New Year's Day

Last night we had a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner at home. Gavin and Luke prepared the meal - well it was just a few finishing touches and plating it up as the Dine at Home dinner was almost fully prepared using the sous vide method and so all you needed to do was gently warm up the vacuum bags of food . Adam acted as sommelier. The boys gave Gavin an at-home wine tasting kit for Christmas, so last night was a good time to do the wine tasting over dinner. I don't drink wine so I was more than happy to stick with the champagne :) The food was outstanding, just as good as being in the restaurant, and everyone else enjoyed the wines very much. We paced the evening so that we finished shortly before midnight, when our neighbours went crazy with fireworks which unsettled poor Xena. I have added a collage of portraits from the evening.

At long last we woke up to a bright day - blue skies and very mild, it is even considered warm, at a temperature of 16C which is the highest temperature at this time of year for 100 years.

We were all a bit tired from last night but were up quite early as we left home by 10am to drive to London to the Natural History Museum where we had tickets to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. It was a good day to go - we found parking quite easily near the museum, and the exhibition was quiet. Outside the NHM there is the annual ice rink and carousel - the people were skating in pools of water as the ice was melting in these mild temperatures. The exhibition was excellent as always, with some inspiring and thought provoking photos - as usual none of us liked the winning choices.

After the exhibition we walked to a Lebanese restaurant nearby that we used to frequent quite regularly many years ago - it looks like a greasy spoon diner but the food is authentic and delicious. 

While we were in London, L the dog sitter came and took Xena out for a very long walk and she had got home shortly before we arrived back, so that was also a good day for her.

Although we wore masks all the time while we were in London, Adam (whose research is in infection and immunity) believes they are not very effective at all at in preventing Covid from spreading (unless they are custom fitted N95 surgical masks) and he thinks there is merit in using an iodine spray as per this medical report.  He has bought iodine and made up the right solution in nasal spray bottles so when we got home a few of us used some - crickey, it sure stings your nasal passage, makes your eyes water and I cannot see any virus surviving that!! It was worth a try, it cannot do any harm and who knows, it may work?