Hello and happy new year.
I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. The official new year fireworks here were spectacular although some maniac nearby decided to let off some supernova bomb that was so loud that my ears are still ringing! Maybe the army surplus store had a sale on or something.
I made the traditional, symbolic new year supper which here is cotechino, a large and very fatty boiled sausage (to represent life's plenty) and lentils, which are shaped like coins and represent prosperity. I added some sauerkraut with wine and apple that went really well with the pork.
Anyway, as is inevitable, I put on a lot of weight but it's allowed. It was nice to have time to cook and eat well. I'm back on the slimming regime and I lost two pounds overnight so something's working. I plan to do Dry January (as I did Dry November) so I'm sitting here with a glass of what I call Slimmer's Champagne, which is a champagne flute filled with fizzy mineral water with a dash of balsamic vinegar and a squirt of lemon juice to colour it and add tartness and flavour. For a moment you might mistake it for champagne. Anyway, it fools me, and I made it!
Any resolutions? Well, apart from continuing to get trim so I can get back into my favourite dresses, I'd like to meet up with other TGirls in Italy and continental Europe, so my (manicured) feelers are out.
Apart from that, I have found the past decade to be so unpredictable that I'm not inclined to make more resolutions than those as circumstances outside my control seem to be all too prevalent.
I always wish everyone the best for the year to come. To be honest, though, I don't think it much of a shock to say that, at this point at least, future world scenarios that look positive are not so many. But I like to be pleasantly surprised, so who knows? I have had this cover of The Economist from 29 December 1979 in my mind's eye recently. For years it was pasted up in a classroom at school and it struck me then and still does 45 years later.
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| (c) The Economist |
The 1980s turned out not so bad as some feared. So ... into the late 2020s, then. My plan for bad news days, therefore, is to try to enjoy the little things as much as possible. Just for instance, this evening just after sunset I got a clear view of the conjunction of the moon and Venus. It's not a rare phenomenon but it does help you feel there are bigger things out there.
At the same time tomorrow the moon occults (i.e. passes in front of) Saturn from here and that is rarer and more exciting. And it's a free spectacle. (If you want to see the occultation it should be visible from the UK and Western Europe a little after sunset, so about 5pm to 7pm GMT - times vary depending on your location.)
This coming weekend is holiday here in Italy and on Twelfth Night (5th-6th) kids are visited by a kindly witch called Befana who gives them sweets and chocolates. I wrote in more detail about this and other traditions here. After that it's the January sales when I hope to stock up on women's trousers as my fem style in public these days is, let's say, ambiguously feminine.
So, yes, it's kind of a plan for 2025. I hope this year is kind to you.
Sue x
