Roll On Weekend

After such a relaxing break last weekend I seem to have come back to Earth with a bump and a very busy week and all I can think is Roll On Weekend when I should get some time to myself to get on with the Christmas preparation.

We went to my work's Christmas Carol Service this week at Manchester Cathedral and what a magical night it was. I took David and my father and we went for a quick bite to eat before hand. We went to Pizza Express as a pizza is a quick and easy meal at 5.30pm plus I had a voucher from them for a free bottle of Prosecco because it was my birthday last week. The wine would have cost us £20.95 so that was a lovely gift from Pizza Express and it tasted delicious too although it was only a half glass for me as I was driving.

The Christmas markets are getting bigger and better in Manchester and this stall stood out for me as it was beautiful with rotating wooden figurines and at least 40ft tall. We wandered around the market for a few moments enroute between the restaurant and the cathedral. We didn't buy anything because we don't need anything and I feel lucky to be in a position to say that.

"Wow" is all I can say about the Carol service. It was bigger and better than previous years and I have been to many of them over the 25 years that I have worked for my current employers. There was a brass band, a "big" band and what I can only call a German style oompah band.  We started with the national anthem and it felt so patriotic. We had one of the Cathedral choristers singing "Walking in the Air" and of course plenty of carols for us to sing.

The big band brought some suprises to the service with two lead female vocalists,  one male vocalist who was like Michael Buble and also three backing singers. They upped the tempo with "Santa Clause Is Coming To Town", "Jingle Bells" and "Let it Go" along with some other unexpected songs - "River Deep, Mountain High" and "Never Can Say Goodbye"!!

We had another female vocalist who sang "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen accompanied solely by an acoustic guitar. It was so beautiful that it brought a tear to my eye. The Oompah band had us all swaying in our seats to "Schneewalzer". The brass band was just fantastic and to sing the carols to their accompaniment was just magical. What a thoroughly enjoyable evening it was that got us all in the festive spirit.

For the second time in two weeks I have had a bouquet of flowers delivered to my home today from colleagues from work after having surgery three weeks ago. I did not take one day off sick and used my own time to attend hospital but was allowed to work from home for two weeks to recover. I am so grateful that they have sent flowers when I haven't been off work for long. How humbling it is to realise what fantastic colleagues I have. To be honest I would have scared staff had I gone into work as the bandages and stitches looked worse than it was. My face is nearly back to how it used to be but I still need another operation in January to help it get back to normal.

I have been wrapping up some little stocking fillers to add to everyone's Christmas bags. They are mainly freebies or items from around the house which I know sounds weird but they are the kind of things that are great as little nothings to open in addition to people's main presents. There are little Nutella packs wrapped in ribbon for my nephew and niece and small pots of honey for my dad. They were unwanted items on our breakfast tray from our weekend break. 

I had two mugs that are being re-gifted from last year to my sister and brother-in-law. (I have dozens of mugs) I have filled them with a pack each of Thorntons chocolates and tied festive bows on the handles and popped them in festive bags.  Whenever there is ribbon around, someone wakes up and wants to help.