Yuletide break

Off to the UK with the children; taxi will be at the gate in half an hour. Taxi to Okęcie, WizzAir to Luton, thence hiring a car for onward travel to Manchester; wigilia in Manchester at my mother-in-law's; first day of Christmas . Then on to my brother's for Christmas day in Derbyshire (that nice journey over the Peaks). And ever onwards to London to visit my parents, then back to Warsaw in good time for New Year.

In the UK it will be muted consumerism. Continuity announcer: "And now on BBC One - Christmas murder. On Two, a murder double bill. Over on BBC 4 - mass murder. And starting now on BBC Murder - more murder." No thanks. Let's listen to the radio... "Just chill out, pull out that litre bottle of Waitrose vodka from your freezer, fill up a pint mug and listen to Classic FM..." Well, I think not.

A peaceful break to all my readers, hope it all goes well for you, lots of rest, time to recharge the batteries; hopefully a post here soon after Christmas Day.

UPDATE: Made it to Manchester. Got upgraded from a Ford Fiesta to a Nissan Note at Luton (no winter tyres of course, a beermat sized plastic scraper to remove ice from windows, windscreen wiper fluid frozen solid). We chose to drive over the Peaks rather than take the soul-less M6. Beautiful - snow and sunshine once more. Matlock Bath especially charming (below).

WARNING TO URSYNAUERS JOURNEYING TO OKECIE AIRPORT: Early this morning, the north-bound lane of ul. Gordona Bennetta was closed off to traffic. NO DIVERSION SIGNS. Our poor taxi-driver was blundering around helplessly looking for a way to the terminal buildings. He was about to take us all the way back via Poleczki and Pulawska to Motokow and Zwirki i Wigury (a detour of about 20 minutes and 70 zlotys), when we found that the unmarked diversion runs along the southbound lane of Gordona Bennetta. Infuriating.