Chill factor

I give thanks that Tesco make the finest butter mash... My son does an excellent one too...but it's harder to get it delivered! I give thanks thanks for adding Quorn Cumberland sausages, broccoli, carrots and fried red onions to make a cosy Sunday lunch not very long after I got up very late today...

I give thanks for an extremely chilled day after last night's chilling. Low temperatures, and hurtling at my highest speed are not conditions my body takes kindly to, but while aches and pains and pesky cramps kept me awake last night I was able to give thanks for all the kindness and concern I'd received as well as practical assistance. Due to pride, independence and memories of being told I shouldn't, or being told I can and then being let down I avoid asking for help if it's at all possible, but it was a situation where avoidance was impossible and I was touched by people's caring attitudes. I also give thanks for deciding an electric blanket might be soothing when everything seems to be hurting, shopping around and finding one that seems just the ticket in a sale, so that's just what the patient ordered!

I give thanks for a few snips and stitches making an eBay bargain Fat Face tunic fit better and thus be fitter for its intended purpose. I give thanks for the merino and cashmere cardi I won as well...Oh my, I've never worn merino and cashmere before and I've been seriously missing out! So that's why people with more money than me don't walk round like Michelin men when it's cold...

I give thanks for one of a certain Swedish car manufacturer's Sky Atlantic idents showing a car following a snowplough along a wintry road, and remembering being in a similar position in a Renault 4 in the Atlas mountains many years ago when they were having unusually heavy falls and the drifts made fake walls at the side of the scary single tracks to kid my brain we were safer than we were. Good to recall adventures on a day of couches and potatoes...Of course, if I'd had less holidays I could have had more merino cardies but having to choose I'd always choose the experience over the thing. I'd like both now please... As long as the things give me nice experiences like being warm!