Will you be staying up tonight to bid adieu to the Old Year, as it hobbles off into the darkness, and to welcome in the New Year with its bundle of hopes and uncertainties?

When I became a quasi grownup in my teen years, then I did stay up to hear the striking in of the New Year by the gong of Big Ben, relayed by BBC radio. There was a special reason for this.

My mother had a somewhat chequered religious history. Although brought up a Catholic, she had rejected the Catholic faith and embraced Anglicanism in its place. She was, in addition, rather superstitious. Every first day of the month, I would catch her, while still in bed, muttering over and over again “White rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits…”, a ritual which, she asserted, brought good luck for the ensuing month.

Salt was never spilt but that a pinch was cast over one’s left shoulder to conjure the bad luck that such spillage was supposed to incur. Ladders were not to be walked under, of course, even if untenanted at the time of one’s passage.

I could go on but I am sure you see the picture.

The arrival of the New Year had to be attended to with appropriate ceremony. This involved the ritual called First Footing. I believe that this is, strictly speaking, associated with the Scottish Hogmanay so how my mother acquired it, I do not know. According to my mother, in order to have good luck in the coming year, the first person to cross your threshold after midnight must be male, must be dark-haired and must bring a gift coloured black. Don’t ask me to explain the reasons for this as I have no idea.

It so happens that I am male and that I have dark hair. I thus became the official Bringer of Good Luck to our household in the New Year.

As the clock approached midnight on December 31st, I was dispatched into the back garden and the back door was bolted against me. I might add that the garden was entirely enclosed and that the only way in or out was through the house. It was very unlikely that any genuine visitor would arrive by this route unless it was a neighbour – or possibly a fleeing burglar – who had climbed over the garden wall for reasons best known to themselves.

In the garden was the coal shed, a ruinous affair originally built as a summer house. I was instructed to go there and select a piece of coal which would serve as the black-coloured gift. Thus would I wait, coal in hand, shivering with cold and feeling oh-so-slightly ridiculous, until summoned by the chimes of Big Ben. Thereupon I had to rap on the back door and, upon admittance, present my lump of coal to my mother.

Having fulfilled my duty, I was allowed to warm myself by the fire and drink ginger wine heated with the addition of hot water.

Those days are long gone. Since then, I have experienced many a New Year, whether in Britain hearing to the chimes of Big Ben or in France listening to revellers driving their cars madly through the streets sounding their horns. I have not presented anyone with a lunp of coal for decades nor do I know anyone who would thank me for such an arcane gift.

Whatever particular ceremonies you yourself perform welcome in the New Year, I wish you a happy and prosperous 2021 with bounteous good fortune throughout.

Today is Wednesday, which I think of as the central pivot on which the see-saw of the week is balanced. It is not our usual shopping day but at this time of year, what is usual no longer applies. We needed a few things – quite a lot of things, actually – and so a shopping trip was required.

Newspapers and magazines in Sainsbury’s
Photo by Tigger

As Sainsbury’s has requested that people shop singly to aid distancing, we agreed that Tigger would go to the store to do the actual shopping and I would meet her outside to help carry the bounty home. She would text me when she joined the queue at the checkout – which should leave me enough time to reach the store myself before she emerged.

Baron Street

In the event, I cheated by leaving early so that I could dawdle and take photos along the way – something a bit difficult to do when hurrying home dragging a heavy shopping trolley. As you can see, it’s a fine, bright day but cold – just above freezing.

Chapel Market – just a few stalls

I was interested to see whether there would be more stalls open in Chapel Market today. There were a few but not many. I think the fruit stall in the right foreground belongs to the shop behind it. Quite often, the shops put out stalls on market days.

Pot plants

The old question about “essential” items raised its head. Are pot plants “essential” under Tier 4 rules? Some might say so, I suppose. I think these are for planting out rather than for home decoration though gardening is one of the many subjects of which I am ignorant.

A second fruit and veg stall

A second fruit and veg stall had set up further along, this one definitely a market trader, not connected to a shop. He was rewarded with a few customers.

Covers and repairs for your mobile

This stall selling accessories for mobiles and advertising repairs also seems to be of doubtful essentiality (a word that I imagine will gain wider currency in these troublous times) but no doubt welcome to some even so.

Drinks and snacks

This snacks stall, which I had not seen before, had attracted a few customers. It must be difficult deciding how much fresh food to buy and prepare in view of the uncertainty of trade at the moment.

Arriving at Sainsbury’s

Just as I reached Sainsbury’s, a text arrived from Tigger, saying she was at a checkout. I had to decide whether to go in or wait outside.

Tigger’s booty
Photo by Tigger

In “normal” times, you can wait at the automatic exit door and sneak in as an exiting customer leaves, arriving in front of the checkouts, but today, that door, clearly marked “EXIT ONLY”, was guarded by security persons. Rather than fight my way in from the entrance, then, I decided to wait outside.

Outside peering in

I stationed myself outside near the exit and peered in but couldn’t see Tigger. I think the security staff were a little suspicious of this lurking figure taking photos but were busy with customers and didn’t find time to challenge me.

Mercer’s

As we do on Sundays, we passed through Chapel Market and stopped at Mercer’s. I went inside to buy the coffee while Tigger waited outside.

A loyalty card

This time, hearing that we were local, they gave me a loyalty card. I’m pretty sure it won’t take long for us to fill it and score free coffee. Woo, join the club! 🙂

Baron Street – contre jour photo
Photo by Tigger

All we had to do now was to hotfoot it home before the coffee cooled in the chill air. Tigger did pause in Baron Street to take this photo. If it looks like an evening shot that’s because it’s taken with the light in front (contre jour, if you want to be techno-fussy 🙂 ).

So home we went and enjoyed our coffee – well earned, I think 🙂

Anon, 1989

I was not looking forward to going out today, fearing that it would be uncomfortably cold though the forecast did show some improvement, with a “feels like” of 1°C as opposed to yesterday’s -1°.

St Mark’s from Claremont Square

You’ve seen this view before, I know, but I have become fond of it and it gives an impression of the conditions.

In the picture, you can spot more discarded trees. I should perhaps explain that in Islington (I don’t know about the rest of London), trees left in the street are collected free by the refuse disposal. It takes a while (refuse collection falls behind over the holiday period) but they all disappear eventually.

New arrival

This one is a new arrival since we passed this way yesterday and…

Yesterday’s has gained a companion

…yesterday’s has gained a companion in misery. As with the arrival of wreaths at the approach to Christmas, the rhythm of dumping trees is increasing. What strikes me, though, is how soon people are casting away their Christmas trees. It didn’t used to be the case, did it?

Artificial tree

Oy! That’s cheating! In Amwell Street, someone has dumped an artificial tree, perhaps complete with decorations and lights. I’m not sure that’s included in free collection.

One wreath…

Also in Amwell Street we photographed a couple of wreaths. First, this quite pretty one and…

…and another one

…this other, also quite pretty, one. Notice the sacks of rubbish awaiting collection. Everywhere we went there were heaps and bags of refuse. Some were neatly stowed beside the front door but others were piled in the streets. This is one of the often forgotten downsides of the festivity, the huge amount of rubbish that it generates or, to be fair, that people generate.

Penton Street

We went along Penton Street where I took a photo looking back the way we had come. Here, as elsewhere in London, cycle lanes have been established, narrowing the road for motor vehicles, especially in places where there are parked vehicles which are also banned from the cycle lane, so that the equivalent of two lanes have been removed from both sides of the road.

Kitchen and household wares

This shop has been open during Tier 4 and I am not sure whether their wares are, sensu stricto, “essential”. Whether they are or not, there are usually customers in the shop when we pass.

A bouquet in her head

In the wedding dress shop, all the dummies were wearing bouquets on their heads. Actually, they looked quite elegant. There seem to be quite a few shops specialising in wedding dresses in our neighbourhood.. I’m surprised there’s enough trade for all of them. Or is marriage coming back into fashion? 🙂

Tree and bicycles

Here too we came across a discarded tree, this one parked against a cycle rack and hobnobbing with a couple of machines.

Christmas lights in Chapel Market
Photo by Tigger

When we turned into Chapel Market, because we were later than usual and the daylight had faded somewhat, the Christmas lights stood out more clearly. (It’s a problem with phone cameras that they lack exposure compensation.)

You can probably guess where we were going.

Inside Mercer’s

Were you right? Here I am in Mercer’s waiting for our coffee to be dispensed. It turns out that we arrived only just in time: as I left the shop, they were putting up the closed sign!

I was relieved to find that it didn’t feel as cold as I had feared it would and I enjoyed the walk in consequence. Even so, I was quite glad to be back indoors in the warm…!

Coffee and extras!

At home, we enjoyed our coffee with a little extra: salty caramel chocolate buttons! Talk about luxurious living! 🙂 You can see that we know how to have a good time!

As this weary old year draws to a close and a new one bobs up over the temporal horizon with its cargo of uncertainties, we inevitably reflect on what has gone before.

For most of us, this has been the most extraordinary experience of our lives. We have had to learn new ways to lead our lives, to think about the world and manage our interactions with it and, above all in importance, how to relate to one another.

At such a time of “social deprivation”, the Internet has proved a boon to those of us lucky enough to be able to access it. Messaging apps on our phones, social media and, not least, blogs, have become the staple of our interactions with the wider world and one another.

So it is, then, that before this year becomes an object of history, I would like to thank all those of you who have looked in on my blog and left a token of your visit.

Simply clicking “like” to say you dropped by helped make my day and put a spring in my step. A comment, of course, was the cream on my coffee!

So, yes, indeed, if you “like” then I like and thanks to you all. May you, and all of us, enjoy happier times in 2021!