Christmas has come and not quite gone. A friend of mine is married to a Ukrainian and usually gets an extra day off work to celebrate “his” Christmas on January 6th. And yet the newspapers all act as though it’s all over. Articles abound about what to do with unwanted gifts, how to dispose of them or sell them discreetly. These articles have replaced the cookery articles full of bright ideas for what to do with the leftover turkey, even what to do with the leftover mincemeat since you no longer want to make mince pies: allow some vanilla ice-cream to soften, mix in your left over mincemeat and refreeze – et voila! Fancy ice cream!
Just before Christmas I heard a radio debate about the pros and cons of making your own mincemeat!! The pro do-it-yourself camp was all for authenticity in everything while the anti do-it-yourself camp was in favour of making life as easy as possible. "Make your own mincemeat? Pffff! It’s not even worth making your own mince pies. And as for pigs in blankets, who wants to spend time wrapping bacon round little sausages when you can buy them ready done and just pop them in the oven?" Some people need to find serious stuff to argue about!
Anyway, Christmas may have not quite gone but in Manchester yesterday I saw notices informing me that Easter is coming. Unfortunately my phone was out of action, my camera was at the bottom of a bag of shopping and I was in a queue and did not want to lose my place and/or annoy other shoppers while I rooted about to find the camera and take a picture. So, sorry, no picture. However, I did purchase these delightful Easter chicks and photographed them later as evidence. (I know two people who will eat them regardless of whether Easter is here or not.)
And so, here we are: New Year’s Eve. Later we will put on our glad rags and go and help a friend celebrate his birthday. As he lives at the highest point of the town we will get a good view of the fireworks which will be set off at midnight, assuming the weather manages to stay fine for it.
Yesterday on the radio I heard a report about a fabulous firework display planned for and in Dubai. 2013 has apparently been so good for them that they want to spend vast amounts of money on the best firework display ever. The news reporter queried about where people should expect to get a good view of this amazing display of pyrotechnics. The interviewee replied, “The best place to watch the display is on a TV screen”.
How disappointing! Surely the whole point of a fireworks display is that the sky becomes the stage for a wonderful light show. If you’re going to watch it on a TV screen, you might as well just do computer generated images. They’re pretty good!!
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