Pics from the archive (23)

Christmas decorations in Locarno, Switzerland
Taken 3rd January 2002

Well, if I'd stuck to the original itinerary, I would now be de-planing (as the Septics say) at Heathrow from a BA jumbo recently arrived from Singapore...and contemplating the possibility of the first proper white Christmas in the London area during my lifetime.

The other day I realised that I belong to the decrepit generation who can still remember the days when Heathrow was known as 'London Airport'. Say that to a cabbie these days and you will certainly get a quizzical look.

Anyway, here I am in Guatemala still and frankly glad I am too to have avoided the deep European chill. There has been a heavy, settling snow fall in the south-east of England twice in the same calendar year now, when for Greater London at least, such things tend to only happen once a decade. My father reckons that the last white Christmas in the capital occurred back in 1962.

The wait may not be over just yet however, as it poured with rain there yesterday in spite of the sub-zero temperatures and warmer air is predicted for Christmas day and the weekend that follows.

We're almost all set now for tonight. Just a few more goodies to collect from Epicure which we ordered yesterday. This morning my mother rather typically described the notion of holding a buffet dinner when you don't really know who's going to turn up and when, as "uncivilised".

We're likely to be beset for the rest of the day with the niggling feeling that the one thing that can still go wrong is that the gas will run out. (According to V it should have run out in October.)