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Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2009….
Happy New Year everyone, wherever you are. I hope you all had a good evening and are feeling suitably rough refreshed after your celebrations. It all seemed pretty low key in these parts this year, a combination of the cold weather and the yes, you guessed it, credit crunch put a bit of a dampner on the event for a lot of people.
So who has made a new year resolution they won’t keep?! I am yet to think of one but if I do I’ll get back to you 
This time last year I wrote about the cost of food and now it seems the matter will once again rear its ugly head as the £ continues to fall against the € AND european farmers complain about the cost of exporting to the UK. There is no doubt that 2009 will be a very difficult year for many of us and our attitude to food could change as we consider the cost implications of eating out etc. This then leads us back to a campaign I featured last January by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his bid to eradicate battery raised chickens. Much was made of the cost implications of buying free range poultry and I wonder if all of his hard work at convincing the public of spending more on their food could soon unravel.
A year ago I became the proud sponsor of a four year old girl in Myanmar whose life would soon be turned upside down by the horrendous cyclone there. Twelve months on and May Mi Mi has managed to write her name in English on a Christmas card to me, a very touching moment.
The biggest project of the kitchen garden year was the nine month long attempt at growing the world’s hottest chilli, the bhut jolokia. As some of you may recall I managed to do it and subsequently had to eat one
So that’s a brief overview of this time last year, as for me, well I’m off to revisit a place I also featured last January for a bit of rest and relaxation.
Happy New Year and thankyou all for bothering to visit the blog, it is truly appreciated.
Miles
Happy New Year to you and all your readers !
My resolution is to drink less and exercise more !
Regards to all
Rod
January 1, 2009 @ 9:55 am
Rod,
Sounds like a good plan to me. Enjoy your free chicken lunch
Happy New Year.
Miles
January 1, 2009 @ 10:00 am
Miles,
It sounds like a good year just past and hopefully exciting challenges ahead. For myself I think I should drink more and worry less
Cid
p.s. I love tuning in to find a huge debate still going on about who should play you in our stage production. Madness and gastronomy side by side…. priceless!
January 1, 2009 @ 1:34 pm
Cid,
Drink more, worry less…think I’ll go with yours
Miles
January 1, 2009 @ 7:11 pm
Happ and merry Miles, I spent most of the day editing but glad it’s all over now
January 1, 2009 @ 7:23 pm
Kevin,
All the best to you too. I must say I will be glad when normality is resumed!
Yours in humbug
Miles
January 1, 2009 @ 8:04 pm
And a blessed and peaceful New Year to everyone too
May 2009 prove to be a better year than 2008. I fear that many resolutions will be the same as most revolutions, i.e. in one year and out the next 
January 2, 2009 @ 2:07 am
Xenny,
Well put! Happy New Year to you from over here.
Miles
January 2, 2009 @ 7:19 am
I think Cid hit the jackpot with her “worry less” comment. I’ll go with that one. And I’ll have a nice glass of red wine while I contemplate worrying less.
And Miles, thank you for a wonderfully diverse and creative forum for everyone to vent and share in food and friendship! Very touching about May Mi Mi. That is what life is all about. We bitch and moan on occasion, but in the big picture, we have it made.
I am not giving up on campaigns such as the one you featured in your Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstal post. I’m convinced you can eat well on a budget; you just eat less of the expensive items and more of the economical ones. We all eat too much volume anyway. Eat good, high quality food, but eat less of it. Make that one free range chicken supply you with meat for several meals. Pair it with wonderful rice dishes, beans, cornbread, or collar greens. Eating healthy, sustainable, and ethically does not have to be over-the-top expensive.
Keep up the campaign. Please, don’t let people give up! Thanks, Miles. Now go enjoy some rest and relaxation. You deserve it.
Melissa
xo
January 2, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
Melissa,
A lovely comment, thankyou. You are very right about cooking more wisely, see my latest post! I often cook dishes which are meat free, inexpensive yet quite satisfying. A change of mindset is a must if we are to survive 2009 in more ways than one.
Miles
January 2, 2009 @ 3:38 pm