| Wed 1 | What happened today? Not a clue. Spent the whole day doing admin-y stuff. Yawn! |
| Thu 2 | Spent a large chunk of the afternoon trying to work out what in my life I want to monitor and/or achieve next year. All somewhat depressing, but I know if I don’t do it I’ll get nowhere. |
| Fri 3 | Yay! The supermarket delivery actually got everything right this week, barring the handful of items that weren’t available. And the chatty, friendly driver was well on time. |
| Sat 4 | Surprised that it was quite foggy in the middle of the nght; enough that I couldn’t see the top of the road from the bedroom window. But it was clear by the time I got up at 9. |
| Sun 5 | I should have photographed my desk this morning: it was an absolute riot of of muddy paw marks. It’s an enigma to me how a cat can come in, cross the kitchen, hall, stairs, landing and study (all carpeted except the kitchen) and still have wet muddy feet! |
| Mon 6 | Actually managed to look at some family history stuff this afternoon. I was looking at Austens in Tenterden and hoping to find a (very distant) connexion to Jane Austen. But no luck so far. |
| Tue 7 | I’m a terrible correspondent, so no surprise that it has taken me weeks and even months to get round to writing some letters to friends and family. |
| Wed 8 | Ho! Ho! Ho! Welcome to the new Christmas lockdown. But phased in over a week. FFS. Yet again much too little, far too late. |
| Thu 9 | 04:30. Sounds of cat(s) playing with something. Ah yes. Small dead wood mouse at the foot of the bed. Both junior cats in attendance; I wonder which is the guilty party? Boy Cat looks the more likely. |
| Fri 10 | Waitrose are selling their usual Crément de Bourgogne for £10.99 (it’s normally £14.99). It’s as good as many Champagnes (well it’s the same method, but not the right district). Buy 6 and get another 5% off. Good everyday fizz. What’s not to like? |
| Sat 11 | That worked pretty well. No chance of the usual literary society London pre-Christmas lunch again this year, so I organised a sort of party tea over zoom. More overseas members (mostly US) than Brits, and it’s great to see them. Seemed to be enjoyed by all. |
| Sun 12 | Afternoon spent writing Christmas cards, letters and wrapping presents that have to be posted. Finished the cards, but not the packages. |
| Mon 13 | So today, between two GP patient group meetings, we managed to get all the Christmas cards & presents packed up and in the mail. |
| Tue 14 | Someone left an unlabelled bag with tea bags & chocolate on our doorstep. Thing is one doesn’t like to assume it wasn’t left there by mistake, especially after several recent attempted deliveries of parcels not for us. But in this instance it turned out to be a friend playing “Secret Santa”. |
| Wed 15 | Did today exist? I suppose it must have done. But I’ve no way of telling as I seem to have done nothing – certainly nothing of any substance beyond a few minor website updates. |
| Thu 16 | Night was falling fast when N discovered a problem with the pond: it was nearly empty! Water drained down to ground level (top of the original tiny sunken pond). Water not spewing from hoses etc. so must be a hole in the liner. Too dark to do anything more than minimal damage limitation. |
| Fri 17 | A difficult day. Tom came round to help assess the pond situation. Tom & N rescued the fish; moved to cramped temporary accommodation – hopefully pending a better solution over the weekend. Didn’t like having Tom here, however necessary it was; I’m petrified of getting Omicron. |
| Sat 18 | A day spent waiting for a delivery that didn’t materialise. Gah! |
| Sun 19 | Up at 06:30 after a bad night and much too little sleep. No wonder I was cold, falling asleep, and good for nothing all day. |
| Mon 20 | It’s been a long day of bits & pieces; odd jobs; doorstep pressie swap with a friend. Couldn’t settle to doing anything. |
| Tue 21 | Trying to eat up the freezer to make room for Christmas meat. Tonight a couple of portions of frozen cooked chicken fragments; put together with leftover roast Mediterranean veg from Sunday and used to stuff some peppers. Tasty even if not fine dining. |
| Wed 22 | A day of two results. Goldfish finally moved to their new long-term temporary home. And tasty home made tomato soup for evening food; very thrifty using a quantity of over-ripe surplus tomatoes and stock from the freezer. |
| Thu 23 | An interesting day topped by a product recall on the goat butter we have in the fridge – all of it. So need to source more butter (goat or otherwise) PDQ. |
| Fri 24 | Christmas dinner part 1 this evening: roast pork, baked potatoes, red cabbage, sugar snap peas, rainbow carrots, leek sauce and apple sauce. Washed down with some good cider. |
| Sat 25 | It’s Christmas morning. The rest of the house is asleep. But what am I doing? Working, of course; rewriting a document. Festivities later. |
| Sun 26 | A grey and soggy Boxing Day, which meant a lie-in, lunch of cold meat with bubble & squeak, and not a lot else done – as it should be. |
| Mon 27 | Anthony Powell sums up today rather well: “It was that prolonged, flat, cheerless week that follows Christmas. Those interminable latter days of the dying year create an interval of moral suspension: one form of life already passed away before another has had time to assert some new, endemic characteristic.” |
| Tue 28 | The first of this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC4 TV. Very topical; all about viruses, how they infect us and how we test for them. OK I followed along easily, but I suspect many of the kids struggled with some of the bits that were glossed over or assumed. |
| Wed 29 | Today is the Feast Day of Thomas Becket, St Thomas of Canterbury. Saint and martyr he’s venerated by the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Having found conflict with Henry II over the rights and privileges of the Church, Becket was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral on this day in 1170. He is my patronal guardian and we have much in common: not least being a pain in the posterior. |
| Thu 30 | Last of the RI Christmas Lectures. They’ve been quite good in an understated way; no dramatics; and quite a lot assumed/not explained. But it’s hard to know how to make virology fun for 12-year-olds, especially when constrained to just three lectures. |
| Fri 31 | This old year is ending as it began … with us swimming underwater: we close our eyes, hold our breath, and keep kicking in a vain attempt to resurface. Here’s hoping we can resurface in 2022. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! |
