Over the holiday

A Happy New Year! I hope you have had a good holiday. We did despite we both had cold one after another. Mike caught cold on the first day of his holiday and took one week to get rid of. On the first day he fully recovered, I caught cold, and I am still with it.

Happiness is relative though. Last year we have had swine flu. So, common cold seemed to us almost nothing albeit annoying.

In the past years, we would invite people around, and usually a couple of people including one of us, couldn't make it due to flu, or retired during meals. This year, we decided to celebrate by ourselves, instead.

After gruelling six hours of oven cleaning during summer, Mike, understandably,  refused to roast at home. We were thinking to go to Abode for a Christmas meal, but Mike's cold stopped this. So we thought we would go out for a New Year meal. My cold was the hurdle this time. So we spent whole time at home very relaxed with our dogs, parrots and little Mochachino, the last surviving finch.(and Pumpkin, the chicken, in the garden, of course)
 
Over the holiday, we opened a champagne bottle,

Mike decorated,

we baked,

we cooked and drank,

we baked and drank again,

The first galette was sooo delicious. Mike baked it again on the New Year eve.

Mike's colleague, Dave gave us this desert wine that he bought a half case by mistake (he doens't like desert wine), and left them in the garage for a while. Still it was nice with the galette. Thanks, Dave!

we opened another bottle of champagne,

Mike had Parma ham and I had smoked salmon (responsibly resourced wild Alaskan kind...description is getting longer and longer.)

These better shaped parmiers were made by our patisserie chef Mike.

Mike's panettone became so large!

Panettone inside

I found a tub of chicken stock I made two year ago in the freezer. lol About 1.5cm thick fat was on top, to preserve.

A leek from our garden and mushrooms added. It became delicious soup.I hope I could beat my cold with this!

I also cooked Japanese celebratory Azuki bean rice. Beans were about two years-old (too old), and special glutenous rice was one year old (a bit old). Still it turned out delicious. It was nice to clear cupboard too. lol

The most dramatic sunset we have ever seen.

Hello Everyone. Did you have lovely Christmas? We have spent relaxed and cosy time together. Christmas and Easter are only occasions I can totally relax away from the work. So, they are really precious to me. I was totally unwind. We have enjoyed nice meals and good wine, champagne and cider to accompany with. Of course, we have done lots of cooking and baking too.

I usually don't drink as much as I like to, because my only tool is my brain. I must keep it as sharp as possible. But I have enjoyed extra glasses here and there. Bliss!

London market opened this morning, and I have one stock I like to trade if the condition becomes right. So I, a kind of, kept an eye on the movement. But otherwise still off mode. The first reporting starts on the fourth of January, so I like to take it easy until then.

I have played along with clay too. Everyday, I worked on a model or two, and started having desire to make something. I will upload pictures later. But now I like to share the most dramatic sunset we have ever seen, with you. We took photographs from our bedroom. A front line was moving toward us as sun set. It changed gradually, and the sky became dark.

Cemetery spire in winter sun

Hello everyone! Today is the last day in London market, and it won't open until 27th. A rare occasion for me to be able to totally switch off.

Yesterday afternoon, we went to my favourite spot for a walk. Canterbury cemetery!

Canterbury cemetry

Gate with Celtic cross

We met Ken with norovirus! Well, not exactly, but he and his family had it one after another, and grandparents visiting their house right now are coming down with something. Scared! He kindly stepped back when he told us about this. We both had swine flu last Christmas, and couldn't eat anything or drink for days. I took two weeks to recover. So, this year, we are trying to keep fit over the holiday. You, too! Take care!

Christmas cards

As cards arrive from abroad, I catch up with the news of the year with the friends who, otherwise, have no contact with. I have friends whom I haven't met for about 20 years in Spain, Germany and Japan, and for fewer years in other parts of the globe.

You might think at the age of Internet, I should be able to communicate with them more than once a year, surely. But some of them are not connected to Internet (yes), and even those who are on Internet, we just exchange cards not to get into our personal daily lives.

There is a children's song in Japan, in which a goat sent a letter to another goat, but he ate a whole letter before reading it. So he had to write back to ask the sender what was the matter in the letter.

Last Christmas, one Japanese friend living in Spain wrote that her mother was diagnosed with cancer. I imagined how difficult for her not to be able to stay with her mother at the difficult time. So I wrote my feeling about it on this year's card. She apparently sent me a card before mine arrived there, telling me that she had a fantastic year.

Antler pendant top

It is a bit comical, isn't it? Perhaps, I hope, her mother has fully recovered. She tells me that her daughters learn English at school, so she wants to make a trip to UK with them, and come to see me. How wonderful! After 20 years, I would long to see her again. But I don't know how we can manage to get this happen with annual exchange of cards.

Nostalgic, that's the word I would use to describe the relationship.

Just like you, I am so used to Internet, and my life evolves around it. My work, my relationship with friends and family totally depend on it. I do most of my shopping and banking on it. our entertainment in on it. Mike and I communicate via skype most days while we work, and we sometime send emails each other, even when we both are in the house.

But, with those friends I mentioned, I suppose annual card swapping is the most comfortable way for us to communicate. The speed and tempo of our lives are so different. It is such a shame to drag them into our digitalised life, indeed. 

Winter flowers and Pearl's evening

Hi, everyone. Even though I intended that last week was my last day work before Christmas, I was working this morning again due to lots of issues in EU, as well as volatile movement in the market. In true sense. I never take off time except for the days when markets are closed. Even so my work life balance is not bad, because I work from home. Instead of commuting or having a chat with colleagues, I hang laundry and walk dogs.

Primula

 There are a few flowers in our garden right now.I found them whilst hanging laundry, so there is a good thing with hanging laundry on a cold morning!

Algerian Iris

However, I heard Merkel is off for holiday, I should be following her. I took an afternoon off, and took a saucer to our friend Cynthia. I threw the saucer on a wheel separately, so I guessed the size. It seems it was a bit too tight. Cynthia said the cup has been on the table to look at because it is pretty. I begged her to use it, and to tell me how she feels about it.

Cup and saucer

I got a chill this evening, so I didn't work on the head I made yesterday. Instead, we watched an old episode of Poirot on TV. I love the style and house decoration.In the meantime, what did our princess Pearl do?

She slept,

slept,

slept,

Oh? Is she going to wake up?

No, and she slept.