It's nearly time to start Christmas shopping . I like to think about it for a while , ponder all the possibilities , ask everyone what they'd like , make lists , narrow it down . Usually by the time I've done all this , it's suddenly nine days before Christmas , I still haven't bought anything and the shops look as though looters have swept through . So , instead , yesterday I set the alarm and went down to Amsterdam on the first train .
And now I'm back ... with a pop-up book about a goose for Small Grandson ....No , not just any old pop-up book . It's in English and from Waterstone's in Kalverstraat ( only because I temporarily mislaid the American Bookshop round the corner ) . You might think that the language it's written in is of minor importance , given that he's still not quite two , but his big brother felt that it was , so I complied . Of course , I know that he'd really have preferred his own baby elephant and a banana plantation but his parents haven't really got room for a howdah and the neighbours might complain ..
Still , I'd made a start and after a break for lunch , a bowl of sweet potato and coconut soup ( delicious ! ) and a chunk of homemade bread in this corner of a tiny side-street cafè , I
went window-shopping and managed to find a few stocking fillers .
But the real breakthrough present-wise came when I got back to Leeuwarden in the evening . Stowed next to mine in the bike racks was this !
Look! The perfect Christmas present for everyone ... crocheted mud guards . It's enough to tempt me to conquer my inability to crochet
