Christmas with Jo, Andy and Madelyn. 2013

 We spent Christmas with the Ellis family this year. Andy's dad John was there too,which was lovely. 

On Christmas Eve we went to the Christingle service in the local church . It was packed and although Madelyn didn't really know what was going on she enjoyed being given the candle and orange.

When we got home it was full steam ahead getting ready for Santa and someone was very excited

               

            

Sleep ? Me?

                      

      

She calmed down and the process of " feeding Santa"began 

  Hope the reindeer are hungry.

The next morning there was a lot of excitement

Santa had been!!

Meanwhile it was action stations in the kitchen. This bad boy was cooked to perfection.

Santa's little helper had a busy day

Auntie Vic  sent a little toy kiwi, which was instantly loved and re named " coo ee"

                                       

Lots of fun and excitement during the day, lots to play with, gingerbread men to make

                

                Play Doh to mess about with 

                        And a good old strop to have because Nanna was not quick enough when summond to play 

We all had a fabulous time but it was all to much for one little girl.Shhhhh!

                                      

                                                                                   

Sweet dreams birthday girl.

       

Another visit to London December 2013

Another night,another show! This time we saw" Stephen Ward the musical". I wasn't sure how they were going to turn something that was such a scandal into a musical. However ALW had done a brilliant job and the story was retold very well. I don't really remember what happened as I was just a kid in the sixties but we had all heard of Christine Keller and  Mandy Rice-Davies. They were a couple of very young good time girls who were introduced to members of the cabinet by a society osteopath called Stephen Ward. When the MPs were "rumbled" it caused a massive scandal,the Prime Minister stood down and there were whispering about official secrets being shared with the Russians at the height of the Cold War.Stephen Ward was made a scapegoat and  put on trial. He killed himself before sentence was passed. Very sad .

Before we met our friends we had a mooch around the German Market on the South Bank

We went to a Christmas market when we were in Berlin but the London one wasn't anywhere near as good. Ridiculously expensive and of course no snow! However it did look lovely with all the lights.

                         

We called in to Covent Garden on the way to the  theatre. It was packed but very pretty.

London eye looking very festive.

The view from Waterloo Bridge. A bit blurry but you get the idea.

London might look a bit crummy during the day but at night,  especially near Christmas it is wonderful.

The Cronx. December 2013

After what seems like donkeys years Croydon is finally taking  on a new look. Those of you who have abandoned Croydon will have to dig deep to work out where this new place is. A new entrance to East Croydon Station has been built in Dingwall Road. The old Warehouse Theatre has been demolished and the whole area behind it has also been cleared to make way for restaurants, shops and flats, all linking with the station. So from the station, going towards town, the first turn on the right is where the new stuff begins. The new entrance is down by the  old Spillers roundabout and multi storey car park.There is a new Premier Inn and a huge complex of posh flats. They had a "Grand Opening" a few weeks ago.

New entrance.

 They made a really big thing of it with fireworks and street entertainers.

We also saw the lovely Yaz from Pip and Squeak.

 

She was absolutely frozen but still managed to smile. By the way, her stuff is lovely, photos on FB just don't do it justice. 

From Here To Eternity. December 2013.

 Tonight we went to see the new Tim Rice musical From Here To Eternity. We went with some friends who are able to get tickets  for almost nothing £3 in fact. The original film was made in 1953. Then the stars were Frank Sinatra, Burt  Lancaster, Montgomerie Clift and Ernest Borgnine. It was considered a bit steamy back then, but by today's standards ..........  very tame and predictable.  The cast now had Darius from the XFactor and a whole bunch of excellent singers and actors that I'd never heard of. To be fair they had cast the show very well, the actors all bore more than a passing resemblance to the original film cast.

 We had a bit of a wander around and London is looking very festive

                    

                      

Got to love London in the winter.