On the way to 'Nam

...Chelt'nam, that is! This is Painswick churchyard with its celebrated 99 yews. 100 are planted, but the devil always takes one, apparently. Shot from the upper deck of the no.66 bus.

I had a dental checkup, which took all of 4 minutes. Nothing was wrong! That's it for another year. Stroud isn't bursting with NHS dentists, so mine is in Cheltenham and Steve's in Dursley. If we ever need extensive work done, we will probably have to go to Budapest.

Later, I met my friend Dave and we had an excellent fish-based lunch at a restaurant called Purslane. Then off to the Studio theatre at the Everyman to see Hammerpuzzle's version of The Old Curiosity Shop. Fabulous! Highly recommended. I love all of Hammerpuzzle's shows.

Coffee at Carluccio's was followed by a trip to Waterstone's for the choosing of books to exchange as gifts.Then I ran for the bus, but it was late. I got home without getting wet, which was good, considering how the bright skies of the morning had given way to gloom and heavy rain.

In other news, I made a second Christmas cake (Steve loves it!) and marzipanned both of them, to the accompaniment of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards pipes and drums. Strange? Steve was going through our vinyl collection yesterday and we found a childhood favourite, Farewell to the Greys. The Greys were a regiment that was incorporated into the Royal Scots in the 1970s, and they're not on CD, so the wollen mill-purchased CD had to do instead. (I might add that we have four generations of pipers in our family, as well as hundreds of marzipanners, whose work generally passes unnoticed).

Through segments of the day, I kept up a hilarious chat thread going with my sister in Bahrain (TMLHereandThere) and even managed to send her an emergency package. The guy in the post office told me that Bahrain is part of the UAE. No, it is not! It's a kingdom, I thought to myself. I hope it gets there.