Delicious Christmas Lunch...!

...fruit punch, mince pie, full Christmas dinner, cheesecake and fruit...(oh and a cracker) - still wearing my hat, it's not coming off for the meetings this afternoon... ;)

Oh and that view in the background I have got so used to that I didn't even bother to frame?  All the way down the Thames to Canary Wharf... ;)

It's got me to thinking about December 25th and what time I need to be out of bed!

December 1st...!

Wow...how did we get to December already?  Things are starting to get distinctly festive in London, the Shard has started to get glittery, the Salvation Army brass band was in London Bridge station playing a selection of Christmas hits this morning and a small(ish) tree -

-  (with what appear to be temporary decorations) has appeared outside the News Building (you can see where someone tried to put the lights up and then threw them on the ground in frustration)... ;)

Still, I think we have about 90% of the Christmas shopping is done (a couple of gifts and the food to go), so this year, with a bit of luck we will be able to relax into it - if my last couple of bits of holiday are approved today then my Christmas break begins in two and a half weeks...! ;)

Bring it on...!

Oh it's the most wonderful time...

...of the year!  All these poor Christmas trees!  You literally can't turn a corner in central London without bumping into another one (or three) dumped by the side of the road...the really odd thing is, I found myself waiting until I found a Christmas tree that looked satisfactory (in an aesthetic way) before I took a shot...

A couple of snaps from Christmas...!

Suffice it to say we had a *very* merry Christmas *and* a happy New Year! ;)

Last day in the office!

Loving the *free* Christmas (either Pork or Turkey) dinner with all the trimmings...if you had the time you could eat it in the canteen on a proper plate with drinks and crackers etc. but I took it back to my desk in a takeaway box (still fantastic) as it's my last day in the office this year (bar a tiny bit of working from home) so I had a few things to finish off... ;)

I feel a bit guilty talking about the *huge* giveaway in reception happening at the same time that I stumbled into...it was like a free black-friday scrum for staff...*astonishing*...Not sure how I'm going to get everything home!

In summary - *This* is how you do the week before Christmas - I've never seen anything even remotely like it anywhere else I have worked in all my long years!  So God Bless you current employer...and here's to many, many more years to come! <:0

Ho Ho Ho...Christmas Party Aftermath...

So, while all those who attended the Christmas party last night are creeping around their homes as quiet as mice (not having made it into the office as yet, if at all) - all those of us who didn't are here enjoying the *huge* free breakfast laid out (I'm guessing) *primarily* to soak up their (sadly absent) woes - a multitude of sticky cakes, croissants and pastries, a legion of bagels (largely salmon/egg/cream cheese related but some ham and cheese affairs) and a horde of *hot* muffins (sausage and egg, egg and mushroom or bacon and egg from the looks of things, but there were so many I gave up going through the piles)...yeah, I took a proper tummy-full...mountains left for the casualties (although they will probably all be congealed and cold by then - he says, licking the liquid egg yolk from his fingers)... ;)

Update - Can this be true?  A *mountain* of McDonalds has just arrived in the office also...I'm not going to need to eat for the rest of the year at this rate!!

Southwark Cathedral Carol Concert

 

Okay, it's Christmas now!

Picked up the Christmas TV guide for Flyingpops (in my bag ready for the trip home)...

...and if you didn't already see on Flickr, I wore a completely over the top Christmas jumper (etc.) for charity on Friday (which went down extremely well) -

- and then *today* the work is picking us all up from the offices in Wapping, loading us all on to coaches (at 11am-ish) to go to our big Carol Concert in Southwark Cathedral (next to the new offices) and then super secret Santa on Thursday (which is my last working day before Christmas day)!  There is absolutely no doubt about it...It's CHRISTMAS! ;)

Will post some pics from the office Carol Concert later on if I get a chance...!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Reigate Christmas Fayre 2013

Quick Video highlight reel from the weekend (mostly Santa arriving in Priory Park via helicopter)! ;) Oh and we can't miss this one - Thomas coming down the Helter Skelter all on his own - He actually held up his hand to stop me at the steps at the bottom and said "NO DADDY - JUST ME - I CAN DO IT" (at this rate, Poppy is going to be skiing down Everest by the time she is four - the amount she is boiling with will to push past him at every turn!) -

Loads more pictures in the (growing) Christmas 2013 set over here... ;)

Office Christmas Tree is up!

Whoops, missed the main one in the other office (a bit less higgledy piggledy!) -

Going to see Santa...!

Okay, bear in mind I'm still getting used to this new way of shooting...but here are a couple of Zoe highlight reels from the weekend...!
First up Reigate Garden centre -

- then Chessington Garden centre -

- (I need a few more dedicated stills in the middle of the "zoe"'s I think...we shall get there!  Now to tidy up my telephone (it's basically full!) using my free new 23Gb storage on my dropbox account (phew)!

Update - Wow, typed in my password on the phone and it did it all automatically...!  HTC One = amazing... ;)

Christmas Railway Fun!

Just got a *very* good bit of news - I only have to cover one day between Christmas and New Years (the 31st) *and* I can do that cover snuggled into my duvet with a laptop (instead of trying to get into London)...

The reason that this is *very* good news, instead of just ordinary good news is the fact that between the 25th of December and the 1st of Jan they are basically going to shut down the railway between Brighton and London (major building works at Gatwick airport, working on the wonky signals that fail all the time in town and *totally* ripping out the huge great rickety junction outside Purley station and making a shiny brand new one)...pretty much the only way into London Bridge from the South of England is going to be hopping on a replacement bus (and praying)...

This would be fine (and probably a nice adventure) apart from the fact that Flyingpops (at that stage) is going to be just a handful of weeks from the new baby being due and I *really* don't want to be stuck in London (if "The Call" comes) waiting around for a replacement bus service (not normally terribly new/reliable buses) to shudder into view and then wend it's merry way through central London/East Croydon/Purley and the Purley way (during the sales) finally to deposit me half an hour's walk away from the hospital (goodness only knows how many hours later)...

So that's one less (big) thing to worry about...now able to look forward to my (apart from that one day of cover) twelve days (off) of Christmas! :)

Borough Market Christmas Decorations...

...have started to appear over the last couple of days(!), these were first...

...although not all of them were illuminated, today these new objects appeared...


...(really will have to bring the proper camera in, the one on the S2 is terrible in even slightly low light)...anyway, it's turned into quite a festive walk into the office in the morning! ;)

Guess who got a new scooter from Father Christmas!

Thomas had a lovely boxing day playing with Auntie Dawn and Uncle Dan, followed by more present unwrapping with Nanny & Grandad later in the afternoon. Mummy also found Thomas'solitary brussel sprout under the table, so looks like he lobbed it when we were not looking (probably the only thing we've found he won't eat!)

Yesterday, we decided it was time to get out, let Thomas burn off some energy and test drive the new scooter... Our destination - Priory Park, Reigate (which was completely rammed with lots of parents pushing children on new bikes or scooters)

Lots more pictures added to our Christmas set, so click here if you want to enjoy them! ...

Merry Christmas!!

...MADE IT! Thomas *loved* every second, didn't get completely out of control with excitement and played very nicely...also had a good chance to play around with the new camera a bit (a *very* welcome Christmas gift, but more on that later)... ;)

Absolutely loads of pictures from the day here...or a slideshow if you prefer... ;)

Thomas the Donkey!

Thomas is going to be a donkey in the preschool play and we've just convinced him to try on his costume... How cute does he look? and plenty of growing room for him!! He was crawling up and down the living room, saying 'eeyore eeyore' ... Love him to bits!

Freezing COLD!

Oh boy, totally freezing today, had to scrape the ice off the car first thing (the de-icer spray had managed to get lost somewhere too, which didn't help), didn't take my gloves off all the way in (most unusual) and peering out the office window it looks like all the buildings are on fire thanks to all the moisture clouds billowing from the air conditioning units on the rooftops...

In other news, between now and January the 4th I now don't have to work any more than 3 days in any one week! Woo hoo!! :)

Canary Wharf Ice Rink

Here we go, they've got the ice rink back up and running ready for Christmas, doesn't look like anyone's actually using it yet, but it won't be long! ;)

Bargain - Christmas with Gordon

Christmas with Gordon - RRP - £15, the price at Tesco Canary Wharf (where normally the mark-up is about 20%) this morning?

Three Quid...! Ka-ching! ;)

Thomas' Christmas Costume

Couldn't post this beforehand, due to it's involvement in some home-made Christmas gifts for friends and family, but here is Thomas in his "Shepherds wash their socks" costume that he donned to attend all the festive toddler parties (and on Christmas day and Boxing Day with the families) much to everyone's delight...

Very cute... ;)