Kitty at 100

Happy New Year everyone!

Hope you're recovering from the festivations. I've done nothing but eat since I got back at the end of August, and it's definitely beginning to show. Time to rejoin the active world once again. Booked my flight back to Africa for 2nd February.

Had a lovely time in the cottage in Dartmoor, but we decided to come back New Year's Eve due to the weather (extremely wet and windy) and the logistics of Aunty Jean catching her train back to Carlisle (underwater) on New Year's Day. So, it was farewell to the fire...

Those candles were actually electric! Safety and elegance. It was also farewell to the stylish wooden beams, which gave the cottage (Old Beams) its name.

On the drive back to Gloucester, my beautiful baby blue (I have a spiritual attachment to my car) finally passed the 100,000 mile mark!

  

I was slightly emotional. Considering she was born in '99 that's pretty good going. I've put the majority of those miles on myself - we've been all the way to Poland together, and to Belgium many times. I've turned down three offers to buy her, and blushed as one lady watched me reverse into a pub car park and came over to tell me never to sell her. 'My brother had one of those,' she told me. 'It'll be a classic soon.' To me, she already is. Kitty crossed into adulthood with China In Your Hand playing on the radio. I'm so proud of her. 

Enjoyed the second Christmas tree and Christmas dinner of the season with Dad, Marilyn and Aunty Jean.

Then we snuggled up with bubbly for the annual joy fest that is Jools Holland's Hootenanny. (Could we please just take a moment to fully appreciate that, as well as rhythm and blues genius of epic proportions, he was also Squeeze (check the cigar)). Saw him live many years ago performing at an abbey in Somerset. Rounded up nicely with a live performance of Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams and that fascinating song Take me to Church by Hozier.

Had a lovely day in town today visiting my friend Pat. She took me to visit her friend Mark's new venture: a 1930s-style cinema. It's absolutely delightful. It's called the Sherborne Cinema (Facebook/Twitter) in Gloucester. Seats about 140, it's really atmospheric and intimate. The sweetie kiosk is done up very retro and you can buy popcorn for £1! Tea comes in an actual mug. Seats start from £3.50. When was the last time that ever happened? You usually have to take out a second mortgage nowadays to visit the cinema. Mark does it out of complete love of films. He's wanted to run his own cinema since he was in his teens. Put in all the seats himself, runs the place single-handedly. It's just absolutely lovely. Well worth a visit.

Projector Wall