明けましておめでとうございます！今年こそはコロナが落ち着いて、世の中が以前の「普通」に近い状態に戻ってくれますように！そして、また１年、健康に過ごせますように。
Happy New Year! I do hope that we’ll be able to go back to somewhat “normal” life sometime soon this year.
昨夜というのか、今朝というのか、夕食の後夫もわたしもそれぞれのお部屋でしばらく過ごしてから１１時ごろにリビングで集合して、「ダウントン・アビー」を見ながら年が明けるのを待って、シャンパンで乾杯して、見ていた「ダウントン・アビー」の回を見終わって解散、でした。
周りでは年が明けるまで待たずに寝てしまう方達も多いようで、このご近所では真夜中には真っ暗で電気がついていたのは我が家だけでした。もちろん大晦日からパーティーをして年越しにみんなで派手にお祝いする方達もたくさんおられるとは思いますが、どちらかと言うと英国の人は大晦日はあまりハッピーな気持ちで迎えない方が多いように思います。楽しみにしていたクリスマスが終わると、みなさん、ちょっと沈みがち。わたしは個人的にどちらでもなく、今では余り感慨がありません。日本に住んでいた時は日本のお正月の特別な雰囲気が好きでしたが、香港でもシンガポールでもここでも、なんとなく過ぎてしまう感じです。大掃除をするわけでもないし、お節を準備したり食べたりするわけでもないし、お休みも１日だけですしね。お雑煮や焼いたお餅などは大抵食べていましたが、今年はお餅を買っておくことさえ忘れてしまいました。
As we are just two of us, we didn’t do anything special last night. After dinner, I was in my craft room, my husband in his loft until around 11.00pm, then we watched one episode of “Downton Abbey”, then one more episode. In the middle of the second episode the date changed so we had a glass of Champagne to celebrate, went back to the drama and said good-night when it finished.
Our house was the only house that still had lights on at midnight, all the other houses in our Grove were pitch black. Although there must be many people who would celebrate the New Year with friends/families I have a feeling that a lot of British people don’t like New Year’s Eve very much and they feel a little gloomy after the climax of Christmas. This is totally opposite to Japanese, I think. I would say that most Japanese look forward to the New Year and get excited to see the New Year in because we take it as having a whole new year in front of us, it’s a blank canvas in which you can paint anything. Having said that, I myself am neither – not sad or depressed but not particularly excited. I used to enjoy the atmosphere of New Year days in Japan because I think there is something very special but new year days don’t seem to be so different from other days outside Japan where we’ve lived. I don’t do a very thorough cleaning of the whole house or prepare special New Year foods and eat them like most Japanese do and you only get the 1st January off work (not that that matters to us any longer). I usually prepare Ozoni and grilled mochi but this year I’d totally forgotten to get some, so no mochi.
今日のランチは、昨日のビーフのグーラッシュの余ったものを使って丼にしました。玉ねぎを炒めて、グーラッシュの残りを加えて、少量のお湯とお醤油とお砂糖を足して卵を落として、ご飯の上にのせました。すき焼きほど甘くないけれどグーラッシュより甘め。とってもおいしかったです。
We made Beef Donburi today using the left-over of last night’s dinner, Goulash. We sauteed onions, added the goulash with a little hot water, soy sauce and sugar, then added eggs and cooked until the white parts of the eggs were completely cooked but the yolks are still very runny, then put it on rice in a bowl. Not as sweet as Sukiyaki but sweeter than goulash. We’ve never used left-over beef stew like this before but it worked brilliantly, it was delicious.
