Happy New Year.

 2023! Goodness! How did we get to that number. 2000 seemed a big enough number.

On Radio 4’s Food Programme they are discussing hangover cures. Who would have thought a serious-sounding programme would devote time to such a subject. I know people who swear by CocaCola, the full-fat variety, none of the Coke Zero nonsense! The Food Programme began by suggesting a pot noodle sandwich. The trick seems to be carbohydrate and sugar in some combination or other.

We don’t need a hangover cure. We saw the New Year in with a very modest small glass of a rather nice malt whiskey someone had given to Phil as a Christmas present. We had no specific plans for New Year’s Eve. In years past we have celebrated with friends but this year we were very quiet. We were about to settle down and watch some TV when our daughter turned up with some nice (in her opinion) oranges, to give Phil some extra vitamin C for his cold, and some blueberries, also for vitamin C but as a hint that maybe I should make blueberry cheesecake for dessert today. 

We have been watching an Italian detective series, “Rocco Schiavone, Ice Cold Murders”, one episode a night, all the series so far in a slow binge watch. The episodes are rather long, made longer by the fact that it is on All Four which has advertising breaks, breaks you cannot fast forward through. So we started watching a little earlier than usual so that Phil could catch Match of the Day later in the evening. And then, lo and behold! there was no Match of the Day, probably because it was New Year’s Eve. 

So we checked to see if there was anything else we might want to watch live. No! Next we hunted through our music DVDs: nothing we haven’t watched recently. As a last resort we checked though stuff we have recorded over the years. It’s an odd fact of the digital, catch-up, streaming age that we tend to forget the stuff we have all recorded. And we found an old programme about the excellent Carole King. And that’s how we saw in the New Year, with a little tot of whiskey and some good songs. No TV footage of Big Ben bonging midnight, nor of fantastic displays of fireworks. Just some nice music. 

This morning I woke to the sound of rain on the skylights. So 2023 was beginning rather soggily. I decided I was not running - it was a bit late - but that I might walk with my brolly so that I could be sure I had the wherewithal (aka ingredients) to make the aforementioned blueberry cheesecake. By the time I set off to walk the rain had in fact abated, the sky was clearing and the day has been fine since then. So far so good! 

As I set off my phone rang, but not its usual ringtone, rather the ringtone for a video-call on Messenger. And I walked round the village talking to my Spanish sister, showing her our fine views as we went. 

Happy New Year!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!