A special thanks and rug surfing dogs.

A special thanks this morning to the wonderful cabin staff at British Airways who have announced a twelve day strike starting on December 22nd. Their kind actions will barely have any impact on those of us bringing together family and friends from around the globe for the holidays. 'The font' was particularly happy to discover that the carefully booked pre-Christmas flights to pick up and return to Toulouse with the ninety year old 'granny font' will not now be going. However, we take comfort in the fact that it is easy to rebook flights on rival airlines at this time of the year. To draw dire parallels with other carriers who treated their passengers in this way - PanAm,TWA, Eastern,Allegheny and Alitalia spring to mind - would be churlish. Come on guys get real! By chosing to strike when it inconveniences the travelling public most is simply to destroy the brand and ensure that job loses are even greater. Once you lose passengers to the competition it's difficult to woo them back. Ryanair and Easyjet must be chuckling - Christmas has come early for them.

It was bitterly cold last night (minus 7 with the wind streaming down from the mountains) and our rambling old farmhouse with its poorly fitting windows and antiquated heating systsem felt decidedly chilly. I must try to find, and have installed, a couple of wood fired stoves in the next week if we are to avoid hypothermia. In the absence of 'the font', who is still shopping in Paris, the two boyz joined me in a protracted late night bout of 'fetch' in the upper hallway to keep our circulation moving. Despite the cold the Christmas tree at one end and the creche at the other made it all look quite festive. I dressed up like the Michelin man with sweaters and a scarve and happily threw a soft toy up and down the hallway for the boyz. Wilf and Digby discovered early on that by leaping at full speed onto the rugs they could get them to slide for twenty or thirty feet over the old smooth floor tiles. Backwards and forwards went two two rug surfing sheepdogs enjoying a very happy forty five minutes. I shall feign ignorance when the font asks me where they learnt this latest trick.