We are in 2019 if you can believe it, so this is the last 2018 round up chronicling what I got up to in December.
What I have read
My total number of books was 98 for the year, so I read 18 more than my target of 80.
In December I got through my last 10:
- My Sweet Valentine (Article Row #3) – Annie Groves
- Only a Mother Knows (Article Row #4) – Annie Groves
- Five Go to Smuggler’s Top – reviewed in two parts here and here
- B is for Burglar (Kinsey Millhone #2) – Sue Grafton
- And the Rest is History (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #8) – Jodi Taylor
- A Perfect Storm (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #8.5) – Jodi Taylor
- Christmas Past (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #8.6) – Jodi Taylor
- An Argumentation of Historians (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #9) – Jodi Taylor
- The Battersea Barricades (The Chronicles of St Mary’s #9.5) – Jodi Taylor
- A Christmas Promise (Article Row #5) – Annie Groves
And I’ve still to finish:
- Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4) – Diana Gabaldon
- The Diary of a Bookseller – Shaun Bythell
- The Undomestic Goddess – Sophie Kinsella
I finally picked up Drums of Autumn again and got really into it – but being over 1,000 pages it’s taking me a while!
I’m almost at the end of the St Mary’s series now, having finally reached the ones I’d not read before. There are only two short stories after Battersea Barricades, and then the next one’s not out until April!
What I have watched
- Hollyoaks
- More Cbeebies – I am now familiar with Yakka Dee, Postman Pat’s Special Delivery Service (the song to that gets stuck in my head but at least this is still stop-motion and not CGI) The Twirlywoos, Ra Ra the Noisy Lion (with another earworm song), Bing Bunny, Tee and Mo, Biggleton, Pablo, The Numberblocks and many more
- Lego Masters series 2 and the celebrity Christmas special
- Only Connect
- I finished Outlander season 3, finally
- Call the Midwife Christmas special
What I have done
- Put my Christmas tree up in a mostly Brodie-proof spot
- Finished all my Christmas shopping and wrapping
- Had a few lunches out
- Celebrated my birthday with high tea, that’s the first time we’ve been out for our tea together as a family.
- Went to see The Snow Queen at my local theatre
- Celebrated Christmas and even hosted my family for Christmas dinner
- Started planning a new bathroom after yet another leak
Fiona
pippastef
worldofblyton
World of Blyton 
What exactly is a High Tea? I was always wondering about that. I love to go to tea rooms in the UK on vacation to have Cream Tea instead of lunch. I drink my tea without milk rather and skip the strawberry jam on the scones with clotted cream (I do like the clotted cream though :)).
So is there really a difference between Cream Tea with scones and High Tea or is it all the same?
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High tea is a proper meal. Usually toast followed by a main course from a set menu and then cream cakes and scones after.
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Oh and a pot of tea! I forgot that because I don’t drink tea.
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That would be too much for me. We usually look for a Cream Tea place and replace a late lunch around 2 p.m. by Cream Tea and then go out for dinner at night. I hope we can find many Cream Tea places in Northumberland and Scotland!
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Well high tea is in place of an evening meal. Normally it’s served between 4 and 6. It comes from a time when the upper class would have afternoon tea to keep them going until a late dinner. The working class would be starving by 5pm after a hard day at work and would eat a proper meal. High possibly comes from them sitting at a proper higher up table as opposed to on sofas around low tables for afternoon tea.
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