Happy New Year

 

Hello All. Just popping on to say Happy New Year. It's become very unfashionable to say Happy New Year. We are supposed to say things like "For those who are struggling and don't want to think about the words "Happy" and "New" - please go gently and I am sorry for even bringing it up." This is very thoughtful and I am, as you know, a very empathetic, gentle person but I'm going to say Happy New Year anyway because I would very much like you to have one. 

We have rather recklessly agreed to go out this New Year's Eve after receiving what may have been a pity invite from some friends this evening which is over and above on their part to be frank and I feel bad that all I can think about is how hard it is raining and hoping I will not be a drag on the evening. I have secured their promise that taking part any board games will be optional so that helps a lot.

I hope your Christmas was fine. Ours was uneventful, which I think is probably the most you can hope for when four adults spend extended amounts of time in a two bedroom apartment. Going out for a meal one night helped, as did cooking Christmas Lunch, almost entirely from M&S boxes. My days of spending Christmas Day (and Christmas Eve) peeling, mashing and opening a hot oven twenty times a minute to check how everything is doing, have long gone. (Actually I did still do the last one a lot). 

We did do one more Carol Service on Christmas Eve which was very nice - EXCEPT - (I think you probably knew that was coming) - there was more of this  modernising the words to Christmas Carols. As I have said, I understand that the wording is antiquated but these are poems! You wouldn't change "I wandered lonely as a cloud" to "I walked around on my own for a bit." would you? Same rule. 

I think I did all the Christmas Telly that I was looking forward to. Ghosts was impeccable and impeachable and lots of other positive "im" words. Everything else - not so much. Sewing Bee was a bit embarrassing. I'm not that keen when the judges move over to be "personalities". I watched the Sister Boniface Mystery thing. I'm hoping it was so rubbish because it was a Christmas special. All programmes are allowed to have a rubbish Christmas special. (Not that Ghosts seemed to need it but there you are). Anyway HOH has added it to the list of programmes that should mainly be watched when he isn't in - Midsomer Murders, Bake Off - that kind of thing. I'll probably try it again. Only Connect. I love it. I don't understand a lot of it - even when she explains the answer but I love it. I also enjoyed, as people of my age and persuasion often do, the documentary about the Coronation. Although, am I the only one who finds it a bit weird when Camilla is referred to as The Queen? I think it's partly because I'm so used to having the other one for so long but also because I am old enough to remember her as "The Other Woman",  being photographed in unflattering swimming costumes, having a swift cigarette on a sun-lounger. 

The biggest disappointment was the Agatha Christie - Murder is Easy. I was looking forward to this - especially when I saw the lead chap was the same lead chap from one of my favourite films of the year - Rye Lane. Except, the fact that he was a black man meant that we had a good twenty minutes to half an hour being told about the horrors of Colonialism and Racism which, in turn, seemed to concertina the story a bit so a few characters from the original book seemed to disappear completely as far as I could remember. This meant that after the murders (and there are a lot of murders) you could more or less guess whodunnit because they were virtually the last person standing. 

Also, if you have Apple TV. (You probably don't). Slow Horses is the best thing on the telly. It's a bit violent for me but I have read all the books and this is one of the best book adaptations I have ever seen. I find that if I watch whilst doing a jigsaw, the violence is a bit more palatable. I have no idea why. By the way, I did find the missing piece of jigsaw under the table during Christmas Lunch which is either a Christmas Miracle or another example of my sluttishness - depending on what level of positivity towards myself I am rocking at any given moment.

So, back to work in a couple of days. It is therefore time to think about sorting the diary out for 2024. Some creative types love this. They draw pictures and make mood boards. I cannot draw and am uninterested in claiming anything from "The Universe". It takes all my time to actually put appointments in and other things I forget - like MY OWN PHONE NUMBER. I'm officially old and someone who changed her drawers around in July and still goes into the original draw for knickers and spends a good few seconds staring at her socks wondering why they are in the knicker draw. This may be Dementia but I have been doing this since 1990ish so it's taking its time to develop.

So, to return to the beginning, a Happy New Year to You and Yours.I have been surprised by how much I missed Aged Parent this year, even though, as you know, it was a complicated relationship but, there has definitely been a gap which I wasn't expecting. But, it would be a lie to say I wanted her to be here any longer with all that she (and we) were going through. So from us lot - Happy New Year and, as Thora Hird used to say DV! (It's Deo Volente I think. God Willing) I will be back. Sorry.