How was your Christmas? →[More:]I've been away for a few days and so I've been out of the loop on everyone's updates, good and bad.

I went to stay with two friends at their cottage in Kent. They live on a country estate, owned by mega-rich landed gentry who live in the Big House, and there are 80 houses of various sizes and grandeur on the estate. It's very much an 'old money' situation, with tenant farmers, gamekeepers, cattlemen, gardeners, etc. living in the tied cottages on the several thousand acres of the estate.

My friends each have a rented home on the estate - they don't live together and he's 28 years older than her, but their arrangement works for their relationship. I used to work with her, and we became good friends, so it was a pleasure to get their invitation to visit for Christmas.

I arrived on Christmas Eve at lunchtime, and came home this afternoon. We had a lovely time. Ellie has a dog, three cats and some chickens. We had lovely food, long walks (including a very brisk and bracing walk on the beach at Camber Sands on Christmas morning - which the dog loved), and watched lots of Christmassy things on TV - carol concerts, comedy shows, light entertainment, Christmas specials. It wasn't much different from what I'd have been doing if I'd been at home myself but it was wonderful to spend the holiday with two lovely people.

Somehow I ended up on the Nice List and had lots of lovely gifts, beyond anything I deserve or could have dreamed of - including an incredible pop-up book of flower arrangements, and a Kitty Karma Sutra (which I will NOT be letting Rudi see, as he is only six!).

The funniest moment was just after we'd finished a huge Christmas lunch and Ellie, intending to ask if I'd take a selfie of all three of us, instead asked me if I'd set up my camera for a three-way! I said "That escalated quickly! Can I let my dinner go down first?!" We literally wet our pants laughing, and couldn't speak for about five minutes.

The only thing that marred the holiday was this morning when the landowner and his 'Hooray Henry' friends in their Barbour jackets, tweed caps and Hunter wellies, turned up with a couple of labradors to 'shoot the pond' - that is, murder the ducks who'd been living happily on the pond in the field behind Ellie's cottage. Hearing the gunfire and knowing those poor ducks were being slaughtered for sport was horrendous.

I often think I'd like to live in the countryside, but I'd find it hard to cope with that side of country life. I'm very lucky to live in the forest, surrounded by 6,000 acres of woodland, but I'm close enough to London to have all the benefits of city life. I like living in a more diverse community than you'd generally find in a small country village, and I like having access to ethnic food stores and larger supermarkets, as well as being a half-hour train ride from the centre of London.

But, overall, it was a wonderful holiday, a really lovely Christmas, full of love and laughter.