Just as well I didn't resolve to be an assiduous blogger this year since I've totally neglected that task not only since New Year but since long before Christmas.

So a rapid catch up would be in order.  Delicious Christmas lunch of Mushroom Wellington by Claire.  A post Christmas binge watching session of three seasons of Better Call Saul which I enjoyed so much that I rushed onto the internet, ordered season four and devoured it on arrival.

Rugby at Murrayfield to see Edinburgh triumph over Glasgow in  the 1872 Cup.

Then off to Keswick for New Year rescuing a damsel in distress by taking Miriam's passport down so that she'd get off to the snow with her auntie and others.

Stayed up till midnight and watched this wonderful firework display coming, courtesy of BBC iPlayer from Edinburgh.  Imagine being too idle to nip out to Keswick Market Square to rejoice with the populace there.

A few episodes of Armando Ianucci's Veep were great as was a wee fresh air stroll in the beautiful though occasionally spooky forest while Connor was hurtling himself downhill on a bike.

Then a week in Gran Canaria enjoying some winter sun as well as some winter mist, winter cold and winter rain.  They have fascinating climates these Canaries where within a few miles of one another are all year round sun-soaked beaches and well watered lush forests. Here are two contrasting views from different parts of the island.

Back in Blighty things got going in their usual manner, wine-tasting, Dunedin Band, U3A Italian, fascinating university lunch and talk about robotics, Pride and Prejudice (sort of) at The Lyceum (a fun-filled evening) and rehearsals for a show I was cast in before Christmas.  It's a Goldoni farce called The Venetian Twins in a scottified version that romped through The Lyceum four or five years ago.  If we do it well enough it will be very funny.  It's very much a comedy, indeed a farce centred on the situations of mistaken identity that arise from the simultaneous presence in Verona of the twins who don't know that each other is there and their interactions with the other characters.  As is fitting in an 18th century story the servants tend to be wiser than their masters.  There are three deaths but as my character says "you can't have everything" and all ends happily with no fewer than three weddings.