Christmas pudding, crackers and crowds...

......all those time honoured British traditions; figgy pudding - with lashings of brandy butter, custard and cream...mmmmmmmmmmm; multiple crackers - all with the same jokes inside; and crowds galore. Technically we started the 'crowd' part at the beginning of our journey - at the airport in Seattle - which had become a mammouth labyrinth of queues due to the uncooperative weather. Miraculously - and we still have no idea why or how it happened - our flight left - albeit 3 hours late - but it left. Our travel Fairy obviously put in a little overtime during the festive season.
So the crowds continued; at the Queens for our Christmas Eve pint, at the Cathedral for our annual dose of religion, in the town centre for the post Christmas 'Sale Lunacy', and at the Villa ground for Mike's annual Premier League Soccer fix.
Just to clarify. Mike has developed a manly affection for our local Premier League team - Aston Villa (or 'Villa' to the locals). He has seen them play at home twice now and it seems that was enough to trigger a more than passing interest in their progress in the league standings. As it happens they are doing quite well - not that it would make any difference to Mike if they weren't - but it means his weekly updates via the gloriously versatile ESPN - are filled with anticipation and a little excitement to see whether they have managed to maintain their rankings at the top end of the board. Ahhhh - if I had known in my youth that I would be married to a die hard Villain........