The Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles Readalong 2025/6 Part 4

[RainbowZebraWarrior]

Hello all, and welcome to Part 4. We Continue our CC journey. We are almost at the end, as there are only four chapters of the book left, but there will be a year round thread for those who wish to continue.

For anyone who has not already had the pleasure, the annual Nigel Slater Christmas Chronicles read along is a real time annual MN tradition.
The Christmas Chronicles (Notes, stories and 100 essential recipes for midwinter) book began on 1st November.

We continue to read along and comment with the book which is set out in diary form. I will make a post each day (or let you know if there is no entry on a particular day)

For anyone new, (and it's never too late to join in) it's a challenge to see of you can pick up the book as a bargain. Vinted has come up trumps in the past, as has ebay. A rare and precious charity shop find is always a bonus. Don't forget, you can also listen along to Nigel's dulcet tones via Audible.

So, welcome to old friends and new, and don't forget that reading by candle light is particularly enjoyable. Cire Trudon may be one of Nige's candles of choice, but it's somewhat pricey. We don't discriminate against other less expensive brands - even if they are NVN (Not Very Nigel)

Pull up a chair, light a candle, grab a cosy blanket and join in!

Well a happy Monday morning to you all

I am on admin fire this morning
Tax return done - nothing too painful
pile of filing with filing boxes out - needs an overhaul now 17 yr old had NI number, provisional driving licence etc. basically his own nearly grown up file

I have my exercise clothes downstairs, it's time to get back on the treadmill. I do this dumb thing in my brain where I think, I need to get x,y,z done before I can do some exercise and obviously xyz never ends - so I just need to do the exercise first. I used to and it does help. I am out of shape so again just need to build up slowly and see where we are in 3 weeks. Has to be done.

It's the last week of January, Spring will be on it's way very soon, winter hibernating is coming to and end (boo). But must look forward as one can't go back.

Good Morning Nigelistas Lovely to read every ones news, I had a hell of week last week, another one to come😪 Trying not to complain, at least I have a job and I generally enjoy it. The 'New Regime' is working very well and I still have a fair amount of money in the bank, unheard of in January, tbh, I'm rather ashamed of our previous spending, we've had a wonderful time but we really should have been more mindful. Hey Ho, onwards and upwards.

I did hot foot it to TK maxx though in the faint hope of buying a Trudon Candle for £6.99, no such luck, I can't bring myself to light the one DH gave for Christmas, silly I know. @RainbowZebraWarrior You sound just like some lovely talented people I know who seem to get imposter syndrome when pricing their makes, Of course your candles are worth more than £5! They have taken so much time/thought/effort etc, if candle making was so easy we would all be doing it!

And another thing, I'm very envious of those with wonderful hair, mine has always been crappy, very fine and not much of it. I have been bleaching it blonde for years (I'm very fair) I haven't had it done now for about 8 or 9 months and I'm rather pleased with the result, it's becoming a very soft light grey which works well with purple shampoo, it's saving me a fortune, £35 for a cut as opposed to nearly £150 with the colouring. It also looks good when I use red lipsitck😁

Good day to all x Lord this rain 😖

The rain has finally stopped here, and I now have all manner of the usual garden birds at my new feeder. A lovely new Robin is on it now. I don't think I've seen this particular chap before. Too late for the garden bird watch unfortunately.

That cheesecake sounds awesome @PricklyBob

My new stick has just arrived, and I'm over the moon with it. I've been after a light up one for ages, so now I can resume going for evening walks (when the weather is a bit better) with DD. The photo's don't do it justice in the dark; it's called Tiffany as it has a beautiful Tiffany coloured ribbon running through it.

That is snazzy @RainbowZebraWarrior - I had no idea light-up sticks were a thing (except the ornamental Christmas candy canes people sometimes have in their gardens). I hope you have lots of fun with it.

I'm trying to stave off my nerves at the moment, as I have a singing audition later. Dreading it! But it will be over soon, then I can focus on excitement at going to visit dd2 at uni tomorrow. I have booked a very fancy looking Japanese restaurant for lunch, followed by a good rummage around the many excellent charity shops in the area.

Ooh. Good luck with the singing audition and enjoy the Japanese restaurant and charity shop rummage. Do let us know how you get on with the audition!

Good luck, @leporello ! What are you auditioning for? I'm an experienced choral singer, mostly church stuff, but I absolutely loathe and fear auditions, so you have my sympathies.

Japanese food and a charity shop rummage both sound like excellent things to reward yourself with - and of course, spending time with your DD!

Fabulous stick @RainbowZebraWarrior!

Great adminning @frozendaisy

Your hair sounds lovely @thebabessavedme - I'm waiting for my grey to turn a bit whiter before I grow all the dye out.

Good luck with the audition @leporello. I'm with @SqueakyDinosaur - singing under pressure is scary! I'm sure you will be wonderful though.

It's been a very Mondayish Monday here, very grey and wet, lots of meetings.

Good luck Leperello!
snazzy stick RZW.
The only thing that’s relatively good about my hair is that I’ve no greys yet. But I’m sure they are coming and I hope to just go nicely grey when they do. I think it looks lovely!
Wet and cold on the farm today. January is a struggle. We have done some fun emergency situation training today where I got the co farmers to think of an emergency they may encounter on the farm, act it out for the others to guess and then we discussed what to do. They enjoyed it and got us out of weeding a very muddy pumpkin patch! We also made some Rice Krispie cakes. I’m very over winter now…
Home to a superlative dinner of a sort of bang bang salmon Poke bowl I cobbled together and excited for the children to come home as I managed to get us Harry Styles tickets and they will go bananas!

@frozendaisyIm a bit the same with exercise (which I don’t like, but I know I am better for) and also, stupidly, for art and craft activities that I do like. I can’t allow myself to just spend time on them unless I’ve done everything else first, which means I almost never do. So silly.
We didn’t have rain today but it was very damp and Januaryish, with the damp really making it feel cold to the bone. I didn’t have any work to do so I made myself go for a run as I’ve got physio tomorrow and she will ask, then met a friend for lunch and a good old moan! Then I too had a poke around some charity shops, didn’t find anything very interesting but bought DD1 and DD2 a book each (no point for DD3, she’s 16 and doesn’t read), then the garden centre for some seed compost. Now sitting with the fire lit - it must be windy out there tonight as it is roaring - waiting for DH to hunt and gather pizzas from the van that comes to the village on a Monday.

@PricklyBob snap! My mother also thinks my curls are making me look untidy. She has form for this though. A few years ago she had an issue with some gorgeous pink suede shoes I loved in a shop. I wasn't planning to buy shoes until then...

@RainbowZebraWarrior fabulous stick!

Your good wishes did the trick - I passed the audition .

Only a local choral society, but it's the 'good' local choral society, so I'm chuffed.

Hurrah! Well done you.

I'm another curly girl although my hairdresser curls it with the straighteners these days as its just frizz otherwise. It used to be quite ringletty if I used the curly girl methods. All my mother used to say was "I wish you would brush your hair!" Thankfully she knows better these days than to comment on my appearance as i told her in no uncertain terms that it was really bloody rude.

I don't know if anyone used to buy it here, but I've talked about it with other folk on other threads. Waitrose Keralan style chicken fry is back after they discontinued it a couple of years ago.

Anyway. Best get up. Good luck to all under weather warnings. Not sure what to expect here. We are sort of on the edge of a snow warning.

Ah superb Leporello-that’s fantastic.
your pink shoes and Mum situation are very much something that would happen here @petitpasta in fact some of my best purchases have been made that way. My mum loathed it when I used to have very blonde highlights. At one point looking back I almost went full platinum. Funny how these relationships go sometimes. I’m feeling very resentful towards my mum at the minute-she didn’t behave well when my Dad was dying (though of course she was herself upset and grieving) and it’s bought up a lot of other things about our relationship that haven’t been positive. I probably need some therapy or something rather than just talking to the dog about it, as I do love her and she will need help soon which it will fall to me to give. At the moment I just feel vaguely cross with her, probably not entirely fairly.
We used to have a wood fired pizza van in our old village @CeliathebansheeIt was our weekly treat. I miss living there to my very core sometimes. I don’t think I’ll ever find a house and a place that I love so much again, so magical was it to me. (To everyone else it was probably a confusion of a cottage with a holey roof in a village that was hard to get to, but it just felt instantly like home to me in a way nowhere else ever has).
Woken by rain lashing the window again. My commute will be dark and treacherous and my waterproofs are still wet from yesterday in places. Staying in bed with the Dogs all tucked up seems very appealing right now!
A warm, dry, happy Tuesday to all….

Yup, lashing rain, check, howling wind, check. I'm waiting for a taxi to the station - would usually walk as it's only 20 minutes today but not today...

Still excited to see DD, no weather is going to keep me away . Wishing a safe and pleasant day to all.

20 minutes away, not 20 minutes today

loving the snazzy stick @RainbowZebraWarrior perfect for this appalling weather. Not sure how I’m even getting the few steps to the garden office for this morning‘s client but it should at least be toasty in there.

Well done @leporello What sorts of things will you sing? I’ve stopped attending our church choir for now as I’m finding it really frustrating. Our choirmaster is lovely, but the outcome is out of time and out of tune.

another bucket of tea and then I’ll brave the weather.

I have been a bit AWOL, and have had so many thoughts as I have read all your updates. I probably won’t remember them, but…

The comfort for me hasn’t actually been Nigel’s writing, but you guys. Reading about your lives, your triumphs and challenges, the beautiful things you notice and share, has been a steady thread of mindfulness over the darkest months. I have been attempting to record some wins, mainly little ones about healthy habits, but I’m not the most consistent attentive person. I have been a bit busy the last couple of weeks, and my pot plants are desperate! They must be my no1 job today.

I loved the article about Nigel’s home, and your comments about needing to accommodate other people in ours resonated! If I make a space empty, DH fills it. My life sometimes seems like a continuous pushback against hoarding. If I die first, the DSs will have a full on job keeping him in line, I think.

Hurrah for the grey and the curls! And hurrah for it also being fashionable at the moment, so it looks even better!

As for mothers, @piscofrisco , I realised recently that I was in some ways being hard on mine. Sort of. She’s been so relentlessly negative and critical, that I hear everything she says that way when sometimes I don’t think it is. I’m extremely defensive around her, and probably take what she says as being worse than intended… but that is as a result of her training, so I don’t totally blame myself! I’m trying harder to give her the benefit of the doubt I usually employ when people seem a bit rude. It has been hard to let go of the anger about Dad’s last year, but one thing I found helpful was to remember that Dad’s priority was Mum. He wouldn’t have thanked us for upsetting her in his defence, and he chose her consistently for 60 odd years. He lived and then died according to that choice he repeatedly made. 💐

On a more cheerful note, the reason I’ve been distracted has been knitting and sewing. I’m developing my knitting consistency with baby bonding squares for the hospital, and the Saturday sewing class has resulted in a bag, and coming soon- a waistcoat. And a bit of exhaustion. But it’s worth it! I love the productivity of it.

Coffee sack bag with a gorgeous stripy lining- and it has pockets!
Love your stripy stick, RZW! You’ll be a local feature, out and about with that!

Love the coffee bag @PrizedPickledPopcorn - great recycling!

Well done @leporello - I've always been too scared to go for any of the choirs that ask for an audition, so think you're very brave! I'm missing choir but still not quite up to evening activities yet.

Nigel definitely has very specific circumstances that allow him to have a home like that - I don't have any other people to contend with but I rent my house so there's a limit to what I can do/ change. And I don't have Nigel's income, obviously! I like thinking about what elements of that sort of home I can achieve though - my living room is always tidy (the odd stray cat toy aside), comfy, nicely-lit, smells good - people often comment that it feels like a nice space to come in to. These people haven't seen the current chaos upstairs, mind you.

I sympathise over difficult mothers - I have limited contact with mine but before things got that 'serious' she used to do things like criticise my hair dyeing too - and then copying it not that long after!

The weather is truly disgusting this morning. I'm wrapped up in a pile of blankets eating overnight oats and thinking about starting work.

Crikey @PrizedPickledPopcornthars described my relationship and thoughts about my Mum exactly. As the kids would have it, I feel seen!
also I love your coffee bag.
Enjoy your time with DD Leporello. I miss DD2 so much that I could easily aqua plane down to Bristol to see her but she is busy and happy and probably wouldn’t thank me for it at the minute.

I may well pass her in the street @piscofrisco, as that's exactly where I am - sending good vibes to all likely youngsters who cross my path.

Getting here was a challenge - all trains cancelled so the railway company finally stumped up for a taxi after an hour standing on a wet cold platform listening to uninformative announcements. But! I made it.

We're doing Mozart's Requiem this term at choir plus pieces by Stanford and Rachmaninov. My church choir is very much as described by @Bimblesalongalthough our organist/musical director does his absolute best - but I am relishing more challenging rep.

And I meant to add @PrizedPickledPopcornsummed up my feelings about this thread better than I ever could - lovely words.