Daughter no. 2 and I were having a playful chat on the lines of “what’s the first thing you would do if you suddenly changed gender?”

After the inevitable first answers, I found it poignant she said ‘go out for a walk after dark, just because I can.’

Over on the big blog. Dirty grooves and Lesbian Bed Death.

(Which may be the strangest title on that blog!)

Love this find from a secondhand shop on Leith Walk today.

“My dear, will you still love me if I grow old and lose my quiff?”

Oh blessed payday - the first of 2026!

In my fountain pen world, I’m about to finish a bottle of Montblanc Turquoise which is discontinued and a huge favourite of mine.

The only benefit is that I won’t have to learn how to spell ‘turquoise’ because that has always eluded me.

My blocked salivary gland is back with a vengeance. 😫 But I now have a date for an operation to fix it, but it would mean not going on holiday with my wife in February. And I don’t know what to do because there’s no perfect answer!

Farage on Jenrick in August 2025: “This man is not to be trusted, his party aren’t…”

Good to see nothing has changed!

I really enjoyed reading Ian Dunt’s 2026 resolutions especially on fiction and the horror of ‘small plates’ dining. Although I read a lot of non-fiction, I’ve learned more from fiction and it has changed me more.

We saw this while out for a stroll and I’m very impressed.

Updated my ‘now page’.

My daughter’s Mail icon scares me for two reasons. First is that badge! Second is all that grime on the screen.

I made the mistake of trying to make vegetable risotto using brown rice straight out the packet.

One hour in, and there was no starch being released, the vegetables had lost all colour and their atomic structure was breaking down. And the rice was ‘nutty’.

In my defence, I didn’t buy the rice!

I was thinking today that it’s quite nice drinking water from a glass at my work desk rather than chugging from a bottle.

I’m really enjoying the Radiooooo app to discover new music. The interface is a bit funky and unintuitive but I’ve settled on music from every country; fast, slow and weird styles; plus every decade except the 80s and 90s.

Love my new Christmas gift tee-shirt inspired by the movie THE VVITCH.

Portrait Gallery today.

I was looking at life and death masks in the Portrait Gallery today. I did not expect Voltaire to look so cheerful. Maybe it was all that coffee!

Whenever I go to the Scottish National Portrait gallery I have to go and look at the powerful painting of the three oncologists retrieving people from the darkness of cancer.

Starting the second set of brown butter cakes for the good lady psychotherapist her indoors’ birthday. I managed to curdle the batter first time round but feeling more confident this time.

Smoke me a kipper…

Today’s Daily Art is Our First Tiff by Scottish painter John Walker Macbeth. When I first looked at it, my immediate thought was they could have got away with a jpeg!

Huge mistake! I bought a wall calendar for the kitchen that has weeks starting on Sunday.

I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks. This is just wrong on so many levels.

Over on the big blog, a year-end reflection about Maggie’s question about the best and worst of times in the year.

I don’t like giving-up on books but I’m not making any headway with Lucy Wooding’s mammoth history of Tudor England.

Maybe I read too much about Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I this year. Or maybe if you’re tired of Tudor England you’re tired of life.

I watched The Life of Chuck, adapted from a Stephen King short story tonight. It was wonderful and ★★★★★

My favourite Christmas present of 2025 may just be these ‘loyalty cards’ from daughter no. 2.