The spirit of Christmas............

Today was a blue sky, white snow day. We had to go shopping though. I won't go into detail about Tesco's - you've all been there, and done that.

Last week, just before another dump of snow, I had ordered a new gas bottle for the fire. These are tall, red bottles which are stored outside and feed the lounge fire. Unfortunately no delivery was made and we ran out of gas two days ago. We went into the suppliers (a local 'General Merchant') on our way through Ballater but were told there was no gas as the lorry hadn't delivered from Edinburgh and they would let us know when it arrived.

Eventually, with the temperature hovering around a cosy minus 14 C I came home this evening with all the Tesco shopping, and as I made my three journeys from the van to the house and back, I noticed tracks in the garden. These were wheeled trolley tracks so I was delighted - it meant the gas had been delivered after all.

And I wasn't wrong. The gas fire worked a treat. I had a cup of tea and a buttered crumpet before putting the shopping away.

Then I noticed the screwed up invoice from the gas delivery stuck at the back of the front door. Written on it, in large shaky capital letters was the following message:-

THANKS FOR

SHIELING URE

PATH, I WOULD OF

LIKE TO OF SEEN

U DRAG A 47 KG

UP THIS PATH

BUT I'VE
               DUN IT

Ah! That's the spirit...........