Days 104, 105, 106, and 107. Heaters. Boots. Toilets. and Christmas.

Days 104, 105, 106, and 107. Heaters. Boots. Toilets. and Christmas. Day 104. 

Wednesday. Christmas Eve. Deirdre and I take walks everyday. It is good to get out of the house, see things, and make up stories about the things we walk past. Our walks usually turn into shopping. We walked to a couple of grocery stores, a pet store with some frisky guinea pigs, walked some more, and shopped. There is a 'chain' of cute boutique clothing stores called Polly. Deirdre was the first to notice that there was more than one in the town on our daily walks. They each have a different theme, bohemian, posh, shabby cheque, etc. One of the stores had some amazing boots in them. I was having a hard time justifying the purchase of said boots, and thought if I am still thinking about them by Saturday, I will buy them then. After more thrift stores, and shops we headed back to the house to check on the others. The two hosts were doing school work, sister to one host has been sick the week previous so she stays home and reads, and bus rider was doing school work too. SO you can see why it is not a problem for Deirdre and I to be out so long in town because no one else can explore with us. When we got back to the house, we all went for a walk...to the castle together. First time all six of us had been out of the house together in three days. Bus rider had not even seen the ocean yet! Deirdre, Host2, and I stayed a bit longer than the others waiting for sunset. It was cold, windy, and in true sunset waiter fashion, clouds rolled in. Nevertheless I got some good pictures. That night Deirdre made sausage rolls (even some veggie ones for me) and I made Ginger Cookies and crossaint dough. After that we all played card games. Progressive Rummy. Then I had bought some face masks, and all were supportive in commencing in the first annual christmas eve face mask regalia. Deirdre, Host2 and myself decided to go to Midnight Mass. None of us had ever been before, the oldest church in the town is 60 seconds away from the flat, and so it was easy to just slide on over. It was Anglican. The church was beautiful. It had drippy candles up all the aisles of pews, and a Christmas tree simply lit with just lights. They had a house band, with a guitar/cello/tambourine singers. We sang some carols, the minister gave a nice sermon on Jesus is always with us, we sang some more carols, and it was over. It was Christmas.

 Day 105. I slept in tell 9am. I baked the croissants. Ate them. We slowly all gathered in the common room. Host1, Host1Sister, Dierdre, and BusRider had gotten things to stuff the Christmas Stockings, so we opened them up. Got some faux glasses that were snowman's eyes, mini top hat, and a carrot piece dangling over my nose. Host2 opened up a gift from her family, which included a nightie from her dead grandma. Yep we laughed at that. Deirdre, Host1 and myself then left to go foraging for spices for the roast turkey, as there were none in the house. We got rosemary from the garden Host1s old flat, and a mini market for a herb mix. We spent the afternoon cooking. I made a very rustic lemon tart for BusRider as she would not eat the pumpkin pie that Host1 made. In between rounds of cooking I talked to the family back home. It was nice to see their cute faces. Our traditional British Roast Dinner included, roasted potatoes, carrots, turnips, Yorkshire puddings (german pancake like things cooked in muffin tins for individual portions), and turkey with gravy for everyone else, and I had Quorn vegetarian country fried chicken with mushroom gravy. The meal was amazing, and I ate more in one meal than I usually do in a few days. We played games, everyone talked to their families via some device (modern technology is great), played more games, and watched movies. Host2 and I took a walk, it was nice to move that food around a bit and enjoy the night sea air as we walked along the boardwalk. More card games and bed. BusRider asked Host1 if she could turn off the heater as she gets really hot. I told her not to turn off the heat, as I still get a little cold at night. She said she would leave it on the lowest level. Deirdre and I fell asleep and BusRider binged watched Once Upon a Time tell 3 in the morning in the common room we were all sharing.

 Day 106. Friday. Every morning, I wake up to the sound of Seagulls. This morning, I woke up hearing the seagulls louder than usual. I also thought the air was crisper and colder. I thought that was strange too. Host1 and sister opened their bedroom door as I was headed to the bathroom and I thought 'wow their room is warm....I love warm.' It was then that Host1 Sister discovered that someone opened the window during the night because said person was hot. She left the heater on low as promised, but opened the window as well. Makes perfect sense right? Not. At. All. It was a take it easy day. Host1, Deirdre, and myself to took a walk to the lighthouse. It was cold, rainy walk and lovely to see the fishing side to the town. Came back and played games all day inside. Literally a nice low key relaxed day. And discovered that the heater in the common room was now not working at all. Fabulous. We ate Christmas leftovers and all watched Guardians of the Galaxy. My first Marvel movie. I know don't go into shock. I also watched the Christmas Special for Call the Midwife in between rounds of games and during dinner.

 Day 107. Saturday. The heater kicked in about 2am. BusRider went home. I got up early with Host2 and Deirdre to take BusRider to the bus station and to see if we could rent a car for a day trip, the rental agency was overbooked, so no car possible. Dierdre and I took a hike up a tall hill (mini mountain) on the edge of town and had great views of the ocean, town, hills, and yep everything....on the way down the hill I did a little mud surfing and got a little trail of mud up my back. It was a good laugh. As we came back into town, there were "sale" signs on all the buildings...we had missed Boxing Day (UK's equivalent of black Friday) the day before as we stayed inside and played games....so we headed back to one of our favorite finds, Polly, fresh from hiking looking a bit worn out and mud on my jacket and I was going to purchase some boots I couldn't stop thinking about....well apparently a lot of other people couldn't stop thinking about them because they were now out of my size in all colors three days later. Ugh. That was the worst sentence ever written. Don't judge. Read on. Deirdre was lucky in the boot department and walked out with two pair. I looked online, and my size feet apparently is super common as none available there either. After shopping, we met the girls back at the apartment. Some wanted to go shopping, so we all headed back out again. Nice to get out of the apartment and enjoy this cute place! I neglected to mention that this is also the point where we found out the toilet was clogged up pretty bad and unusable tell help could come. Outdoor adventures it is! We were going to go out to dinner, but the girls decided they'd rather order pizza which turned into buying frozen pizza's....but luckily for me, Host2 said she'd rather order a pizza than eat frozen. It was a really good pizza with peppers, tomatoes, olives, and jalapeños. Probably the first time I've ordered pizza in the UK. We played games, took a bathroom run to the Starbucks next to the flat before they closed at 8pm (that's true. Eight PM. This is the last shop in town to close). We played more games until we all got to tired, and now i am writing a novel about heaters and boots and toilets. super fun.