12th December
The children were lucky enough to have matinee tickets to go and see
Oliver! in London, so Spencer and I had a day on our own to prepare for the
festive season. In my case this meant a thorough dust and tidy up
round the Manor, and a mammoth baking session, before getting all the
Christmas decorations out. In Spencer’s case this meant a lengthy
consideration of his bank balance, and a full perusal of the daily paper.
Anyway by lunchtime he was ready to go and investigate the tree situation.
I was determined this year that we wouldn’t have a repeat of the two
previous years, when the selected tree was not to my satisfaction. I
am pleased to report that this year we do have a lovely specimen. I am
not sure that the man at Homebase was too impressed though, as I did ask for
rather a large number to be “de-netted” so that I could examine them
thoroughly before making my final selection.
The evening saw me at Milestones Christmas Fayre, where the Basing Singers
(starring Spencer) were performing, in Victorian costume. This had
caused some consternation earlier, as his initial attempts at dressing up
were a little poor to say the least. I had a rummage in the attic and
managed to find an old trunk which contained some of Daddy’s old clothes
which certainly fitted the bill, (even though his Deerstalker hat did look a
bit worse for wear). Spencer did look the part by the time I took him
to Milestones in the Bentley. I thought the atmosphere was very
festive, with the Victorian Carols and the Bell Ringers, and I had a very
enjoyable evening.
13th December
Another day, another concert- this time at QMC where the various Basingstoke Area Youth orchestras were playing. What a hectic social life I lead, because after the concert Spencer and I made our way back to our dear friends in Old Basing for festive drinks and nibbles. Due to time pressure I had to drive this time, so only partook of an orange juice. Spencer, meanwhile got stuck into the red wine, and so you can imagine my consternation when returning to the Bentley which was parked in the road outside to find a policeman on the pavement by the car. I quickly manoeuvred Spencer into the passenger seat, shut the door, and walked round to have a word with the young man. Apparently there had been a burglary nearby, and he was just having a look round. After assuring him that we had seen nothing suspicious, I drove back to the Manor as quickly as I could. Fortunately we had put the deadlock and alarm system on before leaving, so everything was as it should be.