On making the first mince pies of the season (or ever)

I don’t remember the last time I waited until this close to Christmas to start making mince pies… Last night, a friend came over. She’s German and had never even heard of mince pies, let alone thought about making one. That obviously had to be rectified. Here’s the process of rectification: 🙂 🙂 🙂 I […]

On not talking about Christmas

It’s the 25th of November. That makes it exactly a month until Christmas. I am ignoring that, and all other Christmas related things. Between now and then, I have: 4 exams to revise for a book to finish compiling and find pictures for and format and send off in time for printing 3 aquariums to […]

On breaking the spoon

It’s nearly my birthday, which means it’s mincemeat making month 🙂 Originally I planned to spend Sunday afternoon chopping apples and peeling lemons and squeezing oranges in a yearly tradition of stickiness. Then a phone conversation happened and I ran out of afternoon before I ran out of things to say. When I got home […]

On flying home* for Christmas

Two weeks ago I bought a ticket for a flight to Berlin. Last week I checked in online, printed my boarding card and packed my bag. On Friday I got a train from work to the airport (and was there on time), went through security, unpacking and repacking most of my suitcase in the process. […]