Happy New Year!

Linda invited us down for the pipe band’s annual visit. It’s about 18 years since I last went - our erstwhile friends who we used to spend NY with, either here or with them further south, were no longer friendly with many of our mutual friends here so they preferred not to go down. (You’d think I might have seen the ghosting coming!)

I promised I’d not go in to any houses (Mr C is nervous of all the awful lurgies going about) so I had a walk to pick up Chris then by the time we walked back to Linda’s the band were departing (blipped) - they’d started off at the cemetery, playing for their former members no longer with us, then it is tradition to drop in to Linda’s for a sandwich and a drink before making their way to the RAF old folks home. I’m not sure how they’d react to Scottish soldier which was played as they went in. After that they play round all the hostelries in the village, accepting liquid sustenance from each. Usually they are not quite in step by the time they march to the last one.

Once home I made the cake for Nathaniel’s 9th birthday tomorrow (I started blipping the day before he was born but it’s not a blip birthday as I tried to go cold turkey after 2 years) and some veggie papoutsakia which I first made when we lived in Cyprus 50 years ago.

My best wishes to you for 2023 - for us it had been a good year, apart from son-in-law being diagnosed with MS (and us being ghosted by friends of 40 years!) We have enjoyed travelling with the van to Mull, Hereford, Shetland and Scandinavia, and group trips to Iceland and Mexico as well as a family holiday in Italy. I managed my target of 1000 miles of walking, including finally finishing the Dales Way. We are fortunate to have our family living only an hour away, thus being able to help with care of the grandchildren and enjoy seeing them develop into interesting, kind and fun people. It’s been wonderful to feel freer to go out and about after the lockdown years, enjoying galleries and theatres again, and enjoying meals and walks with friends.