2016 – A View From The Lanterne Rouge

I’m quite pleased to see the back of 2016, but for what it’s worth here are some pics for my ‘best of’ compendium for the year …

Best new experience of the year:

A bread-making course at ‘Bread Ahead’ (Borough Market, London). Just me and a bunch of Chelsea girls loafing around …

20160424_100946 — You know you’re in trouble when your sourdough goes a-rye

Best ice-cream of the year:

Beating Zanoni’s of Vienna by a short head was the first ice-cream pit stop of the year.

Best blog idea of the year:

A limerick a week. How else can one show one’s proficiency at celebrating #TeamDemelza in verse with an anapestic meter and strict rhyme scheme?

20161006_182406 — Why a limerick? Because ‘There was once a man who wrote poems …’

Best cycle ride of the year:

Finally, at the age of 24, Firstborn scraped her knee whilst participating in a physical outdoor activity. Her mother was so proud 🙂

20160719_135823 — Blood, sweat and gears …

Best health tip of the year:

… and from the Graun: Bike rides and hot baths – a fitness match made in heaven and it’s official!

rps20160821_200913 — Oh dear, I’m in hot water again!

Best impression of a marine mammal of the year:

Management performing dolphinarium tricks (we’d boycotted Marineland Mallorca whilst on holiday) with Firstborn as the ‘trainer’.

bestphoto_20160621_170848_4 — Does this trick make my bum look big?

Best meal of the year:

The most hotly contested category of all. It could easily have been the baked brie at the Crofters Bistro, Rosemarkie, or the scallops at the Applecross Inn or the mega-breakfast at the Hatton Locks café or the liver and bacon at the Tigh an Eilean Hotel, Shieldaig. But by a country mile, ‘hats off’ please to the Gasthaus Ubl in Vienna for keeping traditional Austrian cuisine alive and at its best. Roast pork, sauerkraut and dumplings like my Grandma used to make. Großartig!

20161104_191201 — “Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien a ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien a retrancher” – Antoine de saint-Exupery.

Best sausage of the year:

Another Viennese delight – mit brot und senf, of course

20161101_202159 — Absolutely the wurst experience that we had on holiday …

Best new toy of the year:

A micro-campervan. According to the Daily Mash, “as a form of accommodation it is slightly more expensive than The Savoy“, but I think it’s cool.

Priscilla at rest (at the Clootie Well) — As aficionados of the movie ‘Priscilla; Queen of the Desert’ will tell you, calling it Priscilla certainly puts the ‘camp’ into ‘campervan’

Best fresh air of the year:

As sensitive bio-indicators of atmospheric pollution, these lichens growing on a wooden bench seat next to the main road through Lochcarron attest to the freshness of its air. Unusually for Scotland the air was still on the day this picture was taken, making it the best fresh air of the year!

Best concert of the year:

No real competition here. Bellowhead on a Saturday night at the London Palladium during the band’s farewell tour. Simply awesome.

20160423_190809 — Folk music ‘rebooted’ or as I would say,”traditional music given a kick up the a**e!”

Best offspring pose of the year:

Firstborn and The Tall Child ‘having a moment’.

20161001_183026 — I never called you a mushroom. I said you were a fun guy!

And finally …

Best roof picture of the year:

Eavesdropping from the top of Stephansdom, Vienna

20161103_140035 — … a bad case of shingles?

… I share a lot in common with Victoria Coren Mitchell’s view of the Mother-of-all-awful-years.

But awful year or not, at least we can be amused by her source of inspiration (or, wearing my current Grinch persona, we can once Christmas is over!) …

Postscript#1: Unsurprisingly, I don’t really have much in common with Coren Mitchell. After all, she’s an elite poker player, successful writer, highly amusing TV personality and, ahem, muse to men-of-a-certain-age, and all that I can do well is to count fish (commercial fishermen would disagree) and I haven’t actually done that since about 2005!

Postscript#2: In the Observer article on which she tweets, she cites Victoria Wood’s death as the saddest of the year: “… take your pick whose fall upset you most … for me the deepest cut was Victoria Wood, that sparkling creature of joy and laughter“. I agree, recalling from posts passim: “There has been a heavy toll taken of performers recently, but, for me, hers is the most egregious loss. Too soon and too young. A genuine laugh-out-loud writer and a comedian …“. (Of course thousands will have read Coren Mitchell’s comment on Wood; 11 people read mine – and that includes the author – so not much in common there either).

Tag: 2016

That was my year that was

Other than giving birth …