Happy Friday!
Although it’s the first Friday of the year, I’m still on holiday, 2 things to read and I’ll do better next week!
We should love tax and paying it. If we could have decent roads, healthcare, transport and all the other things that make for a civilised society then I’d be happy not to have tax. History and the US teaches us, this is not so. Taxes it is..
Happy New Year!
I’ve been thinking about resolutions and goals. I didn’t do resolutions or monthly goals this year and don’t get me wrong, I had a really good year but it lacked focus and going into 2015, I feel like I need a bit more. However, I’m generally fairly rubbish at resolutions, I start strong and then lose momentum, this year may not be any different so I’m going to set them and my idea is that I’ll have a monthly post to talk about them and hopefully renew my enthusiasm for them each month.
BODY
I didn’t really do any exercise at all this year and that showed in my weight and my general health, which I did not enjoy. Also I’m feeling my age, I’m in my 40’s now, my knees and feet are playing up and it’s not going to be too long before I have to bite the bullet and have my bunions surgically attended to. So I need to fix the slight disconnect between my mind and my body and gently get back into feeling better. So nothing mad, I’m not running any marathons any time soon and I’m not gong to overcommit, it’s easy to say that I’ll go to the gym every day but that’s not sustainable so 2 gym classes a week and 15 minutes of yoga every day. I have a short series that I’ve been doing on and off this year and it helps stretch and relax me, I know that it helps my knees and it also helps me sleep better, it takes about the same amount of time as the physio stretches for my knees but actually works better, so it’s just swapping one thing for the other. I may, later in the year, set some smaller goals within that but this is my base line. I also have been given a fitbit for Christmas (thanks Christelle!), so I’m looking forward to seeing how that changes my view of my fitness!
HOME & MIND (BOOKS)
My ‘To Be Read’ pile of books AND the list on my Kindle is ridiculous. I read about 100 books this year and I have more books than that to read and while I maintain that there is no such thing as too many books, my bookshelves are stuffed. The answer is clear. It pains me to admit it but I need to stop buying books! However, cold turkey is tough, so I’m going to have a limit. This year I will only buy 12 new to me books. (Barter Books in September could be torture!). I have joined the library, so I will make more use of it and hopefully get through my TBR pile.
HOME GENERAL
This year, keeping the flat in good order seems to have really clicked, mostly it’s tidy and under control. I want to continue that by working on the deep cleaning a bit more. Things like cleaning the oven and floors (basically the stuff I’m not currently brilliant at keeping on top of!). I also want to work on having less clutter and more organisation. Over the year that will mean some de-cluttering, more importantly, that will mean not bringing new things in, unless things leave the flat first. Some things are coming in, this is the year, I replace the bed, I need a new mattress and a bed that better suits this bedroom so I stop bruising my legs on the current one. I also have new curtains, inherited from Ma (thanks Ma!) that I was going to put in the bedroom but may work better in the living room, so I need to sort that out.
SPIRIT
Last year, I did Krissie’s beFULL course and despite my traditional discomfort with ‘hippy dippy’ feelings stuff, I found it really useful. Over that time working with Krissie, she asked us to use a word to define a state of feeling that we wished to create in our life. I chose PEACEFUL. I described it like this:
I struggle with using one word, because that word means a whole bunch of other things. It also means feeling calm and secure and content and trusting and joyous about God’s plan for my life and it’s also the place where I accept that I don’t understand or control all of it, which a big deal for me..
Since that time, I’ve realised that it’s a pretty active word, because I need to do things to bring that feeling. For example, leaving the kitchen tidy at the the end of the day and ready for the next day gives me that peaceful feeling, but it requires me tidying the room before I go to bed. So peaceful is my word and the feeling I’m working towards in 2015.
January
As it always is, Jan was a quiet month, I thought I’d found a breakfast solution
I went to work and tried to be healthy
Christelle and I had a day of bread making. It didn’t stick (she murdered the starter eventually and decided that bread making wasn’t for her!)
February
I (along with other Grace people) made freezer meals for Kathy and Adam to get them through the transitional month of new parenthood!
Ma and I babysat Oli and he cheated at cards (like his father, he is the fastest land animal!)
I survived the month with lots of coffee to propel me through it!
March
I went to Washington DC and it snowed a lot…
There was no cherry blossom but I really enjoyed the city and Matt was the perfect host, I was sad not to see John but happy to find a gin distillery…
Mother’s Day was that month and it led to this text conversation between Ma and me, which perfect sums up our mother/daughter dynamic…
And this card!
April
After Mothers Day comes Easter and Ryan and Claire decided to get married. I felt awfully old!
Easter Lamb
May
Family shenanigans..
Fierce games of UNO and another text conversation that sums up my family!
I think that from May to August, I pretty much lived on Cous Cous Salad
And there was a trip to Brighton, with the French
June
At some point in June, I lost my prescription sunglasses and no I haven’t got around to getting new ones yet!
There was a visit to Apsley House for the Waterloo weekend festivities, the highlight of which was watching the Battle of Waterloo explained through the medium of vegetables. Hilarious and informative…
The French
July
I ate a lot of cherries, made cocktail cherries, cherry brandy, and worried about my teams in the family World Cup pool…
I also drank quite a bit of beer at the Ealing Beer Festival
And celebrated 5 years in my little flat.
August.
August was my birthday month. So family…
Cake
Theatre
Cocktails at the OXO
If anything else happened in August, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t important!
September
In September, I experimented with flavoured gins
Thought about bedroom furniture
This year’s other holiday was up North to Amble by way of Middleham.
We went to Dunstanburgh, Warkworth, Belsay and Barter Books. As well as into Newcastle for the day and out on a boat. It just never gets dull..
October
I caught a cold. Went to the Sipsmith 100 Martini Bar
Helped Charles re-organise his wine while catching up on all his news…
And got very excited about seeing Old Crow Medicine Show live…
November
I started off the month with having an abscess and then a tooth removed. Not fun
I remembered to be thankful
I painted lots of stuff in Ma’s new house and helped with packing
I decided not to do any food shopping for a while.
Celebrated Oli’s 5th birthday
And helped move Ma to her new house.
December
The month started with Christelle’s and Ma’s birthday drinks
Advent calendars
And some time with Jo and Ms T
I made Vin d’Orange
Battled with my flicky fringe
Went to lots of Christmas lunches
Volunteered with the local allotment society, I’m on the waiting list!
And then Christmas
1. Planesrunner (Everness 1) – Ian McDonald
2. Be My Enemy (Everness 2) – Ian McDonald
3. Empress of the Sun (Everness 3) – Ian McDonald
I’m going to take these three books at one because I read them all at once. I’ve had them sitting in my to be read list on the Kindle forever, I bought them when there was a sale and forgot about them. L picked up the first one, completely independently from me and had some issues with the use of polari. When he asked his grandfather about it, Michael directed him to Round the Horne. He and I then spent a happy evening, talking and googling polari and that was fun. So I read them at a run. I really liked them, I liked that the characters are mixed race, I liked the use of London, I loved that the palari in the books doesn’t slow and the reader has to work it out. I liked the fantastic imagination of parallel worlds, what might be the same, what might be different and the way that built through the books. The only thing I didn’t like was that it seems very open ended. I know that series are the new trilogies but this could go on forever! L is really enjoying them and we’re having fun talking about them.
4. Lick (Stage Dive 1) – Kylie Scott
5. Play (Stage Dive 2) – Kylie Scott
6. Lead (Stage Dive 3) – Kylie Scott
I’m going to take these three in one go too but I’m going to direct you to this post that explains how we (parents/grandparents/godparents) ‘police’ L & H’s reading. The books are new adult, they’ve been on my radar for a while (thanks to Smart Bitches) and I’ve seen some people recommend them. So I may have picked them up eventually. However, H did pick them up, they are apparently very popular at school and while I wasn’t all that happy about it, I agreed to read them with her. As romance books, they’re not the worse I’ve read and made for easy, unthinking reading, with my usual issues, girls in their early 20’s don’t often find true love, let alone true love with sexy, successful, rich rock stars. That said, issues in the books were handled in as a realistic way as possible, none of the women just did as they were told and there was change and growth on both sides, given that the time frame is a week or so. What worried me was the sex. There was quite a bit of it and I don’t like to think about my nearly 14 year old god-daughter (or godson for that matter) reading it in quite that detail. However, it’s not about me and I was probably reading similar stuff at her age and we’ve had some uncomfortable (for me) talks about it!
7. Far in the Wilds – Deanna Raybourn
8. A Spear of Summer Grass – Deanna Raybourn
I loved these. Far in the Wilds is a short story about one of the characters A Spear of Summer Grass. Deanna Raybourn has a knack for getting into the mannerisms of the time she’s writing in and it was a lovely story that has stayed with me.
9. Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover – Sarah MacLean
I really don’t like it when characters don’t talk to one another and that was my major problem with this book. I did like that for a lot of the story the hero was just trying to keep up with the heroine who was smart and in control. While I enjoyed it while I was reading it, the plot didn’t really hang together for me.
10. Lighting the Flames: A Hanukkah Story – Sarah Wendell
Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, has a rule, if she complains about something twice she has to do something about it or shut up about it. Romance books go big on Christmas stories and Sarah wished there were more non-Christian holiday stories, especially aimed at Hanukkah, because she’s Jewish. So she wrote one. It was 77p on Amazon and it was three delightful hours of my life!
11. Worth the Fall – Claudia Connor
I could have done without the rubbish cover but this was a lovely, easy book with a HEA. I loved that the hero’s family weren’t exactly keen on the heroine and her brood but were prepared to accept for the hero’s sake.
12. Hold on My Heart – Tracy Brogan
Another easy romance read. If you like that sort of stuff, read it.
13. Never the Bride – Paul Magrs
One of my Barter Books haul. Brenda lives in Whitby and runs a B&B, it’s a nice place and if anyone notices her scars and that her feet are different sizes, they don’t say so to her face. This is the first in a series, it’s very funny and was perfect for reading over the break.
Last week was all about Christmas.
There was dinner at Sarah and Justin’s
Decorating the tree (and drinking Manhattans!)
Family time
Building Lego with Oli
Admiring the dino car
Lunch
Elf racing, with the random horse (which was faster than the elves) introduced by Oli!
A game of the ‘Pop to the Shops’ (I lost!)
A night sleeping in bunk beds (with Spiderman!)
And snowflakes
Not pictured are a trip to the library (possibly the best part of Christmas Eve!), drinks at Charles’ and the quiet time I needed to have on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, I was at Kathy and Adam’s to take a family Christmas photo (Kathy’s family spent Christmas with them).
And that was Christmas week!
All through December, I spend time telling people that “it’s not Christmas yet!”
Once we get past Christmas Day and until the 5th of January, I spend time telling people that “it’s still Christmas!”
My tree is still up and I’m still in Christmas mode..so..
Anybody had enough of Christmas feasting and drinking yet?
Under usual Christmas conditions, I would have an FNC post the Friday after Christmas in order to encourage everyone to be kind to their livers. However, I’ve not been at work at all this week and idle hands are the Devil’s playthings!
Remember when I made gingerbread syrup? Remember when I said that it was a present for someone that didn’t drink alcohol and was to put in coffee? Want to take a bet on how long it was before I put it in alcohol?
If you guessed a week, you win! It made a great addition to a glass of cava without being too sweet. Then on Tuesday, I saw this post on Smitten Kitchen. I love Smitten Kitchen, I have the cookbook and Deb’s recipes have never failed me yet! It sounded like a plan.
However I didn’t have the time or inclination or the ingredients to hand to make the winter warmth syrup (and am I the only one that thinks this would be a good base for mulled cider?), I did have a bottle of gingerbread syrup though!
What
A piece of orange peel
3/4oz of gingerbread syrup
2 dashes bitters (I used the LCS Bitters from Masters of Malt but orange would work too)
2oz bourbon rye
How
1. Put orange peel, syrup and bitters in a rocks glass and muddle.
2. Add whiskey, add ice cubes
Ban and Laura’s tree. There’s been dinner and elf racing and all sorts of shenanigans. Mostly caused by this boy…
Hopefully, you’ve had a lovely day too!
Merry Christmas!
Tradition is important. So Louis Armstrong…
For me, the Christmas story embodies the truth at the heart of my faith. Life can be painful and hard but hope is real..
I find that Christmas intensifies how we feel about how things that happen. Good things seem better, bad things seems worse. So whatever your Christmas contains, I wish you hope of more good things or of better times.
Happy Christmas!
I made 7 of these as presents. The idea is that they kick off an evening.
This is what’s in the bag:
Something to drink
A miniature each of cherry brandy, plum gin, raspberry gin and sugar syrup.
A small bottle of fizz
A small can of tonic
A lemon
A martini glass
A recipe card for three drinks using the above ingredients
Something to eat
A bag of cheese stars
Something to listen to
2014’s Christmas compilation
Nic Dempsey 