Its pitch black, the rain is coming down by the bucket load and the wind is trying it’s hardest to knock the Christmas tree over. It’s just the sort of morning that makes you want to ring into work and tell them you’re ill, not that I ever would of course.

I’m in for an interesting week at work and I wouldn't want to miss it – we’ve an LSC audit due tomorrow, the electricians are about to start running the wiring around now they’ve completed the trunking. Of course the server won’t like being turned on and off countless times and will throw a right Freddie - which in turn will ensure that every computer in the place throws a tantrum, so resulting in everyone hot footing it to my door to complain. I worked in a customer service department once, it's a thankless job - you're paid to sit there and let everyone moan at you while remaining very polite. They can't get you for thinking it through.

We’ve our Christmas party/celebration on Thursday night, can’t tell you why we’re celebrating until after it’s been announced officially on Wednesday. Big secret *laughs*. Sandy is off up to London – that’s if she managed to get the train tickets – which were causing no end of problems last week.

++++

I totally enjoyed Saturday – and we came to the conclusion that all roads led to Merry Hell. We started off about 9.30am and after driving for 10 minutes on autopilot towards Brierley Hill had to pull in and ring Himself for directions to Bilston. We only go there once a year and neither of us could remember the way. We were going in the totally wrong direction and heading for hell.

We got there eventually and made our way to the markets – Tracy brought a couple of pairs of Playgirl socks for Chels, but that was about it. We did purchase a rather nice salad which contained a blue cheese pasta and a wholemeal roll. This was considered by the pair of us to be our contribution towards healthy eating.

Onwards to Telford. Here we managed to purchase a few pressies and indulged in a large piece of chocolate fudge cake with ice cream. On the way out towards the car we passed a stall with a chocolate fountain and it only seem good manners to check it out. Basically you got to choose between mini doughnuts, marshmallows or pieces of fruit that then got covered in chocolate - we both chose the strawberries because it was the healthy option. Ha! The chocolate didn't count as it was only there to keep the strawberries warm.

About 4.00pm we made our way back towards Kidderminster and feeling in a generous mood I decided to indulge Himself’s little fetish for Christmas lights – I brought him a reindeer, to join the motley crew he already owns. Yes, he’s very sad and I try very hard not to encourage him normally – but he gets so excited about it and it's nearly Christmas. If he can put up with me writing stories, I can put up with his need to become the villages equivalent to Blackpool illumination. (OK, Cobweb - did I get the apostrophes right this time? And Scally, I do hope you're not going to let the side down).

++++

Sunday saw us putting up the last of the lights but not before Steve had taken Matthew out target shooting for the day. Hooray, the house to ourselves - an unusual occurance and one that you need to make the most of. No, not going into details – none of your business. *smug grin*.