A lovely surprise

At about 4:30 I was ready for a bit of a break and thought I’d catch up on The Archers which I’ve missed during the recent visitation. And it was completely by accident that I discovered that the UK Snooker Championship (from York) is presently on the BBC. Needless to say I didn’t catch up with The Archers. Rather I watched John Higgins beat Yan Bingtao with a masterly display of experience over youth.

Despondent

Bingtao played a blinder in China this year, annihilating John with some devil may care rapid potting. John figured he didn’t have much of a safety game given the relentless scoring at the table. The few frames I saw proved otherwise.

At one point, Higgins was 3-0 up but Bingtao pulled back the frames to equal things at 3-3. There followed a few strenuous bouts of safety play which, while Bingtao showed his strategic game is also strong, was always going to go Higgins’ way.

I’d love to say that the puppies enjoyed it as much as I did but they were fast asleep. They were probably tired from the run around the park after lunch.

Mirinda returned to work today (and a complete waste of time standing only greet-up at the House of Lords in the evening) and I Skyped mum after the gym so it was just like normal. Then lunch…then the park.

The biggest job today (apart from washing a few tonnes of bed linen) was hanging the Christmas lights. I do rather enjoy this bit of the yearly schedule. Of course I didn’t switch them on (apart from testing) because I don’t want to be the first in the street. Presumably I’ll have no choice on Friday when Mirinda returns.

The other important job was to create and order the calendars for next year. They should be here by the end of the week. How quickly they do them these days.

I mentioned the other day that the Hassells bought Mirinda some rusty flowers for Christmas. In case anyone was wondering, this is what two of them look like:

The other three are unopened poppies

And just to finish with a bit of excitement…