Ne'erday 2021

Writing that title it strikes me how well the abbreviated form of New Year's Day (which is one I've always used) suits what feels like a day of ... well, nothing. I suppose the connotations are with the suggestion that it might mean "Neverday" - a sort of unreal day in which, here in Scotland at least, nothing happened: no shops, no work, little traffic. Rather like lockdown, in fact, though I vividly recall a childhood Ne'erday morning out walking in Glasgow with my father while my mother made a steak pie, watching a still-drunk man in a dark suit doing what nowadays one might describe as a moonwalk along Great Western Road - that kind of walking where the walker is always on the brink of falling forwards, with the feet seeming to slide away backwards ...

But that was then. On this glorious day, the sunshine meant that a walk was a given, and we headed out after coffee to make the most of it. The road down to Loch Striven was busier than usual with walkers and parked cars beside the beach - even deck chairs for one group who may have been having a socially-distanced get-together. However, we found the loch side as quiet as usual until we were about to leave just as the rest of the world arrived. A heron flapped off from the beach below us and off above the trees, but apart from that and a few divers there was little sign of life. My blip isn't very original, but shows one of my favourite bits of the road with the white-topped hills at the head of the loch. 

Then it was home to cook a celebratory meal of venison fillet with roasted root veg and roast potatoes; I found myself regretting the fact that I hadn't made my customary second Christmas pudding, but made do with mini mince pies and the rest of the brandy butter. We got high as kites on Prosecco followed by a lovely red and then some pudding wine, and fell soundly asleep in front of the telly as darkness fell and the moon came out in an outrageously picturesque manner. And then Doctor Who came on ...

And I've avoided the news all day. I know things are bad; I have a horrible feeling the UK government is going to mess up the vaccine programme. But for now I've sunk into a fairly mindless stupor that I'll take to bed shortly. Only trouble is my Italian - I've not done any today yet, and if I don't I'll break my streak which is well into the 200s. Better be revision, I think.

Ciao!