Olga Meets Rudolph

I took this from our deck in the wee hours of yesterday morning, when the sky was clear. I definitely don't see this many stars in London! That line of red lights comes from the wind farm on the horizon, and we can also see the lights of occasional ships passing in and out of the mouth of the Thames. We use this website to identify them in real time. It tells us not only the name of the ships but where they're headed. Pretty cool.

I am happy to say our overfull rubbish bin was collected yesterday, but not without drama. I remembered to remove the wire I'd used to secure the lid, and the bin men were supposed to come around in the morning. Well, by 11 a.m. or so they hadn't appeared, and I looked online at the council website and it said the bins had been collected at 9 a.m. Argh!

I reported a "missed collection" to the council via the web, and I called the managing agent for the property, who had no better ideas. She said rubbish collection is a problem in Whitstable and if it didn't get picked up we should put our garbage in the recycling bins. Well, I am way too anal to do that, so I was relieved when the bin men came around some time in the afternoon and hauled everything away. Whether this was their normal route or a result of my "missed collection" report, I have no idea.

In the afternoon I walked into town to investigate further the life of Peter Cushing in Whitstable. Above is his former house, which faces the ocean across the coastal footpath. I'd walked right past it on Sunday and didn't notice, despite the obvious blue plaque. Apparently he was a painter as well as an actor -- hence the large studio windows on the top floor.

And of course I went to the Peter Cushing pub for a pint. The downstairs lobby contains some movie memorabilia, including the projector that was used when the place was a cinema, and two of Cushing's paintings.

Here's the upstairs lobby, featuring a poster for Cushing's 1958 film "Dracula." (Cushing played Van Helsing; Christopher Lee was Dracula himself.)

Afterwards I wandered around the high street a bit. I picked up some things from Sainsbury's, bought Olga a holiday surprise at a pet shop, and headed home as it began to get dark (about 3 p.m.)

And what was Olga's surprise, you ask?

Doesn't every dog need a holiday sweater?!

Now, there is a whole backstory here. For years, Dave has wanted to get Olga a sweater. I have long argued that dog sweaters are stupid because dogs come with a sweater -- their fur. With a few exceptions -- ultra-lean dogs like whippets and greyhounds -- they do not need more than that. Plus I always thought Olga would hate it.

But when I saw this in the shop, I thought it would be a fun Christmas treat for both of them, so I took the plunge. As it turned out, even though it's a Large, it's really too small for Olga. We had to cut open the front leg holes just to get it on her, and as you can see the back leg straps don't reach her hindquarters.

But hey, live and learn. She doesn't seem to mind it, Dave was amused, and she'll be stylin' when we take our holiday walks!