New Year's Eve

A rather slow start as we did not have to be at Windsor to collect the girls until after lunch. A few household chores and a walk to the shop for a paper took us until well after noon.

Christine started to bake off the loaf we had bought from Morrisons a few days ago when she discovered that the screws holding the oven in place had come loose. It seems that the holes provided were not really in the best place but when it was installed earlier this year the fitter had not taken extra time to make new holes that would match up against stronger woodwork! So it was out with the tools to fix the problem . . .

We arrived at Windsor and both Jess and Alice were nearly ready to leave - we had a little wait whilst their bags were packed - they are only staying one night this time!

The morning had been very wet and it was still raining as we drove to Windsor so we were not suggesting the walk we once had thought about! We called at Sainsbury in Slough (conquering the missed turnings of previous attempts!) and by then the sky had cleared but it was almost dark.

As a result we headed straight to the boat and unloaded bags. Alice quickly disappeared inside the pages of her latest book by David Walliams whilst Jess was keen to do some baking. With Grandad's help she made some pastry, proving exceptionally skilled at rubbing-in. This was then made into a mixture of mince pies, jam and lemon curd tarts.

By the time they had been cooked and cooled it was rather close to meal time so tasting had to wait. We had all opted for fish and chips from the nearby chippy - although Alice preferred a sausage instead of fish. She was rather taken by the wooden forks for eating the chips straight from the wrappers!

Later, Jess had to make sure that she tried out all three flavours of tarts!