Bubbles.

On Friday 18th December, while fully in the swing of christmas preparations, I got dressed to go out. I had a very nice pair of black peep toe stilettos, which I placed in my bag. I had a very cute Numph dress, which I also placed in my bag. I dressed in a jumper, a pair of jeans, a very heavy coat, and a pair of caterpillar boots. Before I could get to the taxi, which was taking me to the christmas party of my boyfriends record label, I had to walk through a mile of newly formed tundra. I changed when I arrived at the club.

The tundra has changed in appearance since that point. It has covered with snow. It has been impacted down. It has frozen. It has started to thaw, then frozen again. And occasionally, is covered in another foot of snow…which is then impacted, thawed slightly, and frozen again. It is still there though, and given that it has just started snowing again, I think it will be there tomorrow. Which will be 11th January…

Rachel now knows absolutely, that Christmas means snow. She now thinks that free in the bag, with Santa, comes a month where you are surrounded by winter wonder, where you go shopping using a sledge instead of a car, and where mummy spends a lot of time making days in, seem fun. I have lived in a festive bubble, with christmas food, warmth(mostly, I have moved the living room upstairs, to reduce dependance on coal fire), and with a winter wonderland outside.

I have had the perfect excuse to cease doing laundry(my machine broke pre-christmas-and I can’t get it to the launderette), shopping(you cant do a massive shop, if your mode of transport is a sled with a 3 year old on it), or any other of the tedious reasons I leave the house daily. The effort involved in getting everyone layered up, getting us out and back before 4pm heralds the loss of daylight, seems a bit pointless, when me and Rachel can cuddle up in front of The Gruffalo, and stay warm.. On the days when it was dipping below -8, convincing Rachel of the need to ever leave was hard enough. Convincing myself, impossible.

And now I am quite worried about what will happen, when it thaws? Will I have to go back to going outside? Getting dressed with any other intention than staying warm? Find more variety to activities, than sledging, and collages…

THis thought is terrifying. So I am going to make a hot chocolate, and think of something more cheerful…the next election possibly.