Seeing in the New Year

After seeing in the New Year, I'd fully intended to have a long lie in yesterday, but at 7am my mind awoke alive with things it felt must be done. So I began the first day of 2007 doing laundry, cleaning and hoovering the house, creating a checklist of all the things still needed to be done for the wedding and putting it up on the fridge, typing invitation inserts with lists of hotels and a map of directions, writing invitation cards and addressing envelopes, and writing our vows with M. By midday, I was ready for an invigorating walk around Finsbury Park in the crisp, clear sunshine, and a trip to the local grocery and butcher shops, where we stocked up on provisions.

We relaxed at home for the rest of the day and did nothing. Sipping hot mugs of green tea, we snuggled up in the sofa together to watch one of our favourite movies, In The Mood For Love. Then M prepared roast lamb with rosemary and roast potatoes and tomatoes for an early dinner, followed by baked pears, and we spent the rest of the night quietly chatting and reading.

A productive and yet relaxing start to the year.

Today, I didn't have time to think about being back in the office as the day was crammed with work. I finally left at 8 and now I'm home preparing lamb with potatoes and spinach cooked in Bengali five spice (whole cumin, whole fennel, whole fenugreek, whole nigella and whole black mustard seeds), turmeric and crushed red chillis.