December
Following Clyde’s triumphs last month, visits to Allens
Hill were more relaxed. Clyde got to
wear his Christmas antlers again, and, one weekend, Jay let a friend at the
stables ride him in a couple of classes.
Jay entered the Christmas One Day Event, and he performed 
magnificently,
with his best ever dressage marks and fastest times round the cross-country
course. Unfortunately a couple of
faults – rare for him – pushed him down the final placings. But all in all Jay and Clyde can be well
pleased with their first six months of competition.
Jay’s
first term in the Sixth Form ended with a Parents Evening, at which we heard
that she had made a very good start to her Sixth Form studies. She again went on a day visit to Oxford for
a series of biology demonstrations.
After Christmas, she will be doing work experience in a podiatry
practice in Cheltenham.
Teresa once again master-minded the Christmas
preparations. By the time Helen
returned for her Christmas break, the decorations were in place, the larders
bulging and the presents laid out under the Christmas tree.
We had two celebratory
meals, on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day.
Teresa also made sure everyone had a stocking full of
surprises on Christmas morning – including one for Clyde!
Otherwise, there were excursions to the stables (many – for Jay), to Winchcombe (Helen and Roger), to the Narnia film (except Roger), and to Evesham (all, for some low-key shopping).
Helen returned to London on Friday 30, leaving three of us
to sit up for New Year, looking in vain for some traditional Scottish music on
the television. We did at least, though
a little rusty, play a traditional Shetland New Year air, ‘The Day Dawn’,
supposedly only ever played once a year by a lone fiddler on New Year’s Day …
and, oh, on several of our fiddling CDs, including Aly Bain with the backing of
the full BT Scottish Ensemble.
Meanwhile, at the very
tail-end of the year, the eleventh hour almost literally, the annual plumbing
problem re-asserted itself, and we are again seeking an elusive leak.
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