Punch drunk in 2023-already!!

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Happy New Year!

Had a fab New Year's Eve in our own home with good friends, some fabulous fancy dress, tasty food and a very quaffable punch (thank you Dawn and Vernon for that).  Have you ever noticed how we judge whether a night out was any good or not by what time we got home ? Well I went to bed at 3am so I had fab time!

My 2023 has got off to a great start - my dearest friend Helen (well she is now) has a ticket for me to see Michael Buble in May and our friends Chris and Maggie have invited us to central France in the summer. Start the year off as you mean to go on that's what I say!.

New Year Resolutions-

Here we go!  I'd love to say I am giving up wine but I live in France and I (and other Expats) must keep the economy going. It would be like giving up a full English breakfast in the UK - the whole country would come to a grinding halt. 

What happened in Sainsbury's- 

Whilst in the UK I went to Sainsbury's on Christmas Eve morning and I was impressed with:

A: That it was not too busy 

B:  That the shelves were pretty well stocked - we all know that you can be in real trouble if you leave things too late and Christmas Eve is pushing it. 

 I heard a woman on her mobile complaining that the shelves were empty!. I frantically looked around and wondered if I should point out to her the display full of pigs in blankets, they even had a vegan option.  

It made me think about the effect the press has on us, has it made us dramatic??.  My sister Caroline is always quick to pick up on examples of sensationalism. The dictionary definition for this is- "(especially in journalism) the presentation of stories in a way that is intended to provoke public interest or excitement, at the expense of accuracy". She recently pointed out a picture of petrol pump queues that was used in the press that was in fact from a few years ago. 

Apparently sensationalism is so embedded in our culture that the distinction between accurate and inaccurate news has completely disappeared (see how easy it is!!). The weather is always a good excuse for sensationalism, I saw a headline that said that the UK was going to be hit by freak cold weather, I read a bit further and discovered it was going to be snowing in northern Scotland - it's always snowing in northern Scotland just like it's always raining in Wales. Helen live in Wales and she is amazed when it isn't raining. (She runs award winning Black Mountain Preserves by the way- www.blackmountainpreserves.com).

There are somethings that can't be understated- what is going on in Ukraine and global warming for example. Shouldn't our New Year's resolutions focus on being less dramatic and more realistic. Let's not take things" verbatim ac litteratim" (latin for word for word) let's just take everything with a pinch of salt and stop frightening old people. Most importantly let's be more grateful for all we have. 

Back to my resolutions: 

1. Work more in the garden

2. Stop procrastinating 

3. Get a job 

4. Get up and go to bed earlier - I love that time in the morning when the house is quiet and I can sit with a cup of tea and watch the birds and the coypu by the lake (!!).  My Sister Sally calls it "just staring at the wall" She gets up half  an hour earlier every day to do this. Well she did until she got a mad dog and you can now find her at six in the morning striding across a field. Please remind me to never get a dog!!

In case you are wondering, yes I do have a lot of sisters- three in fact and they are all wonderful. I don't know what I would do without them and I miss them terribly but they always seem to be here or I seem to be there, so it's not too bad. My other sister Roz is a delight- mad as a hatter but wonderful. She tells you all about people that she knows that you are never going to meet but I only have to be in her company for five minutes and I am laughing. 

So I am off to kick start the French economy- I won't procrastinate about that one!!












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