Each year, in the UK, we have a New Year honours list. This year I’ve decided to make my own list.

Top of the list goes to… no surprises, my neighbours. Christmas Eve, around 8pm, they had visitors. They were noisy all night and kept my son awake though I did manage to fall asleep from sheer exhaustion. They woke me about 4 times in the night, generally being raucous. People went out around 5am, and the house was quiet as the grave for the next 24 hours, which was a nice change. Friday night someone went in after 11.30pm and slammed their door so hard, it quite literally shook the house. Next morning, I checked our windows to ensure no glass had been broken; honestly, it was that loud! Yes, I’m loving this multicultural diversity we have, and I feel very enriched by our Hungarian neighbours. Not!

The Inland Revenue come a very close second. I did a short stint of work as regular readers will know and was given a new tax code for my sins. I earned less than £150 yet my tax code has altered to the detriment of £900! My tax free allowance has gone down by this amount and I hope once they realise that I’m no longer employed they will change it back again. I can only assume this was ‘emergency’ tax? I’ll wait until the end of January to see if I get a new notification, then I’ll have to chase it up. What a drag. The notification was received on Christmas Eve. A Happy freaking Christmas to them too! LMAO

Next is people who make duvet covers. All my son’s single covers have poppers which are great, all my double covers have buttons. Due to peripheral neuropathy, and some arthritis, I find buttons often very hard to do up. If you don’t fasten the cover, the duvet tries to ‘escape’ the cover and you end up with nothing in the top of the cover, and a lump of duvet around your feet. Not good.

Jam jars and sauce bottle lids that are put on by machine. I can’t be the only one who has difficulty opening them? I often resort to placing the jar in the sink, carefully pouring boiling water on the lid (something to do with expansion) then wearing washing up gloves to finally remove said lid. Yay for machinery and automated factories.

People who park very close to my car even when the street is virtually empty. I’ve often considered getting a sign that states: Caution! Female driver. However, I don’t wish to alienate other female drivers. It’s daft though, and totally unnecessary.

Potential employers who don’t let you know that you weren’t successful in your application. I have 2 in the pipeline, though having not heard from either, I guess I can assume I wasn’t considered. Worse, possibly, my son recently had a no thanks from an application he’d submitted, 9 months ago. On the case then…

Acne medication that ruins towels. I’ve recently bought new hand towels due to my son’s acne medication staining his. The dark towels have pinkish stains on them, and the white ones look grubby from being stained. I’ve washed them in special detergent, but they still look awful, so they’ll be put in the recycling bin. He’s now used up the nasty staining stuff and has stopped using anything on his face, at my suggestion, and lo and behold his acne is clearing up! Just wish he’d done this before I spent over £4 on cleansing lotion for him. I never wash my face with soap or lotions, never have done; I just splash it with water whilst in the shower, and I never had teenage acne.

That’s enough lol. Christmas beef was nice, and we had 2 meals each from it though binned more than I would like due to it having quite a lot of fat and gristle at the one end. A boneless rib, and not cheap, though I wouldn’t buy it again. The meal itself was great with stuffing, pigs in blankets, and plenty of vegetables. Nice.

My friend texted to say he was alone this year which makes no sense when considering he has a wife and 3 children. He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t ask, though I wonder if they went away and he didn’t want to. As last year, he further stated he’d bought us a card and a present, though hadn’t got around to sending them. He makes me laugh…

The street has been gloriously free of traffic, this should last a few more days, then it’ll be back to normal. It has been nice though to pop to the shops and not worry about parking close enough to unload shopping. Parking 2 streets away, and dragging back a week’s shopping is no fun, I can tell you. I’m going out today, Sunday, to get the dog another sack of food whilst I can still, hopefully, guarantee parking near the house. I simply can’t carry a 15kg sack of dog food any distance. I know, I’m weak lol. Even my son can’t carry it too far. Whilst out I’ll get the ingredients to make chocolate brownies. We haven’t had much dessert lately as most are too big for just 2 of us and too costly, though some did look very nice. I wish they’d make small versions of Christmas goodies for those of us on our own, or who have a small family.

Oh, I did a little ‘sales’ shopping and bought my son a breadknife and his own cast iron pan for when he leaves, also a small roasting tin. I bought myself a similar tin, though it was a set of 2, and heavy gauge. Not the quality I would usually buy, but they were 50% off so I treated us. I also bought myself a new knife; I can’t help myself… I’m addicted… lol.

Hope you all had a nice Christmas, and although it’s a couple of days away, I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year. Hope it’s a good one for all of us.