Hastings - Christmas 2012

This year we were on our own for Christmas as Christopher is still in Afghanistan, Lizzie and Jocelyn went to Cyprus to spend Christmas with Lizzie's parents and Jonathan and Joanna went to Guernsey to Joanna's parents.  We spent a lively and enjoyable Christmas Day with Peter and Jacqui, Lyn, John and Catherine, Stephen and Micky and Stewart.

Bruges - December 2012

Having had a great time last year we decided to go back to Bruges to visit the Christmas Market for a long weekend.  This year we stayed at Hotel De Orangerie a delightful small hotel right in the centre of Bruges.  We ate at Bistro Den Huzaar on the first evening, enjoyed a boat ride on the canals the following morning and visited the Gruuthuse museum and had another extremely enjoyable meal in the evening at Restaurant de Stove.  The weather was damp but plenty of chocolate and beer made that unimportant.  To see some photographs of our trip click here.

Wine Tasting at Berry Bros & Rudd, Basingstoke - December 2012

At the beginning of December we went with Jonathan, Joanna and Rory to Berry Bros & Rudd in Basingstoke for a very pleasant lunch-time tasting of their fortified wines with Alex Ross.  The wines we tasted were:

• Berrys' Dry Olorosso
• Pedro Ximenez, San Emilo, Solera Reserva, Emilo Lustau
• William Pickering 20-year old Tawny
• Crusted Port 2004
• Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, Domaine des Bernadins
• Malvasia 10 year Reserva, Vinhos Barbeito
• Stanton & Killeen Classic Rutherglen Muscat

Needless to say we ended up buying a few bottles!  For some photographs of the event click here.