Colourful

 For some bizarre reason, I was awake by 2:15 this morning. My brain clicked online and I started to process random ideas... how would I prepare lunch when I didn't have sufficient burners on the hob? What would be the best way to serve up the pasta and various sauces? Where would everyone sit? Where is the case for my AirPods? What will we do with the current kitchen table when the new one arrives? So it went on, and when all of these had been dealt with, I restarted the whole list to ensure I had the best solutions. I got up soon after 6:00.

We expected Jane, Trevor, Mark, Zoe, Ellie, and Kim for lunch. Kim made contact to say she had an upset stomach and unfortunately wouldn't be able to make it. Diane and I spent the morning preparing for our guests.

Zoe and Ellie arrived first. Ellie had ridden here on her bike. Mark, Jand and Trevor arrived soon after. We had a noisy hour while everyone caught up with their collective news and viewed some of Ellie's Xmas presents. We even set the Nintendo Switch up in the Orangery. (The Switch is in a sorry state after Zoe managed to drop it and break one of the controllers... but it still works).

For lunch, I had prepared some linguine with a choice of sauces. One sauce was made with chicken, bacon, chorizo, roasted red pepper, white wine and cream; the other was a shop-bought carbonara sauce with prawns and salmon. It seemed to go down well and there was very little left.

After lunch, we continued the general chat. I discussed the accounting spreadsheet with Trevor as he is in the process of starting one of his own. It was during this discussion that we were attacked by Ellie with her hair dye. Before we knew what had happened we looked like victims of a paint explosion. (We were assured it would wash off!)

After that, we discussed Ellie's recent chess prowess and this led to Trevor downloading the sea chess app that we use (SmallFish). In turn, that led to a game against the computer... which we lost.

We finally remembered that it was Xmas and exchanged gifts. I was particularly lucky as Trevor and Jane had bought a super painting of Sidmouth for me. I think we have the perfect spot in the lounge where it can be hung.

Everyone left early in the evening and it only took a few minutes to clear up before we settled down for a quiet evening.