That's it. The final organised night of carousing for this holiday season is over. Tonight we journey north to let others entertain us and provide food and drink. Yesterday was our fourth anniversary (paper, scissors, rock, ... ?) and the first one we properly remembered and that was only due to our guests reminding us.

I don't have much to say about the year that has passed. My job changed a bit. My house changed a bit. My relationship with my wife changed a bit. My kids grew up a lot. It's all about inches (it should be centimeters, but the metric system never really caught on around here).You take a couple of steps a day and the next thing you know, you're in a different place. Introspection bedamned.

I finished reading Cold Mountain and there's a passage in it where the main character has picked up some walnuts but hasn't eaten them

... for the more he thought the more he reckoned that the work it would take to break them open would overbalance the sustenance he would get from them ... Yet he didn't throw them out, for he worried that if you put all of life to such a test it would not seem worth living.

I should avoid putting things in my life to this test. It stops me doing anything.

Anyway. Happy new year to you all (all three of you). I don't wish you anything other than I would wish for you at any other time of the year, but it's traditional to articulate it now. So. Health, happiness and cash. Lots of it.

It's linen or silk, apparently.