Well, here I am in 2007 and raring to go. I sort of wasn't going to post anything for three weeks, but on a couple of occasions I crept over to the old, unconnected home computer and tapped out some posts. The only trouble is I have no idea how to get them out of there. Yesterday I suffered the ignominy of going to the computer store and asking for a floppy disc so I could transfer the posts to a connected computer. The woman serving me gave me a pitying look and told me that I should be using a memory stick, but in the end hunted up a floppy just for me - it took quite some time too, I noticed an old bloke with a beard and staff, step of an ark and hand her one.

My tech support team (kids) then helped me to transfer the goodies to the disc, which wasn't any cake walk for them I might add and I've spent the morning trying to download from it only to be told time and again that the disc has no ID address. Tech support have just told me that perhaps we need to format the disc first. Sheesh!

So I will recount for you our Christmas morning. One of my mates who works for a large chain of liquor stores as a store manager has a very nice tradition of opening up a bottle of French fizz for breakfast and we trot along at a very reasonable 9.30 am for breakfast. Not that we come empty-handed either, for every year I cure some salmon (gravlax) for our Christmas Eve dinner in which no meat is consumed. This year 2 kg (5 lb) of the finest Tasmanian salmon got the treatment from a cure that consisted of salt, sugar, dill and fresh ground pepper and 48 hours later the sweetest, salty slices of gravlax with a hint of dill and pepper emerged from the brine.

Of course I also brought along a bottle of something seriously good, a Bindi Cuvee 2 from Prince Wine Store. It's a sparkling wine made from chardonnay and pinot noir and contains several vintages of aged wine, hand crafted by Michael Dhillion of Bindi, who also makes several notable pinot noirs at his Macedon Ranges winery in Victoria. The Macedon Ranges is considered a cool climate region and produces austere fruit with a steely acid spine that is so suitable for sparkling wine production. By judicious blending of the vintages this wine has taken on rich aged characters, but also retains good length, more in the English style, who prefer more mature flavours than the French who prefer champagne young and fresh. Does that reveal something about their respective national characters?

Well after two bottles of wine, I had the feeling that all was right with the world, when the lunch guests started arriving. The glorious smell of roast pork filled the air and we were sorely tempted to stay, but in another kitchen was the scent of a glazed roast ham, scored in the traditional diamond pattern and studded with cloves.

Lunch awaited.