Jacket potatoes with cheese and salad; chocolate pudding and custard

A short post tonight as it’s late, I’m tired (no seeing in the new year at midnight for me), and writing while answering questions from Only Connect while its on tv means I will do a worse job of both. I’m joking, of course: questions on Only Connect are almost impossible for the average person to answer in any circumstances. Richard Osman’s House of Games, on a bit earlier in the evening, is easier and was rather more fun as there was nothing for tonight’s carer, the lovely S, to do so she sat down and quizzed with me for half an hour. I consider that an excellent use of her time, personally, as mum still loves watching quiz shows but is rarely now able to join in with answering the questions, so having someone else to bounce answers off was more enjoyable than it had any right to.

Before that was dinner, of pre-cooked jacket potatoes (Bannisters brand): I got them to complete a multi-buy offer on our last grocery order, and mum liked them as they’re the perfect size for her small appetite. I thought they were too small, soggy outside and unpleasantly dry and powdery inside, and not enough speedier than cooking a potato from scratch in the microwave to make up for the downsides. That’s a no from me, I’m afraid.

After a suitable pause for reflection and digestion I gave into temptation and microwaved a small chocolate pudding which I ate with custard (plain not chocolate, as I don’t (yet) have any of the latter). The sponge didn’t taste of much but the sauce was chocolatey enough to make up for it, and I enjoyed my bowl of sticky, chocolatey goodness very much.

And that’s that for 2024. Despite the immeasurable joys of Pineapple Sponge, this isn’t a year I’m going to look back on with much fondness. I’m not going to tempt fate by saying something stupid like “2025 can’t be worse, can it?”, picturing 2025 saying “reet pal, hold me beer will ye?”¹, so I’ll just wish everyone a year free of drama and full of precisely as much pudding as you desire.

Happy New Year, everyone. 🎆 ²

1. 2025 has a very bad fake Scottish accent, apparently. ↩︎
2. Probably the only fireworks most of the UK will see tonight, given the weather warning covering the country that has seen many celebrations cancelled on safety grounds. ↩︎