I was decidedly ‘Laodicean’ about the Christmas pudding this year but Christmas is saved. Things will be getting steamy tomorrow but just in the kitchen.

“The most important rule is the round system. When you go to the pub with a group, one person buys drinks, and then the next person buys the next. This is not optional; … and failing to buy your round is one of the surest ways to earn a quiet but lasting disapproval from your British friends.”

😂

I was buying this year’s Christmas pudding whisky and saw this, possibly my favourite Scotch whisky. I was powerless to resist!

Setting-up custom presets on a Ricoh GRIIIx is a modern version of programming the VCR.

I always wear the same necklace except in the run-up to Halloween when this little fella comes out. When the jaw is hinged open, the gems pop into the eye sockets.

I’m delighted with my new Yard O Led inks. The Beau Blue and Hope Pink are so lovely that I’ve ordered a bottle of the green too.

Updates to my ‘now’ page.

Tonight’s home cocktail experiment. A Corpse Reviver No. 2.

On a whim I was researching Lord Peter Wimsey’s Daimler Double-Six: “Mrs Merdle”. What a beauty!

I see pinboard.in seems to be down. Does anyone know how long it’s been offline?

Heretical corruption of classic Maltese snack? Seasonal delight? I can’t decide.

Today’s view.

Today I read The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark. A very strange book. Great writing but a little underwhelming.

I just orderd a new small notebook for a family holiday that’s coming up soon. I really like the size of this bu I love the labelling on the front cover! (It’s a company called Iconic and the paper is Nippon Paper)

As a stationery nerd my ears pricked-up with Bill Nighy talked about getting his new hard-backed diary. Now I really want to know what he uses!

Last night we tried a new meal but it was a huge let-down. Crispy rice salad with tofu, lime and herbs sounds great but there were a few red flags in the recipe.

One was taking perfectly-cooked rice and baking it back to raw crunchiness. The other was the huge amount of salty fish sauce involved.

Looking at social media tonight I saw something apologising for being “1 minute and 49 seconds long but don’t let that put you off” and I thought have we come to a point where we have to challenge people to focus for two minutes.

And I sound so old…

Our friend Maggie’s big birthday party has an amazing cake. In this case ‘abridged’ means gluten-free and that’s for me.

Some postcards heading out into the wild. Heading to some of the ‘Analog Tools’ people.

Over on the big blog I’ve been re-evaluating my Apple browser choices. Concluding that third-party browsers are on balance better but it’s close.

I wonder if I’ve missed anything.

Choosing pens for the week ahead, I decided to go with a theme.

I’m struggling to think of any other electronic hardware from the 1980s I’m still using now.

With a major update to MacOS I feel the need to try Safari again. It has some real advantages in how it integrates across all the Apples. I still prefer Orion on the Mac, especially for how well it handles loads of tabs in a vertical sidebar.

My next pocket notebook is an Iconic Adorable (that’s the name!) notebook.

We are rewatching ‘Singin In The Rain’ once again. When I was younger I used to hate the whole ‘Broadway Melody’ section of the film.

Things have changed and I now understand just how magnificent it is.