Fri, Dec 26th

Thanks to my heavy cold, we changed our schedule today. Something that Brady and Jim (as well as Dawn and me) had no arguments with. It certainly helped my recovery. I had thankfully seen off my fever, but my chest and throat were still a handicap, and I could do with more energy, too.

So Boxing Day was spent in and around the house all day. Brady was already up when Dawn and I surfaced, and Jim showed up a few hours later. We all just chilled out. The highlight of the morning (for me that is) was watching Sleepless In Seattle on one of the Sky Movie channels. Brady thought I was crazy for popping down to the corner shop in my tracksuit bottoms and slippers. Dawn had no complaints as I returned minutes later with three daily newspapers for her to read. Dawn handed Brady one of the supplements that had the daily Sudoku puzzles. Brady normally enjoys solving the numeric Rubic challenge. However, today she looked in horror when she saw that today's test wasn't the usual set of 27 squares, but a new three-dimensional image that looked like a distorted castle from a Disney movie. (Newly named "Tredoku").

By mid afternoon Brady and Jim were both feeling a little cabin fever and ventured out for a walk donning a warm coat, gloves, and hat. However, the couple realised the house wasn't such a bad place after all, returning a short time later bitching about how cold it was.

Food has been an important part of our agenda since Brady and Jim arrived. Dawn and I had planned virtually every meal and today all went perfectly to plan. For lunch we all enjoyed a turkey on white bread sandwich, and for dinner we had some leftovers from yesterday with some winter veggies, but missing the Yorkshire pudding, Brussels sprouts, and bacon-wrapped sausages. Best of all was that in addition to clearing the plates, we had consumed the whole turkey in two days with no waste.

While Dawn and Brady attacked my mess in the kitchen, I put on the Aston Villa-Arsenal football match on the tele. I got great pleasure giving Jim a lesson on what REAL football is about, and better still saw Villa come from two down to hold Spurs' north London neighbours to a draw.

We ended the day relaxing in front of the TV watching Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert De Niro in Stardust before calling it a day. Well, Dawn and I did. Brady sat in front of the fire trying to complete the day's Tredoku puzzle. Notice I used the word "trying"............