IN THE PAST WEEK, we ate a little too much, drank a little too much, and watched a lot of holiday films. I did something that was very strange to my being, a thing very foreign to me, a thing normal people refer to as relaxing. For the first time in a very long time, I did not work for five days straight. It was wonderful, actually.

WHILE SEARCHING for a festive wreath for our front door, ended up coming across many wonderful florists on Instagram who we’ve begun following. The first sculptural garland we discovered was London-based florist Kitten Grayson’s holiday installation for English fashion designer Pearl Lowe (below) and were absolutely inspired by the swooping swirls of dried plants and flowers mixed with fresh pink roses.

2020 was such a terrible, bad, no-good year that even complaining about it got old. A pandemic knocked the world to its knees, killing 1.6 million people so far and leaving untold suffering in its wake. Social distancing kept us inside, away from our friends and loved ones. Businesses shut their doors. Economic inequality grew.

Not certain why it took me so long to finally catch up on Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 TV series starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. It was just added to Netflix this past July, so perhaps that is the reason. I’ve been watching an episode a day during cardio sessions on the exercise bike and had no idea it was so charming and can now see why the world has been swooning over Colin Firth ever since …

Arriving at the chess board is like entering an eagerly anticipated party. All my old friends are there: the royal couple, their associates, the reassuringly straight lines of noble infantry. I adjust them, ensuring that they are optimally located in the centre of their starting squares, an anxious fidgeting and tactile caress. I know these pieces, and care about them.

Cinema has always been my escape. Since I was little, I always found ways to watch movies, even though we didn’t have a TV, or later on, when we were not really allowed to watch it. Every Thursday, I went to the Alliance Française to « Soirée Cinema » in my hometown—what a feast for the eyes and the soul.