I do apologise for the tardiness of this blog but the entire month of December was hectic to say the least. I finished my book by my deadline of December 20th, my birthday and also two days before the sun moved out of Sagittarius and into Capricorn. I wanted the force to be with me during the final month of writing! So I finished in the morning and then met some friends at the dam and enjoyed a very jolly birthday indeed!

I was given such a delicious - literally - present from my friends Chris and Florence who came here fromYorkshire some 15 or so years ago. From a recently opened, to great excitement, new shop called The Food Lovers Market they'd purchased a selection of English cheeses which were not previously available here. Wensleydale, Cheshire, Lancashire, crumbly white cheese infused with apricots, a yellow cheese married with port and some matzo crackers to eat with them. A mega, mega, hit! Flo is also a brilliant cook and some weeks ago had made me a present of a jar of her home made piccalli which I opened one night soon after Christmas. It proved to be the undisputed King of Piccalli; I gasped and moaned with pleasure as each mouthful exploded on my tongue. My consciousness expanded as I seduced the stars and married the moon. I experienced ecstacy as I lay in the moonlight. And it was all down to a jar of Flo's home made picccalli!

Chris, her husband had also brought some films for me to watch and as I don't have a television and hadn't seen a film since I was last in London, it was with a sense of great excitement that I climbed into bed with the kids, a tray of cheese, a box of matzos, Flo's piccalli and a glass of the grape and settled down to watch Australia. To say I was blissed out is an understatement; my senses were sated; I glowed with contentment and gleamed with satisfaction and as soon as I've renewed the cheese supply can't wait to repeat the experience! Thank-you Chris and ...read more