Fidelity.

To try to shed the parting blues (and because it's time) I got together all the ingredients for this year's Christmas puddings. I have been faithful to the same recipé for 42 years. When my paperback of Robert Carrier's 'great Dishes of the World'bought in the first months of marriage (and browsed daily once I found how much I enjoyed the cooking part of my new life) fell to pieces I found a hardback copy to replace it, but I saved this page, covered with the lemon juice, Old Peculiar and brandy blobs of ages past. It also has notes along the edge giving the halves of quantities because in those early days we ate our Christmas dinner alone, too far away to visit family. I sometimes forgot as I weighed and added that I was halving and that's why I wrote the notes. There were more distraction in those days. This year I once again doubled the quantities given to make enough for all the family who will be present at the meal here in Scotland and those who will not.

I've been more faithful to this recipé than to any friendship or relationship and it has never let me down. Almost 20 years ago when the children went vegetarian I replaced the regular suet with butter and later, when it became available, with vegetarian suet. I think butter did just as well but the puddings were more crumbly in texture. Some years Old Peculiar evaded me and another dark old ale had to be used. Once I found Barley Wine which my landlady of the College years shared with me each evening as we sat in front of her TV. I poured it into the mix in memory of a kindly lady and wished her well, wherever she is now.

Oh dear. I'm getting maudlin. Better get on with the day. Parcels to wrap, books to price. Life goes on.