Xmas and all that entails

To be fair, it didn't entail too much, although there was a tail involved. The tail belonged to Izzy, our goddog who has starred in here many times. Her owners were off to Norn Iron over the festive period by dog unfriendly Flymaybe (actually they are not very human friendly either) so we were looking after her again. Such a chore.

The "I am here and don't forget it" look. Followed by the:

"I am still here and hoping for food" look. Remarkably similar really. We were very lucky this year and had an invitation out to Xmas lunch from Simon and Nika - a newly married couple too! They live aboard a beautiful 1970 timber yacht, simply beautiful:

Before lunch we had the ritual present opening time:

and to our pleasure we were gifted a companion for Patrick the penguin. Meet Debbie:

We think she is shy, she seemed a little stiff and "wooden" to start with but maybe some time with Patrick will thaw her out...... A Xmas morning walk with Steve (the ex waterbus man), Bron the spaniel and Rhiannon ended up chez Steve to wash the mud off the dogs and consume tea.

After wandering around to the lovely timber yacht, we (including Izzy) were royally treated to several courses by great hosts:

even if Simon seems to be busy cradling a full tummy. For us, walking back to the Nordhavn was a challenge too. Upon return, Izzy seemed to be in a similar mood:

To remove some of the Xmas excesses, plenty of walks around the bay were undertaken - the level of enjoyment for us was directly related to the weather. For Izzy it was more dependent upon how many sticks we threw for her to chase. At least there is a nice coffee shop at the end of the bay and Izzy just refuses to accept that she cannot share a chocolate brownie:

Optimism unrestrained indeed.

For New Year we were joined by Tina. We struggled through the Jools Holland TV show and his guests of variable quality to welcome in 2020. Melanie, singing "Look what they done to my song,. Ma " was just unbelievably bad but highly amusing. The years have not been kind to her..... Hint, watch this version, way way easier on the ears and eyes  You tube video from 1971

Izzy was most happy to have three people to fuss over her every need / desire / whim. We were happy to have a reason to go out for longer walks and visit some dog friendly pubs too although we did cheat and take the train back from Whitchurch after a 12 mile wander along the river:

The train was not that chilly Izzy.

Although we had an active time, poor Tina ended up in Barry hospital. Not the greatest place to be and some of the other "minor injuries unit" attendees were less than salubrious. Tina of course was just the opposite. She had hurt her wrist tripping over before Xmas and after lots of less than gentle persuasion agreed to get it professionally checked. It ended up in plaster pending a trip to the fracture clinic back on the Isle of Wight when she returned. To quote the nurse practitioner guy, "you have mushed it". A special Barry medical term perhaps, or a Gavin and Stacey special uttered by Nessa? No matter,  life continued:

WhatsApp messages became a one handed challenge in the coffee shop. So glad she is right handed or all communication from her might be purely by emojis for a while.