Winging it in... Boston

If you'd come today you would've reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.

This week I have finally managed to fit in the Christmas spirit thing and make up for missing the Carol Service last week. I still didn’t get to the Old North Church again, but I did manage to get to the Boston Pops Christmas Concert. This is slightly different to a carol service in that it doesn’t have all (or any of the readings- but I know the story, and I can still manage to recite Luke 2:1-20- my teachers would be so proud) so hearing the carols was good enough. Anyway, I am fairly certain that the Boston Symphony Orchestra made a much more melodic job of them than I would have done. I did also get to enjoy holiday classics, such as “Sleigh Ride”, “Jingle Bells” and the wonderful traditional tale of “The Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore- again I think I am pretty much word perfect here too, but I’m not so sure my teacher would be quite so impressed.

On a similar theme was the lighting of the Fenway Christmas tree. Not quite such a prominent event as the one on The Common, but important to enough for Santa to make a trip all the way from the North Pole. With the wind chill factor meaning the thermometer was showing a temperature of 1F I’m sure he was feeling very at home! Personally I didn’t find the hot chocolate and warm holiday feelings were doing a whole lot to keep my feet at an acceptable temperature so I didn’t hang around. Then again I was doing a reasonable good impression of a marshmallow man so I’m sure I wasn’t a big loss to the group- who were averaging about 10 years of age.

I did redeem myself slightly on Saturday night by heading out for a party. Usually this is a bit of a novelty, but this week I thought I’d go for something a little different- all I will say on the subject is en el pueblo español puede hacer que me suena muy divertido! Laughing at me? Not so sure it was with me!

All my Christmas shopping is now complete and I am totally ready for the holiday season to commence. I have been more than generous with my own presents this year, bought myself everything I asked for, and I am very happy with all my self-given gifts. I did think I had been particularly good, and why risk other people disagreeing? Thinking ahead, I have some that are due to arrive in January, so the post Christmas blues shouldn’t set in for a few weeks, and then I have a plan for trip to NYC, so all is looking good for 2011.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for the new year.

Winging it in... Boston

If no one's in the kitchen, who's to see?

And in my case this is probably the best way! I have now taken two cookery courses at the Boston Center for Adult Education and I have to say that I really don’t seem to be improving any. Now, I know I am the least creative and artistic person in the whole of history, (I also know I can be given to exaggeration- but this time, trust me) so I held out little hope on the decoration aspect of this class, but really, how can I manage to make creaming butter and sugar with a kitchen aid into a challenge? I should have realized how is was going to turn out when I failed to attach the bowl to the base and the mixing paddle came off mid stir and implanted itself into the butter. But no, I remained optimistic. Foolishly so!

So, being a holiday cookie class, it was all focused on creating great holiday cookies, and I have to say the butterscotch cookie jar is looking promising… or at least the ones I tasted were amazing, obviously I had nothing to do with making these cookies… but I do now have a jar of ingredients in my cupboard that should allow me to make my own. The idea being that the instructor demonstrated in class and then, being a jar cookie, we all made the presentation jar- kinda like the ones you see in stores, that you can take home, throw into a mixing bowl, add an egg to and hey presto, instant and awesome cookies. Again, I hold out little hope. My jar, that I so loving took time over and carefully layered ingredients into, now resembles a small sandstorm in the foot well of a car after a day at the beach. Secret Santa anyone?

Even the gingerbread men have gotten slightly squiffy in my care- and even children can make these! Admittedly, I might know what happened here- and it could be a small fridge related incident that occurred sometime after leaving the cookie class… As for the rest, the least said the better… and the frosting! It would give small children nightmares. I think what has been learned from this experience is, I am not cut out for baking! I have many talents- baking is not one of them.

February is looking good for jewelry making class- what could go wrong with hot wax, molten metal and my lack of skill and creativity? I’m not expecting Tiffany, or even a ring shaped object- I’m already planning to hang it on a necklace (yes, I should be sent back to Junior High) but I do have a weakness for shiny and sparkly objects. I could save a fortune, and who knows, I might be really good…

The second activity of the week, and this is really out of sequence, happened on Friday. It normally would not warrant a mention but it was on my “Boston to-do list” so this week I’m including it- a trip to the Museum of Science.

Time for the geek to be briefly released- the museum was started by six men in 1830 who wanted to share their collections of natural artifacts and provide somewhere for discussions about natural history. By 1864 temporary exhibit halls had been established and the New England Museum of Natural History was opened. After the Second World War a new site was found, the name changed and the (Boston) Museum of Science was created. By 1956 MIT had finished using the Van de Graaff generator they had on campus, and it was given to the museum. At 2.5 stories tall it is the largest one in New England. (I want to say the world, but at this point I was pretty excited to see the indoor lightning show and kinda forgot to listen- I did try and check the website but it has no mention of this so it probably isn’t. That is the sort of thing I would want to tell people if it were me- as evidenced here. Anyway, I can now join the ranks of all other Bostonians safe in the knowledge that I am no longer missing out on a major cultural experience. I also experience the bridge that crossed from Boston to Cambridge (and vice versa) and enables you stand with one foot in each city- not quite the four corners, on the meridian line, but hey, you can’t have everything in one afternoon!