A Fresh Start

I had such a lovely birthday yesterday, thoroughly pampered by Ally, Cat and James, and with lots of birthday messages from friends and family. Jennifer phoned me and so did Jamie and Davie, and Chanel messaged me. Cat made a carrot cake for my birthday compete with buttercream icing and candles, it was so delicious. 

I have made the usual New Year’s resolutions for this new year. I hope that I can keep at least some of them. 

Health and Well-being come top of the list of course. 

James and I also plan to work together on projects during the year, the first one being the mammoth task of sorting out our parents’ slides and photos. We shall see how that goes!

We went out for a very pleasant walk, although it was very icy underfoot in places. We took a flask of tea and drank it on the bench in Holmhills Park overlooking the east of Glasgow with the Campsies beyond. 

Later James made his fantastic leg of lamb with juniper berries for New Year’s dinner, which unfortunately I can no longer eat now that I’m vegetarian. Cat and I had a very nice nut roast instead. I made gratin dauphinois which is one of my signature dishes, but foolishly forgot that it takes two hours to cook in the oven - despite having made it hundreds of times before. So with only an hour to go before the lamb was ready I had to make roast potatoes instead. The gratin finished cooking and we will reheat it tomorrow evening, sometimes it’s even better when it’s reheated! 

We had a relaxing evening playing Scrabble and then having a couple of lively rounds of University Challenge. The New Year has begun.