Winter has really set in. Cold, wet, ice and snow arrived overnight of 9th-10th December when the student had already arranged to drive from Birmingham to Gatwick to meet her boyfriend arriving from sunny California. After some persuasion she had already taken advice to allow double the journey time estimated by Google, which she seems to hold sacred, but even so it was not enough to allow for the impact of the heavy snow affecting the west midlands and the M40. She didn't find it amusing that he flew all the way from LA in little over 10 hours and her journey from Brum took seven hours. But, after four months apart, they had their reunion and fortunately the ice and snow didn't last long and the cold weather didn't put them off. In her little car they travelled the length of England, from Stonehenge to Ambleside and they even made a brief visit to Scotland.
On 23rd December while on her way back to Gatwick, this time by train, the Student lost her phone (with flat battery). We activated the lost phone service and within an hour someone had found it, charged it and phoned us so we could arranged for it to be collected. Very many thanks to the finder from North London who has helped restore our faith in the good nature and honesty of people.
On 24th December our electricity supply switched to 100% renewable energy with one of the smaller suppliers AND we get to save money. It was our 2nd major "trade deal" under my "Retirement in the style of Brexit" regime. Of course, just as Theresa May claims we can have blue passports after we leave the EU without mentioning we could have had them anyway, I won't mention that I didn't really need to wait until I'd retired to make the switch if only I could have been bothered to do it earlier.
The Student and the Lawyer, both vegans, took over the preparation of our Christmas dinner (which was very nice). We counter-revolutionaries did smuggle through a roast turkey for the non-vegans, but the vegan food was so well received maybe next year we won't bother.
And now it's New Year's Eve. Happy New Year everyone.