December

An early foretaste of a month of severe weather came right at the start with a snowfall just enough to cause Roger’s Malvern bowls to be cancelled on Thursday 2, though activities closer to home were unaffected. Jay was home for the weekend and we went to the Christmas market in the village hall on Saturday 4, while Teresa and Jay also went to Broadway for the Christmas shopping evening on Friday 4. Very busy, so that they never quite caught up with Santa’s sleigh rides, but enjoyed the festive scenes nevertheless.

Broadway’s specialist Christmas shop Jay inspects the visiting reindeer

Jay was also back home the following weekend and on Friday 10 was able to accompany Teresa to the Save the Children evening of Christmas carols in Winchcombe and help select our Christmas tree from a local farm – an exceptionally fresh one this year, which scarcely dropped a needle before we threw it out for recycling in January.

On Sunday 12, Teresa had obtained two tickets for The Sound of Music at the New Theatre in Oxford. Jay had long wanted to see Connie Fisher in the role of Maria – she had been unlucky when they went to see it in London in February 2007. This time Connie was performing.

The following week saw the start of a somewhat fraught run-up to Christmas as the temperatures outside started to fall steadily. Jay was shuttling up and down from Oxford, first on Tuesday 14 so she could go with Teresa to the nativity play at the playgroup in Cheltenham where Teresa used to work. The following day Jay was due back again (for a dental appointment on Thursday), while Rovy was in the garage for the possible leak to be investigated. Unfortunately, the garage hadn’t returned Rovy by the end of the day, so when Jay rang to say her train was about to get in, Roger had to jump into Fizzy, which failed to start. This meant that Teresa, who by now was developing flu-like symptoms, had to talk Jay through the mechanics of getting a taxi from Evesham – always a bit of a scramble when the London train comes in. Luckily Jay got the last cab in the line, driven by a fortunate coincidence by a kindred soul, an ex-research chemist.

By the time Jay came in, Teresa was feeling very ill – she had not got round to having the flu jab, though she is asthmatic – and she was starting to struggle for breath. Roger rang the out-of-hours doctor, who said she should be taken to the Emergency Medical Centre, but, with Fizzy out-of-action, he said we must instead call the ambulance. The ambulance service was very good. Though the nearest one was about 20 minutes away, they stayed on the line to Roger to monitor the symptoms until the ambulance arrived. When the ambulance came, it stayed for almost two hours administering oxygen and drugs to stabilise Teresa’ condition. But after two hours one of her readings was still abnormal so it took her off to A and E in Cheltenham – probably for the night we thought. Eventually Teresa rang to say she thought she would be released – should she get a taxi? Luckily Jay suggested that we had one more try at starting Fizzy, and this time it worked. But it was three o’clock in the morning before Roger finally drove down to Cheltenham: unthinkingly, he drove to where A and E used to be and had parked and walked before realising his mistake. Fizzy only just spluttered into life again and Roger was able to drive round to the new entrance and, without stopping the engine, picked up Teresa and thence back home. For a few more days Teresa had some difficult moments and disturbed nights before gradually getting back to normal. By then, of course, we were thoroughly snowed in.

Meanwhile, Teresa was well enough for Roger to go and help at a short mat open evening in the village hall on Thursday 16, when half-a-dozen or so visitors joined us from other clubs to sample our facilities and partake of mulled wine and mince pies. While on Friday 17 he had to drive to Oxford to pick Jay up for the last time before Christmas. Though the risk of snow was appearing in the forecasts, there was only one worrying moment in the middle of the day when they had to drive out to Cowley to pick up a package retained by the Post Office. As we drove (luckily we’d taken the satnav with us for the directions) a dense blizzard beset us for about ten minutes and we had visions of being marooned in Oxford. Luckily it was short lived, and we then turned for home just as soon as we could.

The snow started on Saturday 18, steadily and heavily until it equalled the fall we had in January. Then it stopped for a while but overnight came again, comfortably exceeding the earlier fall. And because of the low temperatures every flake that fell was there for the next week or so as the temperatures stayed below zero day and night. Roger noted -12°C and -13°C on the outside thermometer on those first two nights.

Our sundeck

The depth on the sundeck table in January (left) and in December (right), clearly about half as much again

Rovy snowed in … …and again … … and the road outside

Christmas plans were thrown into confusion. Teresa had tickets for The Messiah in Tewkesbury Abbey on Saturday evening, but even if she had been well enough to go, driving there in the conditions would have been madness, so the tickets were wasted. And on Sunday 19, for Jay’s big Christmas treat, Teresa and Jay had tickets for the International Horse Show at Olympia, but, of course, the trains, already offering a rather poor service, were all cancelled. Jay took her disappointment stoically, and something at least was salvaged: Teresa was able to arrange for Helen to use one of the tickets, which being in London she could, and did, do, and enjoyed it thoroughly, offering Jay some vicarious pleasure and some goodies from the stalls when she came back for Christmas.

It wasn’t until Wednesday 22 that we were able to get out again, the three of us invalids (Jay and Roger were also suffering from colds by then) just about managing to clear enough snow from the drive to get Rovy in and out with difficulty, mainly with the aim of collecting Helen from Evesham to avoid her also having to find a taxi. To add to the complications, just five minutes before setting out Tesco Online rang to say they had suspended deliveries (‘health and safety’) and, as by then Waitrose had already cancelled their delivery, we had to go armed with the full Christmas shopping list. Jay joined Roger on the drive: only the A roads had cleared, the B roads – most of our journey – still largely covered with packed snow and ice while the side roads in Evesham were thick with slush. We avoided the station car park for fear of getting stuck on the slope, but even so Jay and Helen had to push the car out of the slush in the Tesco car park and we were very glad to slither back into our drive later after a mammoth shop which the girls accomplished in very good spirits considering the time it took.

We still had a brief trip on Friday 24 to the village for Jay’s final orthodontic appointment and a fruitless visit to the library – it was closed – before settling in for Christmas.

Though later in the week, and sunny, the snow still lies where the traffic has not cleared it and the icicles are sizeable

Thereafter, Christmas took its more usual form, with meals and presents carefully chosen by Teresa, who had recovered just about in time, and there were only a few little hitches caused principally by the bad weather. We started on Christmas Eve with mulled wine and nibbles, followed by a meal of beef for Roger and Teresa and duck for the girls. However, as we were unable to get to Marks and Spencer to collect the prime fillet beef ordered, we had to forgo the Wellington and have a piece of topside from Tesco. More wine, chocolates and coffee followed and we tried the first of our new family games for Christmas. Christmas day lunch was as good as ever – preceded by a sparkling rosé to toast Christmas in, then on to the turkey and trimmings with a fine Rioja to wash it down. We repaired to the sitting room for a multitude of presents as ever, both intriguing and practical, though the emphasis may have been on things to wear and things to eat – Roger, for example, had a pair of bootee-type slippers which seem to have overcome the cold feet problem he had been getting, a cornucopia of his favourite chocolate and sweets and some well chosen books. We also had some more new games and quizzes to try as well as some old favourites to return to.

Our lovely tree Roger and Helen about to toast Christmas

Jay and Helen pulling a cracker Helen and the tree

One disappointment was that weather and illness had conspired to prevent any practice of our Christmas concert pieces, so this tradition of many years standing was cancelled.

The temperatures continued low for a further week and we ventured out little, only to take Helen back to the station on Wednesday 29. Roger, Teresa and Jay sat up to see the New Year in and Roger and Jay did manage a few rounds of ‘The Day Dawn’ before we closed the book on 2010.

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