I’M OFFICIALLY ON HOLIDAY. Oh, sorry, was I shouting? I just want to make it perfectly clear, to myself, that I must now relax and try not to do anything until mid-January. Have no fear that all posts are scheduled – make sure you’re signed up to the Daily Fix if you want to receive the breakfast email. (It comes at breakfast time if you live in Europe – anywhere else and you might find it winging its way into your inbox at any random old time! Let me know, in fact – where do you live and what time do you receive your Daily Fix?)

This will be the first time I’ve had a proper holiday in a couple of years now – even when I go away in the summertime I lug about a million beauty products with me and spend half the time filming, dealing with website crises or replying to emails, so I cannot wait to sit about and watch TV, read books, do a bit of my MA work…. Oh God. My MA work. I had totally forgotten about that! OK, so maybe I won’t be entirely on holiday! Oh well. You can rest when you’re dead, or whatever the saying is. What a horrid saying!

I’m really looking forward to perusing my cookbooks and doing some baking and Christmassy cooking, and I still have quite a few presents to get (shame on me) but I love all of those little festivities, even standing in the ridiculously long queue at the supermarket. (By the way, I’m shunning Tesco this year, I think, due to their constant understaffing. Waitrose actually manage to have all of their tills open and fully staff their stores, whereas Tesco seem to have about 2% of their tills open at any given time at my local store. Greedy, greedy, greedy. I don’t know what’s worse; Waitrose prices or Tesco policy!)

Right-O, folks – I’ll be checking in every day for a few minutes just to say hi and answer comments, so let me know what you’re up to, please, and whether you’ve done all of your Christmas shopping. Also, to the vote: Tesco or Waitrose. (I find Sainsbury’s a happy medium.)

(Note the photograph above: that was taken in (I think) 2005. Obligatory can of Diet Coke in hand – that has really made me think that it’s time to give up the evil brown fizz once and for all!)