It's been a cold begining to this year, the two thousand and second of our Lord.
Ross and I began the year with fireworks in the back garden which were accompanied by a fusillade from the surrounding area. Ever since the millennium there seems to have been a tendency towards more and more fireworks at this time of the year.
Since then we have been shivering in front of the hearth - well what passes for one in this age of central heating.
Ross and I still haven't hit our stride together yet. But he is begining to take a little more charge of things. Like doing the washing or some dusting because he thinks it needs to be done rather than ask my permission first or waiting for me to do it for him. But we've got some way to go yet. He still has a habit of playing a child to my parent when I would much rather he came at me as adult to adult. I'd also like a little child to child. I don't feel as though my child has been invited out to play for some time.
We've had Albert and Grace for a post New Year lunch. The four of us went out to look at some very desirable (and therefore expensive) wooden furniture. We lunched on smoked salmon and salad. Albert and Grace nearly fell out over the location of various places in Liverpool's City Centre whilst looking at the book of aerial photographs of Liverpool which Ross gave me for Christmas. But hey it all went off well and we all gathered round the Christmas tree for photographs at the aging Ps insistence.
Colin came for a meal on Thursday evening and brought with him presents. CDs. A Cecilia Bartoli album for Ross - Gluck arias. My little honey may be turning into a Baroque queen. God help me. That means interminable Handel operas. I got an album of tracks by Belgian soprano, Suzanne Danco. Probably means nothing to most of you. But she made a lot of Mozart discs in the 50s and 60s and therefore was on all the budget records I was buying in the 70s and 80s so I grew to love her voice as I learnt my Mozart 20 years ago.
The meal went well. We had nibbles followed by butternut squash stuffed with good things including porcini mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes accompanied by roasted vegetables. For afters, there was Christmas pudding and brandy butter with cheese and crackers and fruits. We were all well stuffed by the time we had finished. In Festive fashion, we rounded the evening off by playing Cluedo
Phil was supposed to be coming to the meal as well but left a message on the answer machine about feeling ill and I have to say that the tone of his voice betokened extreme crapness.
Everyone seems to have been in contact with illness this Festive season. Ross felt under par immediately after Christmas and, as of today, I would say that I officially unwell myself with a sore throat and a general feeling of lassitude.
I blame it on going to the doctor's. I was there to receive the results of a few tests which had been requested as part of an MOT. Basically, my lungs are clear and the systolic murmur in my heart is the same as it ever was. I'm hale and hearty despite being borderline asthmatic, having hypoglycemic dizzy spells and being prone to an occasional pain under my rib cage which is probably nothing but could just possibly be a gall stone. It's a reasonable note with which to start the new year.
And what shall I do with it.
Well, this is going to be a year of nest building for both Ross and I. So, here's some goals for the two of us.
Well, that's the practical stuff. Here's some fun.