It all began when *cue hazy music* Lincoln Christmas Market was cancelled. I had arranged for the lovely Mark to come and visit so that I could show him round (and finally buy him a long overdue dinner)
What happens in the news this week? The market was cancelled. Urgh. I don't think the word "upset" quite covered how I felt.
Photo: the noggin_nogged
Never fear though! Mark very kindly agreed to drive me to Leeds for the Leeds Christmas Market to make amends for it.
So he arrived last night, and we drove out of Lincolnshire. I must ask you at this point to keep in mind the fact that all the roads were perfectly fine.
Leeds Christmas Market was wonderful! I managed to get my SU Secret Santa present sorted out, had a good browse round all the lovely German stores (and even saw the butch BBC Look North sports lady doing a 2 way from the scene)
On an interesting sidenote, we met a lovely -albeit tipsy- lady in the queue for the cash machine. "I've been in the hog roast since 2pm" was the first thing she said. It transpired over the course of our conversation that her son was planning to propose to his girlfriend, and that we were the first people she had told.
I find it impossible that her or her son will read this, but I'd like to wish them well. Her story warmed me so much in the cold :)
We then went for dinner, which I paid for as a thank you to Mark for driving me all this way. Dinner was extra nice because some morons forgot to charge us for dessert. We went back to Marks house, watched the Muppets (and some godawful film that Mark swore was good when he was 7) and went to bed.
Photo: Joe Penniston
All was nice and rosy with the world.
Fast forward to this morning. We woke up and set off back to Lincolnsire. Once again, Mark had very kindly agreed to drive me back. We just arrived in to Lincolnshire only to find out the A15 was closed. At this point a string of expletives rang out from the car.
So the satnav set us off down this other route - which turned out to be too snowed in to get past. We had to face it - it was looking rapidly like I would be spending another night with him. I was frantically googling various train routes from Scunthorpe (which we were at this point passing) before I suggested that he drop me off at my Grandparents.
Photo: Andrew Harvey-Adams
I got out in Doncaster and had a lovely lunch with them - it was nice to see them once again :) I then: set off from Doncaster, got the bus to the station, the train to Newark and the train to Lincoln. Thankfully those lines were running (otherwise I'd be truly stuffed)
I got back tired and wet - but very thoughtful. Whilst we were discussing things at the dinner table in the restaurant, Mark said he thought that I showed unwillingness to change myself (citing my conservative dress sense as an example).
It did get me thinking a lot, and it was one of those things that you deep down know, but don't want to admit. Long story short, I've taken onboard parts of his advice, and I'm going to try to change the way I am and behave for Christmas.
Because let's face it - everyone thinks of me as an 80 year old man, no matter how politely they may try to disguise it.
Photo: Jerry Wong
