After losing my job a couple of days ago, I have to admit that I’ve found it very strange.

Since 2014, every day, bar one last November when I managed to get the day off, I have had to think of work. Every day meaning weekends too! I literally had to work every day. It is hard to adapt to be honest. It was my way of life for nearly nine years, to keep me and my kids going. There isn’t much, if anything in the way of state help you so one has to be resourceful.

I am having ups and downs. I feel that I am not useful with regards to my family. I have always been the responsible one who got us all through. I have other interests which I am hoping to build to bring in hopefully just a few hundred euros here and there so, I’m going to get Christmas out of the way, making sure that I enjoy it, then move “onwards and upwards” as my daughter said. A positive outlook is everything in times like these.

Meanwhile, last night we went for a lovely family meal at a good local restaurant. We had booked it a couple of weeks ago and never thought that we’d be going with such a change just happened in our family.

We had a wonderful evening. As I don’t eat meat, I had a vegetable risotto starter and a leek sformato (kind of vegetable flan without eggs) with some cauliflower gratin. Delicious!

As we left the restaurant to get our car and go home, I thought that the nearest town looked so pretty with one of the gates lit up.

Today (23rd December), I made some traditional mince pies. They are very much a family favourite and the second batch as the first has gone already! I also made a tasty fruit cake ready to ice. I don’t make a traditional Christmas cake as we prefer a simpler fruit cake.