Surviving

Well, I have managed to survive Christmas, even if I did spend much of it in bed with a rotten cold. Christmas dinner was bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potato for the non-British readers) with a lovely thick onion gravy. It was washed down with a mixture of Australian sparkling wine with cranberry juice added.

I seem to have spent most of my waking hours watching various films on television although I did manage to do a bit of knitting yesterday and I am hopeful that I will feel energetic enough to do some more this afternoon/evening. I have also managed to record lots of films to watch later so I will have something for when there is nothing worth watching.

I haven't been to the sales; I haven't even left the house for nearly a week. Tomorrow I will need to go out to buy some supplies and get a bit of exercise. I'm feeling low, but not so bad as I did this time last week.

I must also sit myself down with my OU course material and work my way through it so that I can complete the second TMA for my course. It has to be submitted by the middle of January so I had better get a move on. This TMA has only two parts to it; the first part is the most important one and requires me to write a short story or a chapter of a longer piece of writing of 1500 words. It also requires me to include something that relates to one or more of a number of supplied words. These are places or feelings and the one that I have chosen to include is 'abandoned'. I have an idea of what I am going to write, but having an idea is not actually having the words ready to write.

I think some sessions in the library are called for because if I am there I can't be distracted by what's on the television.

Just A Week To Go

With just a week until Christmas Day, I am still trying to decide what to have for my Christmas dinner.  Do I make an effort and cook a roast dinner, or go for something a little more simple that can be prepared and cooked in about half an hour in one pan.

It is such a big deal cooking a roast dinner for one person, even though I always roast more vegetables than I need (potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions and aubergines) so that they can be heated in the microwave the next day or two.  My possible alternative Christmas dinner involves dicing potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, and aubergines, frying them in a tiny amount of olive oil, then when they are almost cooked I add a couple of small salmon fillets which have been broken into largish flakes and cook them, adding dill, lime juice and coarse ground black pepper at the last minute.  The nice thing about this meal is that there is not much in the way of washing up after the meal.  But it is just not the same as having a roast dinner.

Whichever it turns out to be, I will break from my normal almost teetotal habits and indulge in a bottle of wine.  A bottle of a nice Australian red will be opened, and enjoyed.