4th January: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this first week of 2026…

1 – Christmas Day was spent at my daughter’s house and I was grateful that I was not responsible for the cooking, beyond two large chickens one of which I took over for the carnivores amongst us. The other one was part of a buffet at ours on Boxing Day and of course, I made bought too much food so we will be compromising our diet for weeks to come…

2 – I promised to show you the present I bought for Barbara – I was on safe ground here – unlike choosing clothes – because Barbara is the Immelda Marcos of handbags and this one was one of her favourite colours – mission successful!

3 – Barbara bought me a set of Sabatier chef’s knives – the top three in the picture below. The fourth down was a present from my parents when I wen t to university and I have used it almost every day since and through two food businesses. It is a carbon steel knife which means if it is not cleaned and dried immediately after use it will rust… Despite this care, it has worn away as it used to be the length of the fifth knife – which was a gift from an old schoo; friend, who lives in France and collected tokens from his supermarket, exchanged for this knife which he gifted as a replacement, having seen the diminished status of my first Sabatier! The new set come with self-sharpening cases which they need, as they are very sharp indeed and you wouldn’t want to brush against them unguarded…

4 – Jake, the grandson who was travelling with his Doctor girlfriend this Summer, gave me a set of spices from Morroco – I wonder if you can guess what they are?

My sister in Canada has made me a hooker! I confess that I opened it early as I had no clue what to get for her – I decided to send her a Needle-felting kit, so we now we shall both be quietly crafting…

5 – The low Winter sun reaches parts of the house not usually illuminated, here striking the top of the stairs through the upstairs windows… For the builders among you, the doors were all made from reclaimed wood so they will never shrink!

6 – I am participating (along with 20,000 others) in a drug trial of an oral version of Semaglutide. I had an interview with the project after 3 months of the run-in doses and will now be randomised for real or placebo. I hope I am on the real ones since the object of the drug is to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Semaglutides in higher doses are the injectable weight-loss drugs and whilst this one seems to be having a beneficial effect on blood sugar and blood pressure, it will likely not cause much weight loss. I shall be watching my test results carefully to see whether I think I am on real or placebo… The trial is over 5 years…

7 – I had lunch in Harrogate (about 45 minutes drive) with Tricia, my American, second cousin once removed and her husband Jack and their two sons, wife, girlfriend and one grandchild. From left to right, me, Tricia, Jack, Min (Korean), Tusk, Palmer, Eda (Turkish) and Josiah. I had not met Palmer, Min and Tusk before so ot is great to now know the whole family!

8 – I have finally made a start on writing the pages for the A to Z for April and have completed the Theme Reveal, and the A and B pages. If I can get all the posts prepared in advance, I will have more time for reading and commenting on other people’s posts…

9 – After as deep a dive into the back end of computing as I have done since working with Windows 95, all to no avail, and with resorting to top-level help from BlueHost, I got my picture uploading problem solved -only to find it has returned this morning – will it load into Linkzy – I shall soon see…

10 – Grateful to be part of this community of gratitude – Happy New Year to you all!