Taza adecuada para una chica de Yorkshire adecuada

New State of Alarm day 61.

I was looking back at last year's pre- and post-Xmas blips and remembering what an awful time it was for me. The details are not documented here, but the entries I made reminded me of what was not said. Little did I know most of the following year would be lived locked down and in fear of going out. I have not fulfilled my new year resolutions hopes of improving my physical and mental health, have had no paid work since March, and have not used all the enforced free time to learn a new skill, do some drawing and painting, play the keyboard, get fit, finally come to grips with Spanish, become a Photoshop whizz, or anything useful at all. I have however read a zillion books thanks to an unlimited Kindle subscription. This is quite n achievement for me, as for a few years after my brain explosion I was unable to read more than a sentence at a time without forgetting it. Now I can read whole books before forgetting them - progress of sorts.

The year, which started badly, has certainly delivered on its early promise of more to come. We're currently in the midst of a polar storm, so it's excessively windy and very cold, especially in an unheated house with a number of draughty windows and doors. On the plus side I managed to cook a decent Christmas dinner single-handed (I'm usually not the one to cook as considered a liability) without burning anything including myself, and the dogs were particularly impressed with the pigs in blankets if not the sprouts.

Turning to the subject of this blip, this is one of the gifts in #2D's parcel earlier in the month. As well as some exclusive toiletries in my favourite brand (not available here) there was this lovely mug chosen by her partner, a sensitive soul who has an uncanny instinct for what I like. I was so moved by this I did shed a tear or two. All these years later I still love my Yorkshire roots. The packaging stated that it was from a Staffordshire pottery based in Burslem, where most of Mum's family lived and worked, so that was another link to bygone times and people long gone.

I made the mistake of watching Hurt, forgetting that this really is too painful to watch more than once in a decade, which also made me cry, and some vintage footage of Pink Floyd in Pompeii, meant to take away the taste of that sad video, just made me unbearably nostalgic for my teens so long ago. I was quite a troubled teenager, but at least there was the prospect of a life ahead with limitless possibilities; I had an ambition to create something that would outlast me and signify that I had lived - a book, a painting, a piece of music. Although I dabbled in all those things, I never did achieve that type of immortality, but in another way I did, by having and raising four wonderful kids, who in turn have passed on that errant Annie gene to their own offspring. Maybe at least one of them will realize my teenage ambitions with much more talent than I ever had.

The day did not end on this sad and pensive note, as I chose to lighten the mood by rewatching the wonderful The Big Lebowski.

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners."