That was the Year that was .... vintage, surprising, eventful

This newsletter began life as a weekly email that I used to send round to the Reignite Academy team on a Friday evening, designed to keep everyone's chin up in the face of what often felt like a bit of an uphill battle helping women return to the law after long career breaks. There were five of us, including our part time part-virtual PA.

When Covid hit, we mothballed the business and with nothing to write about and no-one to write it to I decided to launch a "newsletter" to no-one, with no agenda save for what I'd observed that particular week. We now appear to have 8,748 (precisely) subscribers which I have to say is a little bit daunting, particularly when some of them are friends of my kids. What if I can't think of anything interesting to say? What if it's boring? What if no-one reads it? What if ....

And then I remember that I'm not getting paid for this and no-one is holding a gun to my head to make me do it, so on we go!

This Week's Excuse

My mum came down for her Christmas visit last week. Took her to the Wednesday evening Columbia Road Christmas market, the story of which tells you something about the world we now live in.

Post Covid, the folks that organise this stuff decided it would be fun to add a bit of carol singing to the festivities. Lovely idea. I do like a good Christmas carol (my favorite is the Pogues'/Kirsty MacColl Fairy Tale of New York, but I don't think that's technically a Christmas carol). Anyway, all went well until young people and their TikTok habit got involved and last year the tiny, quaint little street was flooded with literally thousands of tourists. Carols were cancelled.

Happily for us, you can still browse the shops - handy if you're in the market for over-priced baubles, cute dog coats or "Hackney essentials" such as Torres truffle chips and Perello olives. Better still, there is an olde fashioned hand cart round the back selling genuine Mexican Hot Chocolate which is served with the option of salt, chilli and MESCAL! What an invention. I can heartily recommend mescal in your hot chocolate.

Always conscious of the need to feed and entertain, mum arrived armed with a box of flapjack, home made mince pies and, best of all, a 1000 piece Wozgij. For anyone who has never encountered a Wozgij, they are like a traditional jigsaw except that what you're trying to create is not the picture on the box but instead the view of what someone in the picture on the box can see. Requires lots of imagination, terrific patience and takes a LOT of time.

Which is my excuse for having nothing to comment on with respect to this week's goings on. So, instead, I thought I'd do a little review of the year, what I've learnt from it and tips I'd like to share.

Children v Grown ups: Be careful what you wish for

Bit of a landmark year for me as it was the first year all our children were out of full time education, embarking on life as "grown ups".

When my kids were little I was always impatient for the "next stage". Sleeping through the night, feeding themselves, walking, talking, going to school, being able to get themselves to school, getting through exams etc etc. This was all made very easy because there was a well trodden path, a set of rules even, that everyone had to follow. Ok you might get a choice about which school, which exams etc but you can't opt out or anything like that. No really difficult choices.

The problem, my friends, is that once your children finish on that particular treadmill, they remain your children! It's just that now there are no rules, no pre-determined path and instead there are infinite choices to be made. So just when you thought the worrying was over, back it comes. Like a proverbial boomerang but bigger. And one that keeps coming back again.

Incredible Journeys

Don't get me wrong, this sense of possibility and freedom can be a good thing. Without it my son would never had chosen what has to be one of the most exhilarating, dangerous, precarious ways to spend his twenties, riding a bicycle up and down hills, far too fast and far too close to the person in front.

Which is how come I ended up having an interesting "holiday" back in February, which involved two nights in Benidorm hospital (I can recommend if if you're ever that way and someone has an injury requiring surgery) and a trip involving trains, taxis, automobiles but sadly no planes from Spain, through Southern France and on to the Alpes. Here's a station along the way, at a place I never knew existed but which I'm very grateful does.

The only other thing I'd say on the subject is that the "empty nest" isn't all it's cracked up to be, i.e. rarely empty and lacking in any substantial nesting-style inactivity.

The Only Gift Idea You'll Ever Need

I don't know how she did it but my good friend Erin made me the BEST gift I've ever received. A jigsaw (a regular one thankfully) of my life. Or my life as she saw it.

Not sure what this says about me. Reading, skiing, drinking, scrabbling, cycling, friends, dogs. There you go, sums me up in 7 words.

Oh and I do a bit of work from time to time (She's Back book is obscured by the bow!)

2024 Awards

Award for Brevity

This has to go to the Clares - Keegan, Chambers and Davies (it's actually Carys Davies but the title of her book is Clear, which is the meaning of Clare, so there).

Small Things Like These, Small Pleasures (and Shy Creatures), and Clear were all works of outstanding beauty with the added advantage of also being relatively short. It must be something to do with the writers being women. They were obviously multi-tasking, had a million other things to do and needed to get the job done without wasting an inordinate amount of time with unnecessary detail. Like their style.

Alan and Andrew (Hollinghurst and O'Hagan) clearly had too much time on their hands. Whilst Our Evenings and Caledonian Road were both very very good, they did go on for a very very long time. Especially Caledonian Road. I'd recommend them though, you just need time. Speaking of which ....

Utter Waste of Time Award 2024

Worrying about, talking about, writing about and thinking about another country's election. And then repeating the exercise after the event when you don't like the result.

Disappointment of the Year Award 2024

Labour's first 100 days in office. With a close runner up being Labour's second 100 days in office, though they still have time to turn that one round.

I'm not giving up, we can but hope.

Gadget of the Year 2024

At my daughter's insistence we abandoned the old glass lemon squeezer and bought this contraption. It's life changing.

Industry of the Year

Second hand clothing. They call it "vintage".

Vintage (adj): denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind.

It's not vintage. A lot of it is tat. But some of it isn't. Everything that needs to be made has probably already been made (with the exception of underwear, socks and pyjamas) so second hand makes perfect sense. Just don't be lured by "vintage" shops on streets where you know the rental is going to be sky high. They will fleece you. Forget Mayfair, try Mexborough. Go nowhere near Williamsburg, Wolverhampton is a better bet.

People of the Year Award

Goes to Tanja, Aimee, Amy, Jenny and Rashida. In a year when legal recruitment has been as thin on the ground as the snow at the Columbia Road flower market Christmas event, it has been a total joy to work with DLA Piper on a proper, old fashioned returner programme.

What can I say. Don't want to end on a sad note but the Reignite Academy "team" has gone from 5 to 2. We still believe in what we do but we're finding less appetite from firms to "take a risk" (trust me, it's not a risk) on returners when there are lots of candidates around.

No idea what 2025 will hold for us but suffice to say, if you're in a position of influence in a law firm and want to help, please get in touch!

The Cultural Slot

I'm reading: Just finished Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers (see above). Utterly sublime. IMHO. About to start There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak.

I'm watching: Bad Sisters, still, because we have to wait a week for each episode to be released. Also about to watch Mark Rylance get his head chopped off. Started Black Doves on Netflix. Mmm. It should be good - Kiera Knightly, Sarah Lancashire, Ben Whishaw ... why am I not convinced. Let's see

I'm listening to: The Media Show. Specifically the one called "How to interview Anna Wintour". Call me bitchy but it was delicious hearing Hadley Freeman tear into Anna Wintour and Vogue's sponsorship of a show at the Light Room called "Inventing the Runway."

What's for dinner

Well, we had it. It was:

• Roast chicken with saffron, hazelnuts and honey
• Sweet potato wedges with lemongrass creme fraiche
• Cavalo Nero pan fried with garlic
• All the other salady stuff left in the fridge mixed together with a few herbs

Right, that's me done. Off to watch the telly and polish off a nice glass of burgundy. I may be here for a quick note ahead of Christmas day but you never can tell.

If not, have a LOVELY Christmas folks. 1,252 subscribers to go to get to 10,000. If you all tell a quarter of a person we'll be there before you can say Jack Robinson.

Off you go.