I won’t even try the new year, new me thing because 2026 started in a classic truly madly ordinary traditional way.
Should I start with the dogs rolling on a massive poo to welcome the new year? I actually haven’t seen them rolling, and I didn’t see the big mountain of poo, but the smell and the colour they had on them when back were unequivocal, and by the amount of brown substance they were carrying on their fur, just freshly washed a few days earlier, must have been massive. I thought horse poo in the beginning, but when the following day they had the very same encounter again and with the very same results, (except their coats were only freshly washed the day before this time) I decided it must have been either the product of a Grisley bear, an entire herd of horses after a rough new years eve party, or Vecna’s last despicable action on our world ( and believe me: It was despicably nasty).
The new year was also welcomed by a heavy drop in temperature and so instead of a white Christmas, we had a white(ish) new year. Delightful to see if only our radiators would not stop working right right on the first day of a forecasted week if mnus temperatures. And our plumber is away……
Who was not away instead and came as promised on the second day of the new year was the satellite man. We can now finally watch all the TV channels without interruptions or glitches. And if we stick to the first floor of the house or the bathrooms upstairs, we can do it in the comfort of a warm room too.
Till the plumber comes, hopefully tomorrow, we only use the bedrooms strictly to sleep and we make sure the journey into the bed and under the cover is as quick as humanly possible.
Because my side of the bed is closer to the ensuite’s door, I tried to practice a routine to jump from the bathroom straight into the bed. It didn’t work. My legs are too short, and my athletic skills are definitely the same crap ones as last year exactly like my clumsiness and the only thing I obtained was to trip and break a mirror.
Now, I am “scaramantic” but not at all superstitious, ( a difference only known to Italians probably) but I must admit that, if the last couple of days’ happenings had followed a different timeframe, even if the mirror was a small one, I would have wondered though!
But as it didn’t, and I am still as optimistic as last year, I can only smile at this bumpy start of the new year believing it can only improve😉
P.S
A little business disclosure now: Due to the holidays break the January edition of reading with Ortensia will be out on the second Friday of the month and so will be slightly delayed the monthly newsletters too.
