How to....start christmas too early

I know there is a rumour that if you start Christmas too early Elves strangle baby reindeers or angels wing drop off but hopefully that's all rubbish as sadly I think that Christmas may have just about started and it's only halfway through November!!! I am trying to get into the festive spirit and believe me I'm doing better then Dr Fred!!!

Today the glorious scent of Christmas filled the house as having soaked the dried fruit for a week in a lethal cocktail of rum, brandy, port and more... I made my Christmas cakes using the time tested and honoured Delia Creole cake recipe. I've tried various different fruit cake recipes over the years but nothing comes close to the Creole one. Its only drawback is as Delia states, is it's too rich to be iced and requires a glazed fruit and nut topping which personally I prefer but Dr Fred misses the marzipan and icing so I'll prob do Delias simpler ordinary cake as well.

But, what really made it feel like Christmas was imminent - as well as baking crimble cakes - was the annual Christmas lantern parade in Amble and as we have a friend visiting us from Australia what better entertainment could we offer!!!! (we really know how to look after our guests).

Wrapping up well we headed downtown - I have never seen so many people in Amble before - and stood amongst the crowds as the parade meandered down Queen Street. I thought it was fab. Four years ago we attended a similar event somewhere deep in the middle of nowhere in the Murray Valley, South Australia and it was a weird experience, snowmen, santa clauses, elves and reindeer against a backdrop of palm trees, blue skies and 35 degree heat! This year was very similar, except the palm trees, blue skies and temperature were not as evident - and somehow it felt a bit more real... the giant Puffin added a touch of surrealism and if it was anywhere but Amble it might have looked ridiculous (ha ha ) -

the christmas theme was Alice in Wonderland and the stilt walkers were dressed accordingly. I love the effort everyone had put into the different floats and costumes and there was a definite party atmosphere so I reckon like it or not Christmas is on us!

I really liked the lanterns, the big Alice ones were really good but I also liked the various little ones and will defo look at how to make one for my window this year.

Oh and we got our first lovely sparkly christmas card yesterday as well so that kinda seals the deal!

I don't usually start christmas until the week before the actual day as it does seem to be a tad over done. I'm not sure I can sustain a festive momentum for five weeks, but in these days of Brexit, Trumpton and controversial X factor contestants we need to enjoy comfort, solace, entertainment where we can so I may dig out the tinsel a little earlier than normal - although the cake still needs a month to mature!

RubyStarrs in Paris...

Finally we have made it to Paris. It was a bit of a long travel day - we decided to come by train so we could experience the full glory of British Rail or whatever it's called now which actually delivered perfectly on time... and then the Eurostar which was incredibly disappointing! All that beautiful St. Pancreas Station and the Eurostar is sited in the dungeon... overcrowded, dark, lousy facilitated space... and then the train was an hour late it felt like a long time before we got any fresh air - but eventually we wound up in gay Paree... We navigated the metro and found our airbnb gaff. A mere 70 steps to the fourth floor on a rather lovely winding wooden staircase to a very nice roof top flat which is comfortable and gives a view across a lovely Courtyard with some obviously much posher flats. It's located really centrally about two minutes away from the Opera Garnier so a very good location for getting everywhere...

Funchal

So after three days at sea we finally hit Funchal in Madeira. An escape from the ship, and I have to say it was very pleasant indeed. First of all the weather is really splendid. Especially when you know that everybody else in the UK is suffering grim storms and vile winds.. Over here it is between 22 and 25 degrees is really quite warm. Funchal is a pretty city. It's built on a hill it with lots of lovely white houses with stunning red roofs. In order to get the best of it we walked along the sea front until we got to the cable car and we took it up the hill. It was a really good ride much longer than we imagined and it's quite weird because it goes right through the town - completely over everybody's house... So not only do you get a lovely vista of the bay but you can view the beautiful rooftops and get to look in everybody's gardens and to look at their picnic sets.. clean washing nice plants... scratty backyards.... We got off th

Another Day in Norway where our Trusty Traveller finds Tromsø, Trolls and Totally misses Aurora....

Tromsø - the most northern city on the planet... Its quite a pretty little town with lots of wood fronted shops, but of course like everywhere like this, it is just one big tourist hive and every shop is selling 'indigenous' gifts- didthe Sami make aurora themed mugs and fridge magnets? Nearest I'll get a polar bear (i hope) Although I have to say I did like the big stuffed polar bear and black bear and I am presuming that these are either not real (unlikely) or culled as they sometimes have to be. But most of the stuff is just northern lights tat or Troll tat. Peer Gynt.. famous worldover To be fair the best bit of Tromsø for me was the Troll Museum! We went to the art gallery which was quite interesting (see instagram account) but not astounding, but I always like to look at the local art. We had a mooch around town in the snow and then we went to find the Trolls. This museum was absolutely crazy daft... it was totally dedi

Planet Ruby Starrs

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