Menondallying; The Bit Between

Christmas at The Hutch was a very quiet, unceremonious affair. Having arrived back in Dunoon on Christmas Eve eve, to relatively mild temperatures but extreme overcast skies and thick haar (sea mist), I hunkered down with some binge-watching. It has been a while since I watched quite so many television shows/films in one hit. Several of the items were one-off Christmas specials of shows that I watch during the year: Great British Bakeoff, Sister Boniface, Dr Who, Beyond Paradise, Death In Paradise, Great Pottery Throwdown... one or two others, but the mind is going blank now. There were a couple of Hindi films and then one that surprised me how much I enjoyed it... Red One. Yes, the Dwayne Johnson action pic. And yes, it's nonsense, but a whole lot of fun! So much so that I watched it again a week later when Aitch came to stay.

Yes, my good pal arrived on New Year's Eve eve and stayed until last Saturday. Again, the weather kept us indoors until New Year's Day itself, when Aitch went on a solo walk to do some geocaching, and I caught up on puzzles and made soup for lunch.

On the second, the sun shone. There was a layer of snow up on the hilltops, hoar frost on rooves and cars, and the temperature never got above freezing the whole day. But I say again - the sun shone! Windows were opened, and we indulged in a binge-watch of the latest (and final) Vera double bill. On Friday, it was very cold and bright again, so we decided to take a walk around town. I fetched the Rolls-later from The Grey, and we wandered up the back street first - quickly realising that the walk would be treacherous due to ice. We both slipped a couple of times but managed to stay upright. Mostly, we walked on the roads where some gritting had taken place - although this was not necessarily entirely successful. Many folks called out to us to take care and share a giggle about the skating conditions. 

You can tell that it was taking all our concentration - I never thought to take any photographs whatsoever!

Aitch, whose father was a Scot, had never spent Hognamany in Scotland before. I made sure we had plenty of pick-and-nibble foods and a tipple (neither of us is really a drinker, but it's one time a year). I also made up a collection of Scottish music to listen to as we went through the evening until the BBC Alba Ceilidh started. We saw 2025 in and managed another half hour or so before calling it a night. We each picked five highlights of our 2024 and thought about one or two things we would each like to achieve in 2025. No resolutions. We don't need that kind of pressure!

Thus, the year is off and running. 

A while back, when sharing podcasts I enjoyed, I included a series from Australia called Stuff The British Stole. It has subsequently been made into a television series. One episode was particularly of interest to me. I provide the promo clip below. I heartily recommend the full half-hour episode if you can access it - the series was an international collaboration, and I know that CBC (Canada) should have it available, and ABC (Australia) too, so in the USA, it might be where you get your BBC programs? It's on U (used to be UKTV) here in the UK.