Thursday 25th December 2025

Christmas Day.

Peace and goodwill to all of mankind.

As I have said before, I have no family left and Jools's family is pretty much all away or won't leave their house for the duration.

However, Sean and Ange agreed to come round to share in our bounty on the Big Day, so all to play for.

With the gym closed, I laid in to quarter past seven, and felt much better for it.

We had coffee, breakfast. Before I got started on Christmas lunch.

Potatoes to be peeled and soaked to remove starch. Beef removed from the fridge to bring it to room temperature.

Through the morning was split between reading old blog posts, and doing a bit more of Christmas dinner prep.

I heated both ovens up at quarter to midday, with the beef going in at quarter past midday, and the boiled, drained and dried potatoes going in quarter of an hour later.

Vegetables were prepped and so ready for steaming when the time came.

Soon the kitchen smelled of roasting beef, making us hungry.

Sean and Ange arrived just before one. I poured drinks and went back to the finishing touches in the kitchen.

At half one the beef was done, so the vegetables were put on and the pigs in blankets cooked in the air fryer.

The final act was to make the gravy with juices from the beef and the last of the stock I made back in September, kept frozen for this very occasion.

It all came together at two. I dished up with help from Jools. For the most part it had been stress free due to good planning.

Two mouthfuls in, I realised the pigs in blankets were still in the airfryer, so got them out and put two on each of the towering plates.

Cheers.

And dear readers, it beat me. First time not being able to finish Christmas dinner. Maybe it was the extra pigs in blanket, or the extra crispy roast potato.

So, I took to the sofa while we talked, and I broke out the Vin Santo for Sean to try.

They left at five, so Jools had done much of the washing up, helped with the last bits and pieces.

We needed no supper.

We sat down to watch the Christmas edition of Gone Fishing, then after scouring the i-player, I found Get Carter, a film I had never seen!

So, not very festive, but a good film, more as a time capsule from industrial Newcastle, Sunderland and Blyth, lots of great industrial cityscapes, and shots inside grim bars and clubs, making it all seem a world away and seedy at the same time.

And the film carries on to completion never once addressing how Geordie Jack Carter had a flawless Cockernee accent. No one seemed to notice.