Christmas Tree 2022

It’s my last working day ahead of a Christmas break.  On Tuesday the company announced that we were shutting-up shop early today. My 1:1 is right at the point where it could have been argued as being in the morning but my boss cancelled it. So, I did my work Weeknotes and sent my Merry Christmas message before logging off. I’d already been out first thing to get an item into the post before Christmas although I know full well it won’t be getting there any time soon but it’s really starting to feel like Christmas now. And I am still worried that I have not bought everything I need. 

In the early part of the afternoon I went to Wimbledon to buy some cards as the postal strike means the personalised ones I’d ordered from Moonpig are not going to get here before we leave. I was surprised to find that Clinton Cards has closed in the Centre Court Shopping Centre so I had to make do with a poorer selection in WH Smith (I don’t like the cards in Paperchase for some reason).  While in WHS I bought a gift voucher from BuyAGift. There weren’t many of the vouchers that offered activities for families on the front so I went with one that promised up to five people. What I didn’t notice when I purchased it was that the voucher was activities ‘for teens’.  When I asked to swap it for the one ‘for families’ I got a disinterested assistant who picked up a phone and didn’t explain what was happening. I stood their for a few minutes while a queue built up behind me to be told that the only way to swap the vouchers was to phone a number which was going to a message saying the office was closed. Unhelpful all around and the not very friendly service made me wonder why I had bothered. 

Next, I hopped on a bus to the big Sainsbury’s at Merton Abbey.  The supermarket was not quite as busy as I expected and I managed to find everything I was looking for which was, mainly, the starter for Christmas Day. We were going for mini Cheddar & Spinach muffins with some salmon and, later in Waitrose, I managed to locate some dill sauce. Dill is in very short supply at this point in the year.

Then it was back on another bus to majestic win in Wimbledon where I wanted to pick up a couple of bottles of The Guv'nor (and a couple of other bottles to take up to Shrewsbury). Turns out The Guv'nor is very popular as several people came in to pick up half a case and the lady behind me in the queue was so intrigued she went off to grab one to add to her trolley.  There was a lot of people buying a lot of wine that was being carried to cars. I think they were a bit surprised I was only buying four bottles when there is an offer on six or more. They even offered to hold a couple of bottles back for me but I decided to take the easier option of carrying four - and not the cheaper option. 

Home to watch Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, the sequel to Knives Out. It came highly recommended and we planned to see it at the cinema but, in the end, waited for the Netflix release. Its premise, around the antics of a tech industry billionaire seemed ever so timely given what’s happening at Twitter. But it was all produced before Elon bought Twitter.  We really enjoyed the second outing for Benoit Blanc. I still don’t quite know how to read the character but I thought this was put together really well and the cast were all excellent.

In 2021 Netflix bought the rights to two Knives Out sequels so, I guess, we’ll see the next one here too.

Somewhere along the line, I snapped the Raynes Park Christmas tree. Very like last year.