Eleven Pipers Piping

Team lunch today. A long table ...

My long slow journey to the future continues - told today I hadn't got a job that I really fancied but at least it was a close run thing between me and one other in a strong field of candidates. Progress.

TSM had some work colleagues 'round for a nibbles and booze thing for Christmas. Lovely chocolates ...

Stella and George are nearly there ...

Christmas 2004

Three weeks to go until Christmas.

There were eleven of them including the instructor, and they were learning how to do decorative icing. All women apart from George, who they made an honorary woman for the evening. The conversation got somewhat ribald as the wine was flowing and there were lots of jokes about the best way to squeeze the bag and what to do if it spurted before you were finished. That's the trouble with piped icing. Lends itself to ribaldry.

It was messy and George was blushing.

By the end of the evening, Stella was seven sheets to the wind as they say, and George was driving. She was giggling and showed him that she had a bosom full of edible silver balls when they stopped at the traffic lights. She was so drunk that he had to undress her and put her to bed when they got home.

A few days before Christmas the home made cake came out and they made a collaborative effort to ice and decorate.

"Not bad" said Stella looking at the very wonky and unhappy result.

George said nothing.

For Christmas they entertained big time; both sets of in -laws and other sundry relatives. Fifteen in all. Early evening it was time for cheese, cake and mince pies.

"I'll get it" said George and Stella wondered if it was too late to drop the cake on the floor and make excuses. But when George came back, it was with the most beautifully iced creation, complete with miniature snowmen with a log cabin and fir trees in a snowy tableau.

"Wonderful cake George" said Stella's father, spurting crumbs as he spoke.

"Yes" said George "Stella made it".

Stella just blushed. The next morning in bed she asked him how he had done it.

"Waited until you were out last Saturday afternoon. Pulled off all the stuff we had done and re-did it properly. With a little help from your friends. "

"You're so clever" she said happily.

"No" said George "just devious. But I enjoyed the piped icing thing once I'd got used to it".

"Well" said Stella "perhaps you could show me your squeezing technique".

It was, as the twins remarked later, a very lazy start to boxing day...