Xmas 2004

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Well well well.
My first Northern Hemisphere Christmas. And what a blast!

Finished up work on the 23rd , but not until we’d had a massive session at the team Christmas lunch on the Friday before, and squeezed in the work Christmas party on the Tuesday night. Both great affairs.
Shot up to Ashbourne on the morning of Xmas Eve. Practically everyone up there had been out for a bender the night before and so the lads were looking very second hand when they picked me up from the station! A bit of last minute shopping, then back to Ashbourne. Settled into Duncs place, then we shot into Paul and Lizis for some drinks. Good to catch up with Seth, hadn’t seen him since Cheese and Mazas wedding. Stopped into the Green Man for a swifty, then headed around to Duncs sister Karens place for some nibbles and drinks. Lovely family there, their sons name is Kai! (Kiwi’s will understand my surprise.) Back to Duncs for a couple of night caps and sleep.
Awoke Christmas morning at 11am! Not like me, must be getting old. We headed out to Duncans parents place on Ashbourne hill, via a couple of present drop-offs, for xmas lunch. As we hopped out of the van up the hill, this very very light, funny white stuff started to drift down.

It couldn’t have been better timing. My first English Christmas, and as I walked into the lovely warm house, great
aromas coming from the kitchen, all Duncs family there, the white stuff turned into snow!! Little Kai was straight out the back running around and I wasn’t far behind. Everyone inside laughing at me as I ran around with my mouth open, catching snowflakes :o) Sat down to a full spread; soup, roast beef, roast turkey, nutloaf, Yorkshire pudding, all the greens, gravy, bread sauce (dunno, tasted nice but), cranberry sauce, the works! Few lovely glasses of wine, little shifty sherry, then straight into dessert ;o) By this stage the kids were champing at the bit for some pressies, and I tell you what, I have never seen such a mountain of wrapping paper under the tree! As we worked our way through the stack, I had to run outside and start a snowball fight with Kai and Terry, Im still not sure who was more excited, me or the 3 year old!

Left Carol and Rays sometime in the evening, after finishing the wine and a couple of whiskeys, walked down the hill into Ashbourne, with Dunc teaching me how to make snow men along the way. Popped into the Green Man again for a couple of Guiness and Tia Marias (oh so good) and a ‘how do you do’ to a couple of people, then walked home in the snow. More snowball fights and some snow angels as well.

Awoke Boxing Day to a good dusting of snow over everything the eye could see. Oh so pretty in the bright sunshine. Headed up to Alisons parents place for lunch, great place about 200m higher than Ashbourne, so the snow was thicker and you could see for about 30 miles around. Another group of lovely people, we ate an enormous lunch, table straining from Christmas dinner leftovers. Got fairly tipsy with Ali’s Dad, took a bit of stick from her Grandad, then headed out for a walk to see the sunset and a quick bit of sledging in the field. We headed back to Ashbourne as I was going to go and hit the town in Derby with Phil and his mates. After a bit of organisation and fluffing about we got out there. Looked like it was going to be just a handful of us, and the club Blend was shut, (bad info), but the numbers swelled and we made the most of it in a couple of bars around town, had a great time. Grabbed a Taxi back to Ashbourne about 2 and kept going at Lisas place till god knows what time. Woke up the next day, played Playstation with Phil till we grabbed a Pizza and headed down the pub again to tend the hangover. By this stage Duncan was laid up with a nasty cold, but everyone else arrived in town, including half the town in fancy dress for a party. Ive never seen so many people put in so much effort for a fancy dress, it was great! Me and the core crew stayed in the pub when they left and it turned into another great Ashbourne night. Pub crawled till we got sent out, then went to Gordy’s new pad, (very nice), then headed up to Jennies once the fancy dress party got let out. Managed to crawl into Robbo’s place some time in the wee hours.

Was heading back to London on the 28th , so after Dunc came and picked me up from Paul and Liz’s, we chilled at his place watching movies and talking shit while he cooked a massive roast dinner, delicious! Packed up the gear, did the farewells, drove out to Derby. Thankfully Dunc walked me to my train, because after waiting a while we asked and found they’d changed timetables on me and Id missed the last train that night! Bloody British Rail. So we headed back to Duncans for a good few nightcaps and watched some classic Clint Eastwood western. Up the next day, down to the Wine Bar for lunch with the crew, then off to Derby to try again. No probs this time, straight back to London without any hiccups.

All and all, I couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas. Especially considering it was the first one away from the family. My thanks, once again, goes out to one and all in Ashbourne for another great time. Truly lovely people. xx

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