SO LONG 2008

I know the 5th is a little late for New Year greetings and 2008 round ups but it’s back to normality (work) for me today so back to writing, back to cooking, and back to thinking of life outside the charmed existence of the extended Christmas and New Year break.

Christmas was great, dinner a success, cake and pudding unharmed from their late preparation. Unfortunately I was too busy eating to take any photos so all I have to share is our mini pre-Christmas Christmas.



Boxing Day was as Boxing Day is, or should be, a long walk, leftovers for lunch, then a sofa each and lots of films with the occasional stretch to the chocolate box.



New Year was fun, drunken as usual, with a hellish quest for hangover food on the 1st which eventually lead us to the s&m cafe at Angel and fish finger sandwiches. I'm not sure why we hadn't been here before but I can safely say that its particular brand of comfort food, chip buttie anyone, will suit any future fragile heads.

By the 3rd we were back in Sussex trying to extend the holiday feeling with a few long walks in the crazily cold weather. Maybe this will be the year I finally buy a proper weather appropriate winter coat rather than making do with a pretty but insufficiently warm wool coat. Somehow when it gets to January I never feel it is worth bothering even though I know the coldest months of the year are yet to come. Resolution, learn from past mistakes.



Now the 5th is here my thoughts are dominated by what happened in the year just passed and what is yet to come in 2009.

2008 was dominated by our big move to London and the big stress over making the wedding cake. New jobs, finding a flat, and seemingly never having the time to stand still all characterised 2008 for us. Now we find ourselves thinking, along with the rest of the country, about what will come this year. 2009 will undoubtedly be the year of the credit crunch (I hate this term, any better suggestions?) and while I don’t want to go on about it (no one likes being depressed), it is bound to affect us all in some way. For the time being this will mean more enthusiasm for vegetable heavy dinners, home made soup for lunch, and lots of water to drink. A sensible way to start the New Year that may be sustained for at least the next few months.

What else will 2009 bring? For a start Chris and I will both turn 30. I’m not thinking about that too much just yet, the grey hairs that have started appearing are traumatic enough. I plan to ease the pain by eating lovely food, drinking lots of fizz, and making a spectacular cake (in other news I am hooked on Ace of Cakes at the moment and enjoying the start of a new series of MasterChef. When Oz and James start their British booze adventure and Channel 4 begin airing their new food season my TV viewing schedule will be complete).

We’re also planning our biannual trip across the Atlantic (trying to limit ourselves to every two years), this time it will be Toronto, New York, and Boston in May, or maybe June, so here’s hoping the exchange rate is kind to us. Next time I’m pushing for San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle but that will have to wait.

In the short term I'm going to try and clear, at least some of, the freezer, I'm angling for another meal at Moro as their winter menus have been sounding incredible, and finally, and most importantly, I am going to try to breathe a little. You may have noticed that my last few posts were nothing but long lists of where I had been, where I was going, what had been done, and what was still to do? So, I am saying to myself STOP. At least for January, breathe, cook, eat, read, write, hibernate and enjoy a little peace before it all starts again. After all what else are we supposed to be doing in January?