This Year

I don't make resolutions. But I do make biscuits. So this year's snack is Chilli and Anchovie Biscuits, from an ancient formula, handed down from generation to generation. Originally meant as a warning, it's become a recipe.

Even more delicious with a slice of fruit. Honestly.

So welcome to 2008. Did you come far?

This year I plan to eat more sushi, see more movies, cook more meat, play more poker, snooker and cricket, write more books (two new Jimmy Coates titles coming out this year, and two next year as well, to take the series to 8).

These are almost exactly the same plans I made at the beginning of 2007. It all went pretty well, so I'm just going to do it all again, but more. And with more anchovies.

New items for this year: get married, hoover more, meet at least one talking animal, build a realistic, half-size, sand sculpture of a European capital, be a pigeon for a day, rescue a fox, taste numbers, explain the mysteries of community-building in space-hamsters, find the lost 'fifth spoon' and play double-Monopoly (Duo-poly?).

I'll explain double-Monopoly another time.

Happy new year, everyone. How was Xbo?