Greetings from Scotland! Yes, my annual pre-Christmas pilgrimage is underway. A recent tradition - it started in 2022 - and yet I can't imagine heading into the Christmas madness without it. It's my pocket of calm before things gets stressy. It's where I gather my mental reserves for the weeks ahead. I can only apologise to any of the local residents here. If you see me walking slowly, breathing deeply, and staring at the sky, I'm just doing my personal version of yoga stretches.
Don't worry. I may be escaping real life for a few days, but I'm not avoiding Christmas entirely. The town I'm in has an annual shop window competition for the best festive displays. The boozers and restaurants are filled with seasonal dos and the frosty air on my morning beach walks fills my heart with joy. I'm living my best life and I couldn't be happier. Here's hoping you're as perky too.
I'd say the writing has finished for the year. I sound vague about that because I'm not quite where I wanted to be at this point. Despite sticking to every self-imposed deadline for eleven months, I've found that since December arrived, the lure of Christmas films and catching up with friends has overtaken my work ethic. Look, I was doing so well. Since January, I've finished the first draft, (of the next Leeza McAuliffe book) rewritten it to death, got it edited professionally, passed it out to friends and family, and spoken to the cover illustrator. It's been a busy old time. The fact I've chillaxed a week or two earlier than planned is something I will live with, I guess. Full steam ahead come January, though.
Did anyone see David Dimbleby's BBC doc, What's the Monarchy For? It's a three parter, with two parts being available so far. I stumbled over it in the week and found it engrossing. My cinema visit last week was to see Pillion. If you like your romantic, first-love films with a healthy dose of sub/dom content, then this one's for you. Seriously, it was excellent and Alexander Skarsgård was fab. In music news, I saw Madness at the Liverpool arena on Wednesday. All the hits, loads of singing along, and they were supported by Squeeze who sounded exactly the same as they always did. Finally, I read a book. White Out by Ragnar Jonasson happily filled last Monday. An Icelandic crime thriller set at Christmas? YES PLEASE.
This won't be news to many of you, but I've made a personal culinary discovery. As a long time fan of garlic prawns with crusty bread, I tend to balk at the amount of oil/butter needed to create a decent amount of dipping juice. Well, let me tell you, I've finally worked it out! I made the LOVELIEST sauce last week with just a splash of oil. This time I added a glass of white wine, and then a teaspoon of cornflour dissolved in a tablespoon of water. Once it had all mixed together and heated through, it was the tastiest garlic prawns ever. (As well as garlic and prawns, I added chilli, ground pepper, and a couple of anchovies.) DELISH.
Out and About
Oomph, I've been burning the candle at both ends recently. The Madness gig saw me getting in at midnight. Midnight! On a Wednesday! Then, for reasons I'm still not entirely sure about, the film Pillion was only showing once a day at my local cinema. Once a day at 9.30pm! It felt madly counterintuitive to leave the house at that time. Thank goodness for the reclining seats of my Odeon Luxe. I could settle back in my comfy chair to watch the 'is it abusive or consensual?' love story unfold. Then on Saturday night, after some festive fun with friends, I got home AFTER midnight. Larks! You can tell it's Christmas with that schedule!
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| Breathing deeply as I walk to the beach |
The year has flown by. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my holiday and breathe deeply while I can. Here's hoping we ALL have pockets in our day when we can manage that.
Have a lovely week, folks.
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