Birthday and Christmas together?!

Not often I get to have my birthday cake on the same day as going to a Christmas party (being as though my birthday is in July) - but that's how long I had to wait this year. Raff wants me to mention that he's not really all that bad. And in fact I was very impressed to get to his on Friday evening and be offered a glass of wine with home made mince pie to have while I soaked in the bath :)

Sarah D's Christmas "gathering" which apparently we are now allowed to refer to as "party" (although I'm sure that was what I was invited to in the 1st place anyway) was excellent. Started off with wine tasting at their local wine merchant, with endless supplies .... Of course I didn't drink more than I should have done. Then back to Sarah's, with mulled wine, fanastic food (including more home made mince pies :) ), Hugh Grant's wiggley bottom and plenty good company.

Having gone to bed late on Sarah's floor I was awoken with a start to notice that the door frames were all shaking. Hmm, what was that? maybe an earthquake? I thought - then went straight back off to sleep - obviously not really quite awake enough to consider it may have been anything worth worrying about! Was more concerned later when we opened the curtains to see a very strange looking black cloud outside, at which point we found out from the news what had actually happened.