I volunteered to cook Christmas dinner this year. This news was met with a mixture of incredulity and disbelief from the ten guests. My son-in-law was convinced that timings would go awry and that we would be sitting down for lunch quite late in the day. Quite honestly, I had no track record to disprove his belief. Far from it. This was the first time in living memory that I had taken on this task. And here I was attempting a solo endeavour.
My preparations consisted mainly in binge watching previous episodes of MasterChef. This was not as daft as it sounds. As the contestants went through various rounds you could see who was going to get through and who would fail. There were a few generic reasons that people failed. The key one in my eyes was failing to prepare and plan properly. The objective of most exercises was to deliver a hot plate of food and for all the components to come together at the same time. How hard could it be?
I grabbed my notebook and scribbled down the ingredients and how long it would take to prepare and cook each part. Then I set myself the time that I would be plating up. With each ingredient I then worked back to set the time that I would need to start preparing it. I kicked off first with Mary Berry’s recipe for red cabbage. It needed 4 hours cooking time, with about 15-20 minutes additional preparation time. Each component then got prepared at the appropriate time. It was like a military operation. I even had time to pop along to an early morning communion service at church.
To everyone’s surprise, not least mine, we were sitting down to Christmas lunch on time. The presentation was nowhere near MasterChef standard, but the process worked, and everything was on the plate and at a reasonable temperature. Having said all that, the effort wasn’t really a solo exercise. Jacki’s input was essential. With all the experience she has, she was very involved with the planning and kept a monitoring eye on proceedings. As I was scratching my head trying to figure out how to get everything in the oven, she dropped in the suggestion to use the slow cooker for the red cabbage. She also prepared and served the starter.
Another Christmas present I received (see last week’s blog) was a recipe book of 500 Casserole Dishes. Page 240 had a recipe for leftover turkey casserole. So, guess what we were eating on Boxing Day. It was quick and easy, but tasty.
One of our values as a family is hospitality. Φιλοζενια (Philoxenia) literally means love for strangers. Romans 12 verse 13 says that to live out our Christian faith we should be ‘given to hospitality’. The word he uses is Philoxenia.
My Mum and Dad were very good at this, and we often had many people for Sunday lunch. To be honest, we are not as good as we want to be. But it is an aspiration that we do better. I have had an apron made up with the Greek word emblazoned across the chest, as a reminder of the value. I can recall being on the receiving end of other people’s hospitality and it really is a blessing.
Getting back into routine after the Christmas festivities is hard. I’m not sure that new year resolutions work for me. Its just not how things are achieved. Its good to have dreams and aspirations, but concrete steps are required. I might want to play a musical instrument or speak a foreign language, but if I don’t build a plan to gain the skill and regularly invest time in practising, it’s not going to happen. And that’s where its hard. Establishing the right routines and activities requires commitment and self-discipline.
Involving others is a good way to get motivated. Over the Christmas period I had a couple of times when I met up with my old brass band, to play carols with them. I have now rejoined them for regular weekly practise after a hiatus of 5 or 6 years. There were nine of us this last week, and we had two hours of solid practise. It was great meeting up with both old friends and new players. There were two of us on Eb Bass, two cornets, two euphoniums, a baritone, a tenor horn and a trombone. We played a mixture of hymns and marches followed by a cornet duet called Spanish Fiesta by Donald Phillips, which has been arranged for brass band by Darrol Barry. Black Dyke Band have made a definitive recording of it on YouTube if you are interested. It cracks along at 140-144 beats per minute and our two cornets made a pretty good fist of it. Their close harmony worked well, and the other members of the band applauded their performance at the end. We finished with A Cambrian Suite, which starts with the tune played by the Basses, so no pressure there.
Gratitude is another motivating force. Last year gratitude got me around a half marathon course, and I lost a stone in weight. Jacki’s recovery is ongoing. Gradually her strength and stamina are recovering, and I continue to be grateful and believe that she will see a full recovery. On impulse I entered next October’s Bournemouth half marathon soon after completing last year’s race. I only gave myself 8 week’s preparation time last year and was overweight and unfit when I started training. If I start training in mid-July and keep reasonably fit in the meantime, I should be able to improve on my 2023 time – we’ll see.
Every morning I jot down 3 things in my journal of things I am grateful for. Being able to write this blog is one thing that has regularly featured in my list. I enjoy the writing. It can be a struggle to start writing the next blog having just posted an update on a Monday, but it has been a catalyst for conversations and has clarified my thinking in areas which may have been a little vague.
Hope is a powerful motivator. Not wishful thinking, but a certain hope. We live in a messed-up world, full of injustice, suffering and pain. It doesn’t require more than a cursory glance at a newspaper or news website to see examples of how widespread this is. But hope grounded in the character of God, the promises in his word and the historical death and resurrection of Jesus brings transformation.
And finally, getting outdoors is good for one’s mental health. I remember once carrying out a six-month assignment for an insurance company in London. The office was in a basement and there was no external light. It must have been late 2001, because I remember the extraordinary events at round about lunchtime on September 11th. Much has been said and written on that topic. I don’t wish to add anything, but merely use the event to identify how I know where I was. During the following winter months, it was possible to go from one day to the next without seeing the sun, unless I made a point of popping out for a lunchtime walk.
These last few weeks I haven’t got out as much as I would like. Pippin needs his walks, so we had to pop out for that but otherwise the rain and cold have made it particularly uninviting prospect. I was absolutely delighted this week when writing this blog when I noticed a movement in the bush just outside the window next to me. I grabbed my camera, which fortunately was close by and had the telephoto lens attached. I had seen robins and blackbirds earlier, but this was smaller. Possibly a blue tit? No, smaller still. A goldcrest flitting from one branch to another. I got just one or two shots through the grubby window, before it flew off, leaving me with a photo and a smile on my face.
Stephen's Wildlife 