In Under The Wire.

As the song goes there are of course 12 days of Christmas.

The first is Christmas Day, December 25th. The twelfth is January 6th. Or the Feast of the Epiphany if you want to bring religion into proceedings.

So technically I have managed to visit my mothers for Christmas.

I think by now we all know which British Cathedral City my mothers live in.

Particularly at this time of year there seems to be no detail of my life too inane for public consumption. So I should probably start with the issue of the gifts.

I gave my mothers two, short books;

The Ladybird book of the Story of Brexit (ISBN978-0-241-38656-9).

Ladybird books are something of a British institution. Traditionally they've been aimed at explaining complex, adult things to children. So you sort of get the Ladybird book of Trains or the Ladybird book of Aeroplanes etc.

Recently they've started publishing ironic versions aimed at adults. This one, clearly written by Remoaners, dealt with Brexit. The Brexit story really defined my preperations for Christmas.

Cat Versus Trump (ISBN978-1-4722-5924-0).

This was a set of tests to determine if your cat is more intelligent than current US President Donald Trump. I may have found myself in a bookshop the day after President Trump announced he was withdrawing troops from Syria.

These are of course both small, stocking filler type gifts. The sort of thing that can cause amusement at family gatherings if the conversation starts to flag a bit.

Before Christmas realised that there was no way I would be able to arrange their main gifts in time for Christmas Day. So I decided to turn it into something of an activity for my visit. Something we could all to together while I was in town.

As it turns out my mothers freed me from the obligation to get them a main gift. Which I think of as my main gift.

From them I also received some clothes. Slacks and a tracksuit specifically for use in the gym. Although that doesn't sound exciting it's definitely something I will use and enjoy. Plus it saves me the hassle of doing it myself.

In terms of activities I arrived at around 15:00 on Wednesday (2/1/19). After stopping for a leisurely coffee we went home, had a home cooked meal and generally chatted and caught up.

On Thursday (3/1/19) we took their dog out for a long, adventurous walk. Along some Salt Marshes by the Solent.

That might sound really boring to some people. However I live in a Mega-City where I'm constantly bombarded by information from electronic devices.

So being out in a wide open space with nothing expect the sound of the birds and the breeze is still quite a novelty for me. Plus a windswept, open field is quite a good place to have a private conversation.  

The best bit of a long walk in nature though is they tend to end in a pub. After catching our breath and warming by the fire we went home and had a Chinese takeaway. Before falling asleep in front of the fire.

Today (4/1/19) we did some leisurely errands in town. Errands which were interspersed with trips to coffee shops and pubs of no significance. We had a buffet lunch at an Indian-Fusion (Venison Curry?) restaurant. I then got the train back.

Unfortunately we did not get time to test the cats. The boy cat might be more intelligent than Trump. The girl one definitely isn't.

The good news is that old cat has sort of adopted the two new cats as his charges. This means that he now spends more time inside with them. Meaning that I actually got to see him for the second time in as many years.

It also means the three cats are now capable of ganging up on the dog.

I returned home about and hour or so ago. Relieved to discover that nothing was on fire and no-one had been stabbed.

Well, not on the South-West Trains route I was on anyway.

17:50 on 4/1/19 (UK date).