Nice surprise

 For the annual ramblings, go to the 6 December post

Our bank’s on-line cheque deposit facility being unavailable, I legged it down to the village yesterday afternoon to deposit the cheque for our modest winnings in the local Hospice lottery.  The dedicated Post Office is no more, so the One Stop staff have to multi-skill - and they’re taking a while to get the hang of it all.  It eventually took three staff to sort it out - I hope.  Hardly surprising.

What was a surprise, and a delightful one, was in the queue at the chemists.  Two people ahead of me had met before, and the man said to the woman, ‘the last time we met here you were singing the Marseillaise!’.  Whereupon she launched into the first line, so I picked it up and ran with it, the two of us rendering the full thing with gusto, much to the amusement of the queue and the pharmacy staff.

Preparations for the festive hostilities advance slowly.  Pigs in blankets are in the freezer, joined today by a batch of palmiers.  Since we shall have veggie and gluten intolerant guests, I’ve done a batch of Madhur Jaffray chick peas today: they freeze well.  Martyn is visiting family and friends in Medway today, so won’t have to endure the exotic cooking aromas!