Unexpected sunset

Last night our house alarm kept going off for no reason, and after we had gone to sleep it went off twice during the night. So first thing this morning I phoned the alarm company, where luckily we have a maintenance contract and they guarantee to be at your house within 4 hours of the call - which they were. 

Gavin, Adam and Luke had left very early to go play golf, so I waited for the alarm engineer to arrive and could not walk Xena as usual. He could not find what had caused the problem, he thought it was due to a power surge as a few xxxboards had malfunctioned (can't remember what they were called!) On investigation he discovered it was due to a leak in a worn pipe which sprayed water all over the electronic box which is outside in the plant room, so Tommy helped me turn off the stopcock as the water was spraying all over the place. It will have to get repaired this week and the alarm engineer did not have all the parts he needed so he is also coming back later this week. 

After all that it was a late walk for Xena. Then Tommy, Pip and I met the boys at the golf club for lunch. We had a delicious buffet lunch but it was all too much, and so I am officially back-to-normal-eating from tomorrow, as the festive season is now over! 

Tommy left after lunch to go stay with his girlfriend in Cornwall, where her family spent New Year, and tomorrow the other boys also leave to go to their own homes again. It has been so lovely having them all home - lots of meals and lots of laundry, but lovely. As children they were all quite noisy when together, and now as adults it is still rather noisy as there is always lively debate going on around the dinner table about something! We will miss that next week when it is back to a quiet household.

The morning was sunny and bright, but then it rained by midday. As we left lunch there was an unexpected sunset after the earlier rain in the afternoon.