2025: M&A’s Christmas staycation-daycation with friends…!

On the way home from our Christmas vacation in Wales last year we decided that this Christmas we would stay home and celebrate with friends because a) it would be cheaper, much cheaper b) we could visit places in Dorset we’ve not been to before and c) we could spend it with like minded friends, those being Helen and her daughter Rachel and Nikki and her friend Claire, she of Claires road (our secret road in Weymouth where we don’t have to pay for parking). Us Fabulous Ladies, that is M&A and H&N had spent numerous evenings this year over a glass of wine planning and putting the finishing touches to what we hoped was going to an ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ Christmas, although we’ll on the Tattinger darlings not the Bolly!

So here we are on Sunday 21st December and the weather forecast has predicted rain, no surprise there then as all its done for the past week is torrentially rain. To be honest, we’re surprised there’s any rain left but I suppose its wringing out the last of the rain clouds! Fortunately for us we have all the ‘rain gear’ so we togged ourselves up, wrapped Winston up in his red coat and headed off to the Lodmoor nature reserve. We usually end up here on wet days due to a) it being a bit more sheltered so we don’t get as wet b) Winston doesn’t like to get wet so he gets ‘less wet’ on this walk c) there are lots of interesting ‘smells’ for Winston’s nose and d) its a ‘win, win’ situation for all three of us.

We were most fortunate as it didn’t rain as forecast so we decided to walk along the beach towards the ‘Oasis’ cafe however we got so far and then decided to turn around and walk back through the reserve, but then we thought , what the hell, the Oasis is in touching distance and as we’re on our staycation and this was our ‘daycation’ we fancied a glass of their yellow wine. However, as it happens, we decided to go for the mulled wine instead, choosing to sit outside. As mulled wine goes, it was very sweet and very hot but it did the trick and warmed us up on a very cold day. We were still fortunate with the weather, it still hadn’t rained when we walked back to the car, only deciding to rain when we’d  got home.

Later that afternoon, us Fabulous Ladies were off out for our Christmas meal at the Marlborough fish restaurant in Weymouth……we were all very excited as it’s our favourite place. I picked Nikki up from work, unfortunately her poor car failed its MOT and has subsequently been declared ‘not fit for purpose’ and would soon be heading off into the motoring after-life, we then picked the others up and we headed down to Weymouth. We parked up and ran through the rain to the restaurant. Well, imagine our surprise when we got there, we were the only four in the restaurant. Yes it was early, 5:15pm to be exact but one would have expected more people. Regardless of this we had a fabulous meal which as always it was just so delicious after which we popped round the corner to Weatherspoons where we had a riveting conversation about pickled walnuts, figs and cheese. Nikki was telling us that you should only have a slither of a walnut, yes only a slither and if you wanted a whole one, then tough, no can do! And as for the figs, well, apparently etiquette allows you only an eighth of a fig……that is according to Nikki! Apparently Waitrose was out of pickled walnuts so Maice and I said we’d source them from one of the large supermarkets the next day, this being our designated food shopping day.

So day one of our staycation daycation has come to an end. We’ve all had such a lovely time that we’re now looking forward to Christmas Day, with or without a slither of a pickled walnut!

Hey, it’s Monday 22nd December and the vegetarians/pescatarians amongst us had already decided that our Christmas Day meal was going to be a Salmon en Croute from Lidls which one has to say is absolutely delicious and which we have had every year when we’ve been away apart from last year when ‘someone’ switched off the freezer, mistaking the plug for the kettle, so our ‘en croute’ had an extremely soggy bottom and was totally inedible! With no chance of that happening this year I’d popped over to Lidls a few days ago to purchase said ‘en croute’ only to find freezers were empty. There was not one left. Nothing, tipota, zilch, de nada!. So now what to do? Okay, let’s remain calm and go with the flow. There’s a Lidl in Weymouth, so we popped in and omg, we couldn’t believe it,  they didn’t have any either! What’s going on. We needed a regroup, urgently. Of course there was always M&S or Waitrose but they do come in at double or triple the cost!

So after a successful regroup telling ourselves to remain calm, be kind and have patience, with shopping list in hand we set out to source everything on the list; Salmon en Croute (or Salmon Wellington if your Canadian), pickled walnuts and pickled figs  amongst other food items. After walking round three large supermarkets, staying calm and remaining patient even though everyone was so annoyingly getting in our way……7,000 steps later we found a salmon en croute in Aldi but unfortunately another two supermarkets later we didn’t manage to source any pickled walnuts. However, as they say there’s always a silver lining and we managed to find some ‘merry’ figs that had been soaked in Cognac at Goulds garden centre. Ok, they were not cheap and in accordance with Nikki’s rules we’d only be having an eighth of a fig each so the jar should last us at least for another six christmases 🤣🤣.

After our semi-successful food shopping we collected Winston, parked at the play park along the secret road and took Winston for a walk. Of course, it was so close to the Oasis, Winston’s favourite place, that when we veered off towards it we had no option but to find a table and order ourselves a glass of yellow wine aka Pinot Grigio. We’ve often wondered why this particular Pinot Grigio is so yellow but despite the look of it, its very palatable. Maybe its because it’s from New Zealand, the Kim Crawford vineyard and the grapes over there are more yellowy than green, who knows? We sat inside today as it was a bit on the chilly side and for once Winston was very well behaved probably because a) we didn’t order any food and b) he was being so nosey watching everyone, he was most intrigued.

After our lovely shopping daycation, I dropped Maice and Winston back home who later had a FaceTime with Mryna and back home I had a phone call with my friend Anne. What a fabulous end to another lovely day.  Hey, tomorrow it’s Christmas Eve eve and we have another daycation planned so here’s hoping for another sunny day!