Bit of a Plan B Christmas this year thanks to a gastro virus knocking The Duchess out for a few days; our planned trip to visit Treats Lady and The Boy Genius at their new(ish) place on the South Island has been pushed out to late January and we’re having a quiet one at home instead. (You learn quickly when dealing with an auto-immune disorder to always book the flexi travel option)

I had bought a pork joint and some veggies a couple of days prior just in case, and that became Christmas lunch. I can’t seem to cook Sunday roasts for any fewer than four people so we now have a fridge full of leftovers to carry us into 2026. Other than nipping over to the neighbour for a coffee we had no contact with anyone and did little other than dog walk, cook & watch TV. Lovely!

We didn’t even bother with presents for each other this year, though I couldn’t resist getting The Duchess this little gnome for The Garden Room ….

I was able to get to Wellington’s original cricket stadium (it hosted its first match in 1868) to watch the Black Caps take on the West Indies.

Thanks to a batting collapse by the visitors the 5 day test was wrapped up in less than 3 days and I was able to enjoy 90 minutes of cricket before we were all heading out again!

Still, it was great to get close to the action and sit in the historic Museum Stand; I’ve only been able to see it from a distance while navigating the roundabout that circles the ground.

At the end of the year Spotify provides listeners with a summary of their listening history and trends, and has started providing a “listening age” based on your chosen music.

What the hell, man? I’m not listening to big band music on 78s for feck’s sake!

We have a tradition of listening to Rat Pack playlists when we cook Italian meals at home, which must be skewing things a fair bit.

I do try to dip into 2025 music from time to time, but it sounds AI generated bland fare to me, sending back to my 1980s playlist.

While I’m off work trying to shake off this Long Covid / Chronic Fatigue tiredness — which the supplements are slowly responding to — I’ve set up weekly To Do lists of household and garden chores to make best use of the time.

The Duchess has been leading the charge on the gardening and we’ve made up for some of the neglect of the past 13 years; weedkilling, stripping out and replacing dead plants, spending up the Airpoints to bring in some herbs and flowers, even having a crack at repairing the horribly patching lawn next to The Garden Room. We’ve even bought some small orange and lime trees to go with the freeloading lemon tree for a tiny orchard!

Let’s hope the stuff we want to grow grows and the stuff we don’t want to grow doesn’t, if that makes any sense!

Took Penny to her usual groomer to get her thick coat trimmed back ready for the Summer. Unfortunately it’s coincided with a dip in temperatures — you have to book 2 months in advance — so I don’t think she’s best pleased.

The poor girl was giving off a strong smell of conditioner, making The Duchess, who is increasingly affected by chemicals, quite ill. So she’s been to the dog wash this morning for the second bath in two days to de-pong her.

While she doesn’t enjoy the grooming experience she does seem to have more energy with a shorter coat, it will be much more comfortable on hotter days and the house will require less hoovering for a couple of months.

After at least 10 years of sitting on the To Do list and many failed attempts to find a suitable location to place it, I’ve finally got round to hanging the dartboard!

Of course we had to christen it, but quickly found the provided darts went everywhere but in the board! Good job we made Penny go lie well away from us!

Next thing we’ll need to rig up is a safety net beneath the cabinet to protect the wardrobe doors, otherwise it’ll quickly appear as though we’re infested with woodworm.

We also need to get down to the sports shop and buy some better quality darts …. then blame those too if our game is no better.

Hmm, looks like the breadmaker is going back … here’s the most recent attempt. About half of the loaves are fine, the other half are either handy for stonewalling or seem to be some kind of horrific experiment gone wrong.

While I’m off work waiting for the fatigue to subside (which, touch wood, is slowly fading as the regime does its thing) I have been trying to expand my cooking skills a little. Nothing flash, just testing a few new recipes.

I did a Diane Sauce earlier in the week that I thought was a minor triumph and today had a go at an unsupervised Chinese meal of chicken and egg fried rice. While the chicken wasn’t as crispy as I would have liked the sauce was tasty and I enjoyed the sight of The Duchess coming back for seconds!

I’m currently quarter of the way through this book and already it’s blowing my tiny mind. I love those books that shape the way you view the World. If a fraction of what he’s predicting comes true society is going to change out of all recognition, and likely within my lifetime.

Very densely packed with information and I’m likely missing half of what the author is trying to convey — I’m listening to the audiobook as a second pass after reading each section — but unless it takes a dodgy turn later in the book I would recommend it for anyone that enjoys sociology, futurology or just general -ologies. Most interesting read since Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus.