A taste of things to come

A couple of days before Christmas I decided that, in tune with these thrifty times, I would have a go at making a few food items I would normally have bought from the supermarket. I helped my wife to make, among other things, three jars of pickled onions and some chocolate truffles. She baked some bread and I made my own chicken liver paté. It was extremely rewarding (and the paté was delicious), but by the end of the day we were so tired with cooking we ended up ordering a takeaway curry. There is a message here somewhere.

Pub is not dead, I'll drink to that

With many commentators predicting the demise of the great British pub, I was cheered to see my local brimming with customers at lunchtime on Christmas Day. The William IV in Bletchingley, Surrey, was so packed that trays of drinks had to be passed across the pub over the heads of the throng. Let's hope it presages more prosperous times ahead for the hard-pressed pub trade, although I'm not holding my breath.

Honours destined for elsewhere

Reports over the weekend suggested that the New Year Honours are unlikely to feature too many gongs for the great and the good of the City. Hardly surprising, given the self-inflicted pain that so many banks and financial institutions are suffering, but there are still plenty of business grandees who continue to steer a steady ship. One chief executive who continues to do a solid job largely below the radar screen is Paul Walsh at Diageo, the purveyor of Guinness and Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, although Gordon Brown's antipathy to the drinks industry may put paid to Walsh's chances of a knighthood.

Size matters, no matter how small

For those of you who failed to keep up with the efforts of the Waitrose boss Mark Price, the self-proclaimed “chubby grocer”, to trim his waistline over Christmas, the results are: -5cm. He writes: “To marathon runners, Olympic cyclists and supertanker owners, 5cm may not seem like much. But to snails, millimetres and me, 5cm is a great deal.”

Gone but not forgotten

The new Aberdeen Malmaison hotel was for years the retirement home for Balmoral workers and staff who had been in the service of the Queen. Despite the fact that it has been closed for a time, old workers and their families are still turning up and asking to stay unaware that the Balmoral link is long gone.

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