Christmas this year

I am back in London now :) Feel refreshed after a one-week holiday in Manchester. Stayed with Thia's aunt and uncle in East Didsbury. Chichi and Atom (thia's younger cousins) were there as well. They are both still doing their A-levels in Concord, so we compared Concord stories. Our daily routines were so relaxing.. woke up daily around 9am, then went down for breakfast. Usually me and the uncle are the earliest one to wake up.. then followed by auntie and the rest. They have this spacious kitchen with a huge glass window overlooking the backyard. Loved to stand there in the morning, watching the snowflakes falling whilst waiting for the water in the kettle to boil. Breakfast will be in the dining table, usually a bowl of hot oatmeal porridge with a drip of honey + tea... whilst listening to the morning news on the radio. Then afterwards Thia, Chichi and Atom will all come down and join us.. (Marks & Spencer's Triple Chocolate Crunch cereal + milk = our newest favourite. Polished off 6pints of milk and two boxes of cereal in two days!). Daily activities revolved around either all of us going out on a trip somewhere ..or going to Costa in the village and I'll read books, whilst Thia is working on her Masters application :) I found this secret gem, which is a second-hand bookshop just off the road from Costa. Found Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When we were orphan' yay!

We also went to Cheshire Oaks on Boxing Day, then Manchester Trafford Centre - for more shopping. I had resigned to the coffee shop whilst waiting for Thia to still continue shopping lol. Evenings are the most pleasant - as we all will gather around the dining table. usually Uncle is the one who cooks, then we set up the table. When everyone is seated, then we will say a short prayer of thanks before we started eating :) Dinner will usually involves Thia teasing Atom mercilessly, Chichi sometimes piped in as well. Added with the usual wise messages from uncle regarding various things in general. One night we had a discussion over films. what constitutes a good movie and what is not. Uncle said 'when you go to the cinema to see a film, you are prepared to suspend your belief during that hours spent to watch the film'. Which I think is perfectly true :) Mira has taught me to appreciate good films these days, too bad she is now back in Jakarta. Otherwise we can have more movie nights on days we were both staying in :(

After dinner, the four of us will wash the dishes. Then usually uncle will have an early night, Atom will retreat to his room to play computer games..leaving us the girls (me, thia, chichi and auntie) below to watch something on the telly :) or just having a general chat. The nights when snow fell heavily outside were the best - as we were all warmly snug inside the house, with the heater cranked up..watching the snow falling outside :):). What a pleasant Christmas this year :) very thankful indeed.

ps : We also helped auntie painted the kitchen, and roasted a turkey (had people over for the whole day during Christmas day! = tons of food hehe)