I am really looking forward to Xmas this year – not sure exactly why it seems more exciting – I guess it is because we are back living in a place where Xmas actually MEANS something and is celebrated to the hilt. We spent the last five Xmas’s in France and the French don’t do Xmas like they do everywhere else and you don’t see things like nativity scenes decorating the shops because of some stupid law they have about being republicans…

Xmas is big here in Northern Ireland and the city centre is starting to see decorations appear – Tesco is even playing carols already! what I am really looking forward to are the international Xmas markets in Belfast later this month and all the different foods and things you can buy. I am hoping our kitchen will be ready for December but it could turn out that it wont be and that means we might have to have our Xmas dinner at a restaurant somewhere – somehow it does not feel right microwaving a turkey. But there are some things that cannot be let go and that is the Xmas pudding – I am making my own and using my tried and trusted recipe from my Australian Woman’s Weekly Recipe Book that I bought when I was about 18. That book has seen me through many a meal, even though I rarely look at a recipe these days having everything committed to memory, and is actually something of a bible in the kitchens of Aussie women.

I’m off to get some unbleached calico for step one!