Five Things

Happy post Xmas etc. It was … fine. Which was really nice. Not fraught, good food (though I’ve realised that after eating the leftovers for lunch through the 28^th that Xmas food is too rich for me for more than a day or two now), an afternoon walk on which we all went, an evening one for me. It was very cold but dry. Nice change. We’ll be slowly clearing the fridge – except for roast potatoes, which I’ll be making every few days. There are onion rings in the freezer. I love them but only have them twice a year-ish.

I wore Neela Vermeire Eshal on the day. Of course, as it was my main gift. After arriving very cold (I worried a bit about the juice) all was well. A bit of brightness in our cold and dark. Heretic Black Salt one day (continues to confound me with that saltwater taffy note), Perfumer H Smoke, and then Theo Fennell Scent.

I’m looking forward to Indian food on Wednesday evening. A load of Indian food to last for a good few days. Dhal and naan for breakfast, choice bits of things mixed together for lunch.

This is a listy thing. I like lists. I always have one for food shopping. Otherwise I graze and that’s not useful as I spend way too much and come home with all kinds of strange and fancy but forget the broccoli …

The Financial Times, a sort of finance/business/politics and more newspaper here (you can get it elsewhere but I think a lot more people read it here than in other places), has a ‘you’ve got a lot of money, here’s how to spend it, or these are things you might be interested in’ magazine in most weekend editions.

When I still worked in finance I had a subscription to the FT. Now, I just buy the weekend edition or a week day one if it has something I’m particularly interested in.

The fancy magazine generally has a feature of questions to someone of significance. Sometimes the person featured is a bit of a numpty; sometimes they are really interesting. The questions range the gamut from ‘how did you end up doing what you do?’ to ‘what’s your style signifier?’ to ‘what’s always in your fridge?’ to ‘what was the last gift you were given that you adore?’ It can be a lot of fun – and sometimes edifying.

Oh, and they sometimes ask which fragrance do you wear? The last one I read the woman, a chef, wore Chanel No 19.

So, anyway, this is where we’re going today: some questions – just five – that you can answer as an antidote to post holiday overload or just because it looks like fun. My answers appear at the end of the post.

1. What’s your style signifier?
2. What’s almost always in your fridge?
3. If you could have anything right now (not world peace, etc, just something) what would it be?
4. How do you relax?
5. What do you think was the best gift you gave this holiday season?

Here’s me: 1) I always wear earrings – different sorts but largely posts these days – each day. Feel naked without them. And I wear three gold rings on my left hand which all have meaning for me – a scarab, a snake (well, an ouroboros) and one with small diamonds patterned on seaweed from Cornwall in the west of England. A number of years ago I was poor and sold a lot of jewellery to pay for groceries. I’ve slowly replaced stuff and these rings are top of the heap. 2) Kefir, berries, cheese. 3) A tiny bolt hole in Paris – from which it would be easier to travel through Europe. Don’t need big – just a studio. 4) Walk, walk some more / walk in the dark – talk to the dog. 5) Assisted my son in buying a new iPhone. His was very old and starting to need charging more than once a day. Boy, are iPhones pricey.

There we go. Have at it if you feel like it. If not, tell us things you’d rather focus on: something fun that happened over the hols, a surprise you enjoyed, a lovely outing, etc.

Pics: mine, pexels, wiki parfums