Behind you!

(John) 4 days until Christmas and we are now starting to laze around.   I thought I might try and fill in some gaps from the last couple of weeks.  Our journey back to England from the UK was only complicated by Mhari's accident. We had reviewed the forecast and decided to take an earlier ferry.  This turned out to be a good decision as the snow returned to northern France on the day we were due to leave.  The Uk then got hit quite badly with snow and sub freezing temparetures on friday and saturday.  So we did well to miss the chaos on the roads that inevitably happened.  In fact we had a great trip form Dunkirk to Leamington.  We almost missed the ferry because we turned the wrong way out of Dunkirk and were halfway through Belgium before we realised.  Lesley and I had been rowing about something and we had missed the turn to Calais.  Then passport control at the terminal took an interest in our lifestory and asked a hundred questions.  I think they needed something to do.  We also had our trunk/boot searched three times.  The ferry was fun with our invalided daughter.  We let the ticket taker know at the terminal that we had a passenger who could not handle stairs easily and who would need to be able to open the car door wide to get out.  We were given special consideration and able to drive on at the head of the queue with our warnings lights flashing indicating that we needed to be in the handicapped zone.  We then had lots of room and were parked right outside the lifts.  Inside the ferry we put Mhari on a couch in the bar and told her not to go anywhere while we went in search of really big cups of tea and coffee - it's funny what you miss. 

The weather in the UK has been very cold - for the UK - and snowy - 4 inches fell on saturday.  Needless to say chaos on the roads and in all public transport networks.  Our carols at Warwick castle were cancelled but last night my parents treated us all to the Pantomime - Cinderella at the Coventry Belgrade.  It was an absolute classic, all the usual panto conventions were used - oh no they weren't - oh yes they were. My favourite joke of the night was - He attacked me with a pound of butter and a pint of milk - How dairy!  Bu dum dum tshh.   But the star was the costume designer.  The ugly sisters dresses were fantastic, as good as anything you would see in Rio at Mardi Gras.  Mhari managed OK with her leg.  Although I'm not sure how the lady in front of her felt about having a leg on her shoulder.  What was fun is that everyone in the audience knew exactly what to do, as in when the villain hides behind the hero and we all shout "behind you".   As at all panto's there is a spot at the end when kids get to be invited up on stage and interviewed by the comedic star of the show.  One little girl was asked if her mummy drank a lot - she admitted that she did.