I am so over all the suggestions for what to do to celebrate New Year. I hope I don’t have to listen to too many more ‘If you’re wondering what to do tonight….’ comments over the radio. I never wonder, I will sip champagne, have a delicious meal with my husband and daughter and be totally satisfied that we are together looking out on a safe and peaceful Brisbane.

It must be a fault in my character but if I feel obliged to do something I become unenthusiastic about doing anything. That goes for New Year celebrations. However having found a wilful spider weaving a web around my Christmas Tree I decided to clean out the very small store space under the stairs. Not too many Daddy Long Legs met their fate down the nozzle of the vacuum and it wasn’t nearly as cluttered as anticipated. Son’s aviation manuals from almost 2 decades ago are being seriously culled; daughter’s stuffed toys and dolls are being deposited in her storeroom and I have offered the Grandmother’s Chafing dish which hasn’t been used in over 15 years to the children.

I polished it up, and it started to look beautiful again with the small details on the legs giving it a lovely old-world appeal. I love using silver cutlery and dishes at every opportunity but our lifestyles have changed so much we never use warming dishes. Our dining room next to the kitchen and the deck makes such contraptions sadly superfluous. If no-one wants it I suppose short of finding an alternate use for it, we will wrap it in tissue and store it for another couple of years. It is like all the beautiful but well-worn tablecloths we inherit and rarely use: some things are just too difficult to throw out. Perhaps that could be my resolution for next year: use it, if not give it away or don’t buy it in the first place. Have a happy New Year.