Friday 28 December 2007

Back again

Hello blogland! Did you miss me? I missed you... well, I missed the Internet, certainly. But, as of earlier today, we are in Oxford (phase two of the visit-as-many-family-members-as-possible enterprise we seem to have set up for ourselves this Christmas), and in Oxford, the Internet connection is working - hooray!

The thing is, now that I'm back, I don't really know what to say... but I'm sure inspiration will strike if I just keep typing and hoping for the best. I haven't got any pictures yet, but I will be uploading some very very soon for your delectation. (Would you like to see the one of NBM wearing three Christmas-craker paper hats, all at the same time? It's a corker, I tell you.)

Ah wait, I know what you'd love to read - VC's whinge corner, today brought to you by supermarkets and motorways. My supermarket whinge is as follows: when a person is struggling their way round an incredibly busy supermarket with their propsective MiL, on the Saturday before Christmas, at lunchtime, trying to heap two very large trolleys with enough festive fare to feed either A) a small army or B) one very active Northern Biking Brother, and the whole experience is really starting to make them feel a tiny bit frazzled, what do you suppose would help calm their nerves? Because I am pretty sure that the answer is not, Mr Morrison, playing heavy techno trance over the loudspeakers.

And my motorway whinge is probably the same as everyone else's over the festive season - along the lines of it taking us three hours to travel 25 miles yesterday (nearly two hours of which was taken to cover a three mile stretch of the M6, giving an excellent average speed of 1.5 mph for that part of the journey.) As it was supposed to be the start of the 200-mile trip from Lancashire to Oxford, but it was dark and raining and gridlocked, and we were tired, we ended up turning around and aborting the journey. We regrouped and headed South again (more sucessfully) this morning.

Anyhoo, I think that's enough whinging for now. In cheerier news, most of the other things about the festive time have been good, so we should remain whinge-free for a while. I'm sure you're all be relieved to hear that, then :o)

Enough waffle for now - but I'll be back soon with piccies galore (just as long as the Internet doesn't fail me again, of course...)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Having done the journey south many times down the stretch of the m6 you mention when I lived in Cumbria I say well done you...and probably well done too for giving in and restarting...I never did that! Just carried on, torrential rain, grumpy husband, hideous accidents or anything ANYTHING notwithstanding, Mr Himself, does NOT stop once he's set out, just gets crosser and louder and more impossible.....I'm a short hike from Oxford, let me know if you need to come and help me eat the many packs of crisps and biscuits not yet opened.... I am waiting for you! Fran

Monkee Maker said...

Hi VC,

Much respect to you and to the NBM for services above and beyond the call of duty in relation to the family visiting bonanza.

Do you think when you've finished with yours you could carry on down the M5 to visit mine? That would save me the job, and you obviously LOVE motorway travel so .....

:)

ps. Can't express just how envious I am that the NBM can fit THREE cracker hats on her head at once, even with all those curls. I've been blessed with an inordinately large bonce which won't even squeeze into one without serious rippage. Stupid cracker hats :(

Anonymous said...

MM,
Ah well, I have also been blessed with an oversize noggin which combined with oversize curls means no hats ever fit me!
I can take great pleasure in revealing that those hats were ginormous - so much so that VC couldn't even wear one without it dropping down her face to rest on her glasses!
I am quite tempted to keep one (or three). Should we send you one so you too can be resplendant in your gold cracker-hat for all future Christmases??
Much Christmas love to all in the MM household,
NBM xx

trash said...

CK's family are famed throught the South-East for having heads of inordinate proportion so the next few that anyone other than me will be wearing cracker hats around our dining room table!

Monkee Maker said...

Hi NBM,

Phew! Glad to know I'm not the only one with A MASSIVE BRAIN .... and if you could save me one of those freakishly large hats, that would be smashing, thanks ;)

Thanks too for entering my little competition, although I must admit that your chosen colour combos for a variegated monkee may be a tad hard to knit (on the eyes ....)

(.... not that I'd be knitting it on my eyes, natch)

:)

lauren bergold said...

OOF traffic AND supermarkets in the same post??! no wonder you were a bit tense!!! :)

can i just chime in and add that i am also of the "big giant head" variety...so it is nice to meet others of this persuasion! (and many thanks to MM for the suggestion that this is due to our massive brains needing the additional space. yeah. that's bound to be it, in my case!)

(HOORAY you are back HOORAY!!! cannot wait for said pics and so forth! HOORAY!)

Mrs Moog said...

Sounds like such fun!!!!
Hope you have a very Happy New Year and here's to a 2008 filled with monkees :)
Lesley xxx

Mama said...

Glad you are back on the blog : )

Wishing you a supermarket/motorway-difficulty-free 2008!

with monkeys, of course!

Patti said...

uggg. Christmas travelling. Truly dreadful

May I join the "massive heid" gang. Everyone just laughs when I try to put cracker hats - or hats generally - on my head. Glad I make them happy, I suppose.

Enjoy the rest of your travelling. Can you get any car knitting done?