Highlights of the festive season

Well I had a good break, hope everyone else did! Some of the highlights:

pre-Christmas get-together with friends to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. Chinese food is such a blessed relief in the middle of turkey dinners and Christmas puddings. I forced Sax and Emma to sit and watch "a Muppet Christmas carol" with me on the Saturday. whilst eating mince pies. This has to be my favourite Christmas film of all time. Sod ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, this is the one to get me in the mood!

Christmas Eve was spent in Paul's local back in Water Orton.... not too scary an experience! then on Christmas morning I amazed Paul and his brother by heading out for a quick run. I wanted to have a good nose around the village really as it's got some lovely houses. Also a good excuse to then eat loads of food and chocolate! Later on we went over to Sally and Jon's where I subjected him not only to my family but also Jon’s family - nothing like throwing him in at the deep end! Boxing day was back to Mum's for the 25 person sit down meal and general chaos that is the Haigh Christmas. Best presents were:

Itrip (unfortunately I got three but they were all appreciated!),
Gary Barlow autobiography!!!!,
Large soft toy of miffy
plus many more things that I can't recall due to the amount of alcohol that has since been consumed!


After Christmas the excitement didn't let up, with gatherings of Sagga old and young'uns. We went round to the Bishop's in Painswick, where we caught up with them and the Blands, Including the kids - Heather, Jim, Wendy and Steve plus me and Rach. Now it's been a while since that happened. We were able to have a private tour of the Painswick church bell tower which gave a fantastic view of the surrounding area. At one point in time, with Jim and his dad discussing the intricate workings of the church bell system i had a flashback to NorthWest Sagga events of bygone years and realised how little things change!

Wednesday evening was spent in a favoured pub called the Green Dragon which does banoffee pie to die for! Thursday was back up to Paul's bro and sis in law to see them, then Friday we headed up to North Wales .

What can I say about new year? Well, as I imagine most people will have experienced, it was a bit soggy! But good fun and relaxed all the same. We went up to Deinolien in Snowdonia, to a lovely place which easily fitted the various Sagga families. This was the first time I had visited it and I can see why they have used it a few times. Private bathrooms in bunkhouses are an impressive feature!

We attempted 2 walks, the first one was somewhat thwarted by the torrential hailstorms which began just as we had kitted ourselves out and started to walk across the car park. Still, despite the pain of the hailstones, we battled on regardless and did the shortest option round the lake and back, before parting with the keener lot to return to base for some warmth and a good book (Gary Barlow kept me company a lot this new year!). The Sunday was even worse as it was simply wet and windy without the novelty of hailstones! Again we did a short walk then abandoned the keener people to return to the pub where we met up with Clr, Ed and Phillip. The keener crew (Jonathon W and Dave Heale) took slightly longer than anticipated and forced us to remain within the establishment for more time than we had planned. Obviously we were dying to get out there and do something worthwhile (or actually maybe go and find them if they were lost) but the lure of the warmth and beer was too great! Luckily they eventually appeared and we were not forced to spend out new years eve wandering the hills in search of them!

New years eve itself went surprisingly quickly, with a lovely meal, some excellent new games and a hearty helping of wine and chocolate fondue. We returned back to base nicely refreshed, if a little less exercised than planned. Hey ho, bring on 2007….