I had begun work on the Fletcher Saga for 25 December but had to issue a brief Saga on 24 December (by email only, it won't appear on the website) to report Maureen's hospitalisation and eventual return to the island. Many thanks to those of you who responded wishing Maureen a speedy return to full health, it was much appreciated. Maureen is tired and has a very sore nose and throat but is glad to be home again.

When Maureen was taken off in the air ambulance she insisted that I stayed on the island to look after the kitten and to play for the Carol Concert on Thursday. She also insisted that I did not phone our friends "because that would upset their Christmas". However, I did telephonel Rev Alison Finch, vicar of Kirkwall, who kindly called in to see Maureen on Wednesday, a visit that was much appreciated. She called again on Friday morning just as Maureen had found out that she was to be discharged and that the scheduled 10:30 am flight to Stronsay which had been delayed by the overnight snow was now waiting to take off as soon as Maureen arrived. Thanks to LoganAir for being so thoughtful and cooperative and to the hospital staff for organising things.

Since Maureen arrived back home we have had a procession of callers wishing her a speedy recovery, including Dr Mackay (our GP) and Br Marcel from the monastery. Then at 9 pm as I had begun to prepare this version of the Saga whilst Maureen was taking a nap we had yet another visitor. This time it was Bob who owns and runs the computer system which hosts my website. Bob had called in earlier in the evening to see how Maureen was faring but this time he brought a lovely basket of fruit and chocolate plus a potted narcissus as a present from himself & his wife, Pat, and Mike & Viv who run the Ebenezer store in Whitehall village.

Whilst Maureen was in hospital she heard some visitors remarking that the ferry had failed to arrive from Scrabster on Thursday and therefore Safeways supermarket in Kirkwall was besieged by queues of people trying to buy what few Christmas vegetables there were. Thank goodness we bought our fresh vegetables from the island shops on Monday. On Christmas Day we shall have a simple meal (it has to be simple as I'm preparing it under Maureen's close supervision) of cold cooked gammon and new potatoes. Our 'proper' Christmas dinner will be in the New Year when Maureen has recovered from her ordeal.

I went to the monks' Carol Concert in the Community Centre on Thursday evening. All the monks had busy at work converting the hall in the Community Centre into a chapel complete with a lovely Nativity scene. Almost everybody on the island seemed to have turned up for the concert and the hall was packed. For the concert all the lights were turned off and the hall was lit by dozens of candles. We sang all the well-known carols and some that were not so well-known. When we sang "Stille Nacht" the monks sang about 6 more verses each of which was in a different language to represent the native language of at least one of the monks, the languages included German, French and Samoan. After the concert there was a splendid buffet with mulled wine (which was wonderful) or hot chocolate. When I emerged from the Community Centre just after 9 pm I found that snow had been falling for some time. The car was covered in about an inch of snow and I drove the two miles home through a driving snowstorm. The snow had only settled on the higher ground but on Friday morning I awoke to find that snow had fallen all night and that the whole island was blanketed in an inch or so of snow When I got the phone call to tell me that Maureen was on the flight from Kirkwall on Friday morning I had only just enough time to get ready and drive to the airfield to collect her. Although the roads had been gritted and ploughed I was glad of the car's four-wheel drive. As we drove back to the house I remarked how beautiful everywhere looked as the sky was clear thus allowing us a good view of the surrounding islands and hills of mainland Orkney, all covered in snow.

More praise for the Orkney health service. We had to cancel Maureen's previous appointment with the eye surgeon in Kirkwall because the aircraft that we should have travelled upon had to be taken out of service after encountering a flock of kamakazi geese on approach to Kirkwall airport. We eventually received notification of a new appointment but we were alarmed to find that we could not get a seat on the aircraft for that day. However, we found that there were two seats on the day before so we asked the Balfour Hospital out-patient appointments secretary if Maureen's appointment could be changed from Tuesday to Monday. The secretary ascertained what time the flight arrived and what time we had to catch the return flight then quickly arranged for Maureen's appointment to be changed to suit our flight times. What wonderful service! There are very few places in the NHS where you would find this quality of service being offered on a regular basis.

In mid-December I took Surrey to the vet in Kirkwall for her innoculations. We borrowed a cat-box and placed it in the kitchen for a day or two so before the trip to Kirkwall so the kitten was quite happy to be placed in the cat-box for her first sea voyage. The sea was calm both ways and Surrey seemed quite unperturbed by her trip, strolling out of her box when we returned as though nothing untoward had happened. We believe thats Surrey may be a distant relative of Arthur, the cat that picked up and ate food with his paw in the cat food adverts umpteen years ago, without any prompting from Maureen or myself she has begun to pick up small biscuits from her cat food with her paw and transfer them to her mouth.

I had another trip to Mainland Orkney on 6-8 December when I put the car in Conrad Omand's garage for its annual road-worthiness check and general all-round checkup. Because there was a fair amount of work to do I left the car with the garage from Monday lunchtime to Wednesday lunchtime so that any unforeseen problems could be sorted out with minimum stress. I stayed at the Stromness Hotel (cheap winter rates!) where I ate, drank and slept in fine style until the garage brought the car back to the hotel on Wednesday. Then it was a quick drive over to Kirkwall for a bit of last-minute shopping before collecting Rev Alison Finch (Episcopalian Vicar of Kirkwall) and giving her a lift to the Stronsay ferry. After a relatively calm sea crossing and another of Maureen's wonderful meals we all went up to the Kirk hall where Alison celebrated the Eucharist. During her visit Alison told us that she had discovered that there was an Episcopalian church and minister on Stronsay until relatively recently - we shall have to a little more research into this.

On the evening of Sunday 12 Dec I went to what I thought was just a simple carol service in the Church Hall. However, when I got there I found about 50 people in the room and tables laid out with sandwiches and mince pies. The delicious food was consumed as the children sang carols and community carol singing took place. A week later Santa Claus and some of his little helpers made a reconnaisance trip to Stronsay. They were fortunate enough to find a decorated tractor and trailer in Jim Holland's yard so, accompanied by quite a crowd, they processed through the village and back to the Stronsay Hotel where Santa indicated that he would be available to collect any letters that were addressed to him.

Our friends who own Matilda tell us that she now lives in the house during the day. She pecks on the door or window each morning until she is allowed in then roosts on the arm of the settee and seems quite happy to watch daytime television whilst her owners are busy elsewhere. Our friends are eternally grateful that Matilda appears to be house-trained but they have no idea who trained her.

Finally, a Happy Christmas from us both to all readers of the Fletcher Saga.

Last updated 25 December 2004