Okay, that’s not as bad as it sounds despite some people thinking I’m a tad weird. As previously mentioned, the Deckhand had bought me a nice steel so I could sharpen my cutlass I mean kitchen knives. I spent a happy hour, approximately, on Christmas Day taking it for a test drive lol. The knife block was emptied, and the 5 knives therein given a good sharpening. This was a block of knives my ex gave me before he left for Oz. They didn’t want to pack it into storage it as they were still using it, however they then wouldn’t be allowed to take it on the plane with them, so they left it for me. The one knife in particular is very large, and it seemed to ‘sing’ as it was being sharpened. It’s my favourite knife at the moment, and it did a great job of carving the Christmas beef.

I then sharpened the 2 knives and cleaver I have that are in a drawer and are only allowed to be used by me as they’re part of a set and were not cheap. There are also 2 smaller knives in this set, they were sharpened too, and I do allow the Deckhand to use these as they weren’t quite so expensive, or hard to replace. There’s a small serrated knife too, as part of this set, which has been extensively used and is very useful rather than using a large breadknife for a roll, for example. There’s then an ‘odd’ knife that spoke to me one day whilst out shopping and has been added to my collection.

I sharpened the 2 pairs of kitchen scissors as well, though drew the line at the set of steak knives that rarely get used anyway. I’ve lost count now… lol. Thus far, I haven’t sharpened my 3 (I think) penknives of varying sizes. One is very old and is a Swiss Army knife the other is an olive-handled knife the Deckhand bought me one Christmas/Birthday and the last is a large knife I keep in the car after seeing an episode of a TV series whereby the ‘heroes’ are trapped in a car. This knife could cut a seatbelt and then be used to smash a window/windscreen to enable escape. All are within legal limits by the way.

The Deckhand has his own set of knives that number 5 I think, so far, though his knives are packed away for when he sets sail on his own Ship one day.

So, we had a nice Christmas, a happy time spent sharpening knives lol, and Christmas dinner went well. The beef was perfection if I say so myself, and we had the requisite veggies, stuffing, and Yorkshire pudding with it along with a glass of sparking wine. We don’t much go for dessert though I did buy a cheeseboard that contained 5 small cheese varieties and I enjoyed some of these with crackers and a small brandy. Nice!

The weather has been a real mixed bag of late. We had very heavy rain and the one morning the Lifeboat found a particularly deep, large puddle, and we aquaplaned for a brief moment with me gripping the wheel and cussing like only a pirate can. Scary! We then had high winds that blew over numerous bins. Honestly, these wheelie bins are great for keeping rubbish tidy, but their design; total pants! Sunday was very quiet in work, and after a 4-hour shift, I did a little shopping for fresh produce such as milk, bread and so on. It was so nice to have a quiet store after the Christmas mayhem; no music, no ‘jolly’ Christmas songs. Bliss! Anyway, I’m very glad I did get fresh goods as Monday morning we’ve awakened to 1.5 inches of snow, and it’s still falling. That wasn’t forecast…

Take care, keep safe and warm.