After opening stocking presents with much hilarity Becky, Ian, Mat, Tess, Poppy, Jackie and I enjoyed a relaxing morning. Some of us watched part of Rocket Man and, after lunch, The Queen’s speech.
We had an enjoyable FaceTime session with Louisa, Errol, Jessica, and Imogen. I seem to have at last got the hang of this.
Lunch consisted of Jackie’s usual excellent spread of cold meats, cheese and salad.
After The Queen we opened our main presents. This led to the great reveal of Jackie’s present obtained through my secret trips with Elizabeth to the workroom of Matthew Chalk of Blackstone Chalk at Dunbridge outside Romsey.
With some trepidation on both our parts, Jackie began to free her gift from its wrappers.
“It’s a cupboard”, she exclaimed.
“What am I going to do with it?”.
“Is this smaller package part of it?”
“Yes. Open it. It’s a shelf”.
“It fits inside”.
I had measured the required structure, drawn a picture, and photographed a rather different, much earlier, model of similar proportions that stands at my side of the bed. Matthew had worked from this with recycled oak, and a brass handle with catch from a collection of antique door furniture left to him by his uncle. The door piece had lain in the River Trent for more than fifty years.
Matthew and Ian carried the heavy structure upstairs and Ian and I removed Jackie’s IKEA model and transferred it to a guest bedroom. Our son-in-law then vacuumed a certain amount of dust from the corner, gathered up an odd couple of dropped earrings, and we placed the new cabinet where it is to stay.
Later this evening we will all sit down to a roast turkey dinner complete with
We will consume various alcoholic drinks..