Christmas Holidays

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I have been somewhat under the weather this Christmas; due to that I spent a day on the sofa watching Gilmore Girls and making a macrame wreath for the Christmas badge, and also Advanced Crafter. I was reasonably pleased with the result, but mostly glad that I had finally finished it. My daughter and I attempted to build a gingerbread house too, from a kit. The icing wasn't very good and didn't stick the sides together well, so it quickly became a gingerbread shack instead. Ah well, it tasted nice.

On my weekend away for the Maverick Award I bought a weather station kit, so that I could have a rain gauge and anemometer for the Observer badge. My nephew put it together and wouldn't put it down again for ages as he was having so much fun with the twiddly bits! We sacrificed a large bottle of cheap cola to make the base, and we have had lots of rain since so that I can take daily measurements alongside the temperature readings I am already doing. The anemometer isn't automated so my observations will be very unscientific.

Linguist badge was completed by translating the 'Parable of the Lost Sheep' from a children's book, and then cooking chicken schnitzel accompanied by braised red cabbage. Yummy! I also finished three months of German practice on Duolingo and watched an episode of Barbaren on Netflix, in German with English subtitles. I shall continue with Duolingo and probably with Barbaren!

Money Saver badge has been completed by finding out about stocks & shares, cryptocurrencies, and exchange rate trends. This was actually more interesting than I anticipated, and completing this badge has given me the oomph to take a long, hard look at my finances.

I shall continue working on TV Critic, Film Critic, Brain Games and Board Games badges, and have come up with an idea for my own board game. Exciting!

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