Tales of an Amorphic Destiny

Festive Season 2007

January 1st, 2008 at 06:00pm James

After an exciting and eventful 2007, it was great to get some time to relax over a very enjoyable Christmas break. Time to eat, drink and make merry!

The festive season kicked things off with Bryce joining us on  another trip to the European Christmas markets, this time in France. We boarded the trusty Sunny and after an early morning ferry to Calais drove on to the town of Rouen, famous as being the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake.

After getting the business side of the trip out of the way, (stocking up on wine, spirits and cheese in the supermarket) we went and saw the town’s modest Xmas markets, had dinner in a Mexican restaurant(!?!) and finally had a few quiet whiskeys in a local bar before bed.

The following day we went to the much larger markets in the town of Amien. There we bought traditional sausages and tracked down the delicious "Tartiflette" – a delicacy made from potato, cheese, wine, onion and bacon that’d we’d first sampled at the Belgian markets the year before.

We arrived home laden with French cheese and booze and as December went on there were the usual Christmas drinks and parties, including Sarah’s first with her new workmates.

Lynda and Bree arrived at the house back from their trip to Morocco and so the night before Christmas eve we held our traditional pre-Christmas wine and cheese evening. Also along were new housemate Kevin and recent-ex housemate Oli – we all tucked into the vast array of wines and cheeses picked up in France and a good time was had by all.

Christmas day itself was set to be our biggest yet in London with Lynda and Bree over, as well as Leo and Tanja who flew in from Cologne, Germany on Christmas eve. Christmas morning kicked off with Champagne and ham+cheese croissants lovingly prepared by Bryce, followed by banana muffins and breakfast dacquiris courtesy of Sarah.

Barnaby arrived just in time to share the bubbly and so after bunging the enormous turkey int he oven we chilled for a while and opened a few presents!

The drinks flowed and we got busy in the kitchen getting lunch ready, Barnaby pitching in by knocking up a delicious batch of mulled wine.

As lunchtime approached, ex-housemates Alex and Peta arrived. With their daughter Matilda only days from birth, Peta’s mother Marianne was over from Australia for moral support and also along were Lee and Lisal, American/Aussie ex-pats who we’d met through Alex & Peta a few times previously.

So, a pretty large crowd for lunch! The drinks flowed freely and the eating proper began informally with appetizers of smoked salmon blinis and feta + red onion tartlets. Then the table was set and we tucked into entrees of avocado salad with either king prawns or prosciutto-wrapped pesto risotto. Yum!!!

Having only one relatively small oven it took a bit of cooking-time coordination, but we eventually got the main course out. As usual we went a bit over-the-top with turkey, lamb and pork as well as all manner of roast veg, potato bake etc but hey, that’s what Christmas is all about! Suffice to say that by the time lunch was over,  we were all well-and-truly stuffed!

We bid farewell to Peta, Alex, Marianne, Lee and Lisal and the rest of us settled in for and evening of drinking and listening to some fairly obscure Christmas carols, (Johnny Cash doing carols? It’s meant to be a time for happiness!).

We got a lot of entertainment out of Sarah’s new "Typical Male/Typical Female" board game and somewhere in the evening Lynda managed to knock up an outstanding Pavlova!

As the first daylight started to appear we gradually went off to bed. That is except for Bree and Sarah of course, who thought they’d go for a little Boxing Day walk up to the park to take photos…

The rest of the week was spent relaxing at home, eating leftovers and drinking our way through a mountain of French wine and beer. Friday was declared a video games evening and much Wii and Xbox 360 Guitar Hero 3 were played.

We also went in to Jongleurs at Camden Lock to see a few comedians, the headliner being Australian Jim Jeffries. A bloody funny night and after chatting/drinking with Jim at the bar afterwards we learned he was a big Guitar Hero Fan. Many drinks later and he ended up back at the house with us drinking on and playing Guitar Hero! Jim was quite good, but Kevin maintains that he was better…

The festive season was rounded off by a trip into London to watch the New Years fireworks. The fireworks themselves turned out being a bit lacklustre, but with the big-crowd atmosphere and a bag laden with beer, schnapps and other assorted goodies, we had a great time regardless!

After finally departing the bank of the Thames we ended up in an Eerie pub drinking until the wee hours and welcoming in 2008. Here’s to it being a great year – hopefully just as great as 2007!

More photos for your viewing pleasure:

Christmas markets in France
Sarah’s work Xmas lunch
Christmas day
Wii + Guitar Hero
New Year’s Eve

Entry Filed under: Life in England