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My first Christmas since moving to the UK was bound to be different. It would be my first Christmas without my family and my first during Winter (aside from a family holiday in 1994). I got a very different one indeed. We’d planned a trip to Scotland to celebrate the holidays with Ana-Paula’s family (her sister is married with two kids).

A few days before the office closed we had our first snow. Snow in London is beautiful for a few hours but quickly turns into muddy slush. The novelty was still very exciting for me but it doesn’t come without problems.

The snow caused serious travel problems that saw many people spend Christmas in the airport. We replaced a cancelled train to Luton by sharing a cab with a more prepared traveller. Our short flight to Edinburgh included 5 hours on the runway before take-off and another hour after landing for crew to clear a walkway for us. I thought Scotland was closer than a 12 hour journey.

Every cloud has a silver lining and our travel disruptions were worth it when we saw how beautiful Scotland was. I was treated to a real White Christmas. We had snowball fights, poor attempts to make a snowman, sledging into hedges, snow angels and the excitement of Santa bringing gifts for two young children.

Our Christmas Day ended in a Karaoke session at the neighbour’s house. They had a decent selection of songs to choose from. Ana-Paula and I totally rocked ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’, ‘Fight For Your Right’ and ‘Living on a Prayer’ (any song that involved shouting rather than singing). I must say it was a little bit disturbing to hear the kids singing, “Yooooour, Yoooour sex is on fire!”

It really was a lovely Christmas and made up for missing a warm Indian Ocean swim after stuffing myself with Mum’s cooking.

I do need to have my say as an angry customer. I was very disappointed that Ana-Paula’s gift didn’t arrive in time. The snow made deliveries difficult for most companies and impossible for the highly incompetent UK Mail courier service. As I write this (3rd January), we’re still waiting for the order I placed on the 10th December. So I advise you to avoid buying anything that will be delivered via UK Mail.