The New Normal: Over Thinking Things

 Here we are on the other side  of Christmas, I have too much to say today and nobody to say it to so hello Blogland....

we hada nice pressies and a lot of very nice foods, things we wouldn't have every day - like really ripe camembert cheese, olives, Sicilian tart, not to mention all the sausage rolls,  Below is the ham and peas pudding Christmas eve dinner...

Christmas Day was a traditional roast turkey crown dinner (the veggie option for me was chestnuts, I love them plain with roast potatoes and a herby stuffing... then the men had turkey and stuffing sandwiches the following day (and Mollie cat had some turkey too).

Hubby is teaching me chess - somehow I set the board up without help although I have no idea how as have no idea where the pieces should go but apparently they were all in the right order - I think sometimes I have lived before and this is evidence -- currently a game just means hubby wins and shows me how he did it so I learn from it... it will be some time before this gets anywhere.  In fact I will give it until next Christmas to actually play a game for fun.

.  Today could be a good one for a walk on the outskirts of the woods - they are very muddy - so much that Mollie cat came back from her early morning squirrel hunt with her ears covered in wet mud - she has been stalking a squirrel who has a large chunk missing from his body (I assume she got the missing part).  We have had to stop feeding birds/squirrels as it will just end in tears.

Last night I made the men chicken curry but put too much chilli in so had to add yoghurt to cool it.  Luckily there were also samosas so they filled up on that.

It was difficult to find good tv over Christmas, but enjoyed the remake of All Creatures Great and Small (vets in Yorkshire).  Currently watching the remake of Black Narcissus, the scenery and costume is spectacular (and I don't mean the nuns attire) ... and the credit roll at the end says the location is Nepal.   We also watched Monsoon on BBC IPlayer ... which was a strange docu-film of a Vietnamese man returning to his roots, we got very excited as we recognised streets in Saigon and Hanoi that we have visited.

Boris Johnson, the Sun Newspaper

 I liked the publicity shots of our Prime Minister, Boris, in his 'Brexit bunker' (that apparently were not publicity shots) ...  with his feet on the table (leather soled shoes), eating a takeaway (we worked out it was a Five Guys from the packaging and wondered whether he actually calls up and has it delivered to Number 10 itself or a safe place nearby)... I suppose famous people do ordinary things.

I will continue to work from home in the virtual call centre of my conservatory, it's cold out there and my equipment is large/clunky so I requested a laptop to enable me to move myself around to warmer parts of the house but it could take time - we have this 'key worker' status but to be honest so does half the country - it doesn't run by itself.  Hubby's temporary job as a Christmas delivery driver for our supermarket has ended.  He enjoyed it.  No more 5am alarm calls for a while now :)  Nobody has relayed this update to Mollie cat yet...

Next big event here, apart from distribution of The Vaccine,  will be the New Year's Eve doorstep toast organised by an anonymous neighbour posting flyers - you can be sure everyone will turn up when alcohol and no travel is involved.  A chance to chat across the front garden with friendly faces and to make some resolutions for 2021. 

Silk painted by me a very long time ago....