Saturday 25th December 2021

Fitful night's sleep. Back ache by early morning, probably not helped by spending most of yesterday sitting in the car.  Kath came in and climbed in to bed with Aki for a chat while I sat in the chair and finished yesterday's blog. Got up and breakfasted downstairs with Aki. We noticed that John had raised a Japanese flag above the bird house at the top of the garden, to mark the fact that Aki was in residence. Activity in the kitchen began to steadily increase as preparations were made for the Christmas dinner, with Kath and Aki taking the lead on the main course. Jim eventually got downstairs which meant we could exchange presents.

I was put in charge of the starter, so decided to get ahead of the game and make some triangles of toasted bread....by the time I served them up at 1400 they had become cold and soggy beneath the sliced tomato, smoked salmon and mayo. Meanwhile, Aki had burnt the parsnips, and Kath had blackened the sausages! Still, Christmas dinner packed plenty of carbonised flavour. Mum, however, began a choking fit which sent her making for the downstairs bathroom. Dad came out looking a bit worried. Mum couldn't eat anything after that, and we considered a trip to hospital. Mum didn't fancy spending what was left of Christmas Day in A&E, and we decided to see how she felt come the morrow. Spent the evening sat in front of the telly...enjoyed two helpings of Eric 'n Ernie. I was last man standing, or rather, sitting, watching a highly absorbing documentary about the life and career of Luciano Pavarotti...what a fella!