7th December
I waited in all day to see whether I had won anything in the raffle at the Christmas Bazaar yesterday, but the answer clearly was no. I will have to buy a turkey after all. After the episode of the Christmas tree also from yesterday, we move onto the saga of the decoration. Due to the size of the monstrosity, (regular readers will recall that Spencer thought that destroying the avenue of trees leading up to the Manor would be a good idea), this necessitated Marcus and Spencer to hang rather precariously from the balustrade on the landing to the entrance hall. I have to admit that they did manage quite well after I told them where to stick the baubles. We had the usual trouble with the lights with four out of the six sets requiring attention from Spencer who is a dab hand at electrics. He assured me that the problems we had later in the evening, when the entire Manor was plunged into darkness was due to a problem at the sub-station and nothing to do with him.
8th December
With the Manor looking very festive, I turned my attention to the kitchens. Readers will know that I too am a dab hand in the baking department having won the trophy at the Village Show in 2007 for the most points in the home produce section. I set Cook off on the mince pies, as we will need at least six dozen, whilst I concentrated on the more complicated task of working my way through Nigella Lawson’s Christmas cookbook. Nigella believes in preparing in advance (as I do), which makes it all the more surprising that the BBC is only screening her Christmas series the week before Christmas. Anyway, by then I will have made every recipe in the book and it will be interesting to see whether her offerings look as good as mine.
12th December
Had a quick trip up to London to order the hampers from Harrods for the staff. Marcus tells me that I could do it “online” (whatever that means), but to be honest I like a trip to see the lights, and the window displays, and it is quite useful to make it clear to the staff at Harrods exactly what one expects in their hampers.
13th December
Another highlight of the Christmas Season is our regular attendance at the Basing Singers Christmas Carol Concert at the Village Hall. Spencer fancies himself as a bit of a singer, and has been threatening to join the Basing Singers for some time. I think this would be a very good idea as it would give me a free Wednesday evening if he were to attend rehearsals, as they run from 7.45pm to 9.45pm in the Parish Rooms at St Mary’s Church. This year the proceeds from the concert were going to the Wessex Cancer Trust. As well as the Basing Singers (who are celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year) we were also entertained by the Blue Horizon Hand Bell Ringers who had travelled over from Andover especially for the occasion with their 150-year-old bells. The hand bell ringers were delightful and put us in the Christmas mood with their medley of Christmas tunes. No clangers were dropped unless you count Spencer’s mince pie during the interval. Why can’t men seem to eat a mince pie from a foil container without it falling to pieces?
I like nothing better than to join in the festive singing of carols and from my seat in the front row I could hear Spencer trying out the tenor harmony. I don’t think that there are any auditions to join the Basing Singers which might be just as well in Spencer’s case. The theme of the concert was “Ring out the Old, Sing in the New” and the Basing Singers treated us to a combination of traditional carols and modern tunes. There was audience participation too with a rousing rendition of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. The only sad thing about the whole show was the announcement that Mavis Lloyd, who was the founding member of the choir and is the current accompanist, was retiring and that this would be her last concert. Musical Director, Stuart Hicken, thanked Mavis for all her hard work, and said that she would be sorely missed.
I wonder if the Basing Singers would be available to perform at my Silver Wedding celebrations in 2009? I need to get on to this, although we would have a problem if Spencer did join them, as he couldn’t be in two places at once.