we eventually made it down. Northern Ireland was suffering from its worst winter in many years. In many places people had been snowed in for over a week. The temperature on Christmas Day had dropped to a jaw droopingly cold -19. However, as I arrived, the snow started to melt. For our Williamson family moot we decided that we would make gingerbread men. For a bit of fun we decorated them as each of us.
Williamson gingerbread men
(For those that are wondering, the HT is a Hill toe and WN is Williamson nose, two genetic traits in our family and I have both of them!) We met up, played games, ate far too much again and then in all too short a time I had to leave again. I returned to Bristol and saw in the New Year there with friends and fireworks which was great fun.
Over the Christmas break, WREC had given me 3 papers to review as well. When i had a look over them I was impressed by the work that these researchers had done, it was all very novel and of great use. I felt that my own paper may not stand up to the similar levels of research, but I hoped that it would still be accepted. I had never reviewed papers before, so it took me a long time to give useful and constructive comments about the papers to help improve them. Whether I did or not, I don't know, but it was an interesting exercise.
So, Happy New Year to one and all! I'm looking forward to a most exciting year!
SAM
