Farewell to 2013

So, The Builder took Taffa, Gareth, Cally and Marryk back to Sheffield late morning on Boxing Day and was back almost within the hour. I heard someone coming in through the door and for a brief moment wondered if it was a burglar! While he had been gone I had sorted out the spare room, vaccuumed the house, tidied up a bit and generally sorted a few things out.

And thereafter we more or less fell into a post-Christmas torpor. We ate and drank and watched television. We pottered and mooched and dallied.  As far as possible we avoided the wind and the rain. I quite like the period between Christmas and New Year. The University is closed. I am not at work. And this year, at least, we were not away. Christmas Day and Boxing Day themselves seem to have an out-of-time quality; they don't really fit into the normal pattern of days and dates and times. Then, between Christmas and New Year, the days all blend into one another - not timeless as such but almost anonymous.  There is nothing urgent that needs to be done, nowhere in particular that we need to be, no urgency, no pressure, no impetus. If I don't mark the days off on the calendar, it becomes extremely difficult to remember what day it is.  I suppose it doesn't really matter what day it is!

But it matters today.  It is New Year's Eve. And we are celebrating by having lunch at The Nettle. We tried to have lunch there yesterday but it was closed.  Not unreasonable, I guess. They have been very busy through December and at the moment there are only Marcus and Sandford holding the fort.  I *suppose* it's fair that they should have one day off. Every now and then! But it was open today (as you would expect on New Year's Eve).

And there goes 2013. Not a bad year, all things considered, from a personal point of view. We've had lots of fun, lots of adventures, lots of good food and wine. No major catastrophes have befallen us. Can't complain at all.

Let's hope 2014 is as good a year. For every one.

(Mind you, I seem to have been remarkably taciturn on the blog this year. A mere 86 posts. I'm sure that more than 86 blog posts worth of adventures happened!)

The Nettle, being festive: