Overladen with festive goodies... just in case

UPSTAIRS the Christmas pantry is taking on epic proportions.

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Soon there will be no room to get to the internet router box if it needs rebooting.

The box is tucked away in a corner, and sometimes takes a bit of finding - like the other night when a massive thunderclap went off and everyone lost their TV and phone signals for a while.

It was so incredibly loud and the flash was so simultaneous that I was convinced we had been hit. It turns out half the local population thought the same thing.

Safe passage to the router is currently partially blocked by what can only be described as the products of festive over-shopping.

It's not that we have Champagne, oysters and Beluga caviar up there, oh dear no. But ever since about the second week in October, Mrs H has been slipping festive food into the shopping trolley every time we go out.

It's nothing posh or perishable, either, just a box of biscuits here because you never know when we might need them, or a box or two of after-dinner chocolate mints there in case so-and-so comes round, who really likes them.