Not New Year reso-glue-tions.

I'm still not setting up a load of goals I won't stick to just because we've reached a mark on an artificial measuring device (what next, controlling my life by when the milometer on the car rolls over another 1000 miles?), but this is the time when I need to switch from "securely employed by Unipath" to "not employed by anyone, go and find a job". So, a look at habits and some life-style readjustment is needed, including looking at why I have certain bad habits, and how I can tackle the cause.

( rambling and reasoning under here )

So, what reso-glue-tions does that leave me with?

1) Drop all Facebook games but one (to be chosen, but Fairyland or Castle Age look promising).

2) Go to bed at a sensible time, whatever I'm trying to do can be done in half the time in the morning.

3) At least one tidying session per day.

4) Find the Wii Fit, make sure whatever annoying things that make it hard to use are sorted (like, when I start it up, it should just run, I am NOT going to poke through half a dozen unlabelled remote controls to find an unlabelled obscure setting to make it work. If this means the TV no longer defaults to beam CSI or Top Gear repeats into Dave's brain, tough.)

Xmas dinner

Well, a report on the bit of it I did, because it was rather fun.

Copying the description of the Flickr photo over here...

Dinner with the MiL, and she'd asked us to do the starter. Spec: something light, pre-prepared as there won't be any space in the kitchen. So I did bite-size versions of every traditional starter I could come up with, begging the use of the microwave for 30 sec to heat the soup.

Prawn cocktail: one king prawn, blob of seafood sauce, shredded iceberg lettuce, in a "croustade"
Tomato and basil soup in shot glasses.
Smoked salmon on mini blinis, with creme fraiche and dill.
Julienne-cut melon (green and orange) wrapped in parma ham
Chicken liver pate on "toast" (Ryvita Minis), topped with red pepper
Mushrooms stuffed with cream cheese and herbs
Smoked oysters with mature Cheddar on sticks.
Olives on sticks (there was space left on the serving tray)



Yes, naturally, that's soup that starts with tomatoes not a can, pate I made myself (using sherry instead of brandy is the latest variant, and it was nice), the herbs in the cream cheese were from my garden...

It was a good thing that I'd kept it light, because the MiL then produced roast turkey with trimmings and "a few" veg. When doing traditional food, she is an excellent cook, and her status in Overcaterers Anonymous puts mine to shame. I generally stop putting more types of veg on the table when there's no more room (assuming an eight-seater table and five people). She lets us serve the first "round" of veg, then removes the dishes and replaces with a new lot from the hostess trolley. I don't know how many types we had, I ran out of fingers.