A Very Flitcroft Christmas (Finally!)

I know it's long overdue, and Jen's post put me to shame, so I thought I would make use of a quiet Sunday night to blog about our wonderful Christmas/New Year in freezing cold climates.

First up we arrived in London, we were meant to be staying at Mark's, but his boiler had broken that day (apparently everything breaks around Christmas as we were to find out) so we stayed at Kristy's instead, not far away near Tulse Hill. During the days we shopped, walked, saw the sights, walked some more, drank, froze, walked, visited museums, ate, froze and generally had a lot of fun. At night we caught up with friends, drank, ate, drank, ate, saw more friends, met strange Dicken's characters, drank, laughed and generally found ourselves in very interesting and different venues.

Jules freezing outside St Paul's

Catching up with Kenny in South KensingtonWe had to do this....Catching up with NomesWe even had time to track down some of Mattwa's ancestors!

Then it was up North to see the Fam and share a very Merry Flitcroft Christmas. As promised, we were woken on Christmas day with a Buck's Fizz and Santa Sack. It just got better from there! Jane and Zak came over about Midday and we unwrapped presents, we all took it in turns to let Zak beat us at pool (on his new kids size table), we ate till we felt we'd explode, we drank till we were all a little silly, played Charades (very interesting/challenging when the 6 yr old has to know all the titles) and then capped the night off by heading over to the Bilton's (family friends) for more silliness at "Family Fun" night.

The FamZak and Neville light the pudThe boys enjoy their gameshmmmm...

After long enough with the relos we drove to Manchester to scratch an itch. City (or properly pronounced it's "Sssssiddy") were playing Blackburn. Since City had not lost at home all season and Blackburn hadn't lost at this ground before, we were in for a nailbiter. My new favourite player is Petrov (he's number 15 with the black gloves)Jules outside City of Manchester Stadium - Home of the Mighty Blues!

Petrov and the team. We had pretty good seats. I tried taking a photo of Sven, but it was too blurry...those pitches are very wide and my poor 3X zoom couldn't cope.

After our sojourn to Manchester, Flit decided to pop down to the beach to look at an art installation. As you can see, the weather was a little grim.

The Eurostar took us to our next destination...Jenny and Alex in Paris!! What a beautiful sight to see them both grinning at us as we got off the train. The next few days were filled with Stairs, good food, excellent company, silly expats with hats, cocktails and the odd fat shop.

Jules got the little procelain king in the epiphany cake....ask Alex....The obligatory Eiffel Tower shotDown the Champs Elysse from the top of the Arc d'TriompheMad French people trying to driveSaucy hat wearers heading out to the New Years Eve party, loaded down with every kind of alcohol...ask Alex...and a savoury cake!New Years Eve PartySince we were only in Paris for a short time, we had to make the most of it, so on New Years Day, we dragged our tired and hungover arses out of bed and went to see more of Paris. Off to the Louvre we went , and Jen and I practiced just in case they needed back up dancers at the good 'ole red windmill.This picture is more in the vein of WTF??? I kid you not, this is a legitimate shop near Euston station in London. We had just gotten back in to England and were wandering down the road to find our hire car (the trains were all cancelled!!) and we saw this shop front!!! (This is where one would make a Mattwa joke, but seeing as he is such a hot date, I thought I'd cut him a break)

We had an awesome time. Thanks Jen and Alex for our delightful tour of Paris.