A belated Happy Christmas to you all! I’m writing this on Boxing Day while Ginge assembles a cardboard model of the Empire State Building. I bought it for him, so I can’t even look upon the scene with a glint disapproval in my eye (although we’ve just had a narrow escape with some superglue…).

I hope you had all had a wonderful time and that Father Christmas brought you everything that you wished for. I had a total of zero running gifts (which is exactly the number that I asked for as my running drawer is permanently on the cusp of having to implement a “one in-one out” policy –  all I ever do to resolve this is squish things down a bit more). What the big beardy one did bring me was a copy of Dan Lepard’s latest book Short and Sweet. Edd Kimber’s The Boy Who Bakes and a rather nifty cake knife and slice set. In a slightly tangential way, this is all good running incentive as I may have to resort to marathon training to offset the calories of all the goodies that have already caught my eye.

I also received this:

"Onward + upward to Janathon" - thanks Mum...

It’s worrying how Janathon seeps into every nook and cranny of your life. Ah well. I suppose this means that it’s definitely time to dust off the old Rocher-o-Meter…