With winter rapidly approaching, I was wondering how members (in both Turkey and the UK) spend the long winter nights. Do you take evening classes for example, do you have a hobby to occupy yourself, or are you a couch potato glued to the box in the corner.
Tink, I'm especially interested if you have thought about how you will spend your first winter nights in paradise (if that's not too personal). Here's how we will probably spent ours.
Mrs H and I will, in all likelihood, be stranded in our remote highland bothy with the wind constantly howling outside and snow and hail battering against the single glazed window.
On week day evenings, Brenda will be sitting in her rocking chair, at the side of the log fire, a shawl draped over her shoulders, lovingly darning my socks by the dim light from the tilley lamp, softly singing her favourite Burns love songs. I will be sitting opposite in my old worn leather arm chair, my dressing gown bunched around my neck to fend off the chill, gently puffing on my favourite clay pipe, quietly reading through a well-thumbed edition of Gemstones: A Beginner's Guide, pausing only occasionally to look up and wonder at the still beautiful woman opposite.
Only when absolutely essential will either of us venture out the wooden shack which serves as our toilet.
Shortly after nine o'clock, I will wrap the dressing gown up tight and shuffle off to the small kitchen to make us both a hot cup of Horlicks to fortify us against the winter cold. By 9:45 we will have retire to the old metal framed bed with hair felt mattress and feather pillows which has served us so well over the years (although the springs have seen better days). The flannelette sheets and the patchwork quilt, which Brenda sowed with her own fair hand many years ago, will be drawn up to keep us cozy through the bitter Highland night.
On most Saturdays, I will don the fur coat which we both share, to venture out and dig a path to the byre where I chop the logs for a weeks supply of firewood. Brenda will spent most of the day slaving over the grate, baking bread and preparing a wholesome pan of soup for the bitterly cold days ahead.
Saturday evenings are spent much as week days, but we tend to stay up much later, retiring as late as 10:15. On very special occasions, we may indulge ourselves in a light hearted game of Happy Families to while away the long dark evenings. Brenda has even been known to disappear to the bedroom to read a racy Mills and Boon novel from her stash under the mattress which she thinks I don't know about. But to no avail, sexual relations (a one time regular Saturday night feature during the twenty days of summer), however desirable, are of course impossible during these winter months.
On Sunday evenings we will normally be joined by our distant neighbours for some bible study in deep contemplation. This is the one evening in the week when we have the opportunity of an early night and we will be tucked up in bed by 9:150, ready for the trials and tribulations of the new week ahead
I can only hope that your winter evenings are equally exciting.
