The chocolate truffles of 2018

There was a time long ago when the news on the radio or TV was occasionally good news. But there’s not been a lot of good news in 2018. My latest nightmare scenario is a rerun Brexit referendum, which Remain wins by 51% to 49. Picture the atmosphere after that one.

So, for the last post of this year (don’t expect one next Friday) I thought I’d reach into the past year for a few little things that have happened in my life to make me happy.

Feel free to reply with some of yours…

• In March, realising that I’d been married for twenty-five years to a man so much in tune with me that we didn’t even have to discuss whether or not to celebrate by organising a huge party;
• Discovering that although I will never be able to do Sudoku puzzles, there are little things called Futoshiki that I quite like;
• The 17^th-century prose and poetry (some of it recently and improbably discovered) of Thomas Traherne, a man overwhelmed with the sheer God-given privilege of being alive. (“You never Enjoy the World aright, till the Sea it self floweth in your Veins, till you are Clothed with the Heavens, and Crowned with the Stars: and perceive your self to be the Sole Heir of the whole World: and more then so, becaus Men are in it who are every one Sole Heirs, as well as you. Till you can sing and Rejoyce and Delight in GOD, as Misers do in Gold, and Kings in Scepters, you never Enjoy the World”;
• People saying nice things about “The Tenth Province of Jaryar”. And the fun of working on “The Servant’s Voice;”
• In May, stepping down as churchwarden, and noticing the way the church did not fall apart;
• June holiday in Northern Italy: the mountains! The wildflowers!
• Reading a host of nice books with my tiny reading group, including “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine”, “The Left Hand of Darkness” (about time) and “Imperium”;
• The moment in the cinema when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) said “We have a Hulk”, and I knew how much I was going to enjoy “Avengers: Infinity War”;
• In July, the installation of a new “set-box” which meant that we can now do catch-up TV and record things like normal people! As a result the family has become obsessed with US sit-com “Brooklyn 99”, which was cancelled this year and then re-commissioned due to entirely justified outcry;
• Adding a new item to my list of “Pointless Lists I Have Memorised”: the tram stops all along the line from Toton Lane to Hucknall;
• In December, my friend Vicky’s Facebook Advent calendar consisting entirely of pictures of feet in festive socks.

Thank you, God, for all the above things, and also for the loveliest family I could ever want.

What are your snippets of joy?

Until 4th Jan, Merry Christmas from the Fairly Festive PPI Blogger