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What a week: Hamburgers, Harris Tweed and Hogmanay

It's time to bring in the new year and all the hopes and dreams that come with it.
It's time to bring in the new year and all the hopes and dreams that come with it.

Here we are at Hogmanay and already it’s been a week of hangovers. Not from drinking you understand – I’m teetotal – this is just from desserts.

Between all the brandy sauce, sherry trifle and liqueur chocolates, I’m not to drive or operate machinery.

Thankfully the bairn is already a whizz with the coffee-maker we got for Christmas and also the only person in our house who can launch Netflix using the universal remote.

I ran out of things to put Baileys fresh pouring cream on to, having drawn the line at a Terry’s Chocolate Orange, and now think it’s for the best that they only release this stuff at Christmas.

Hogmanay is upon us and with it comes events such as the Stonehaven Fireballs. Image: Kenny Elrick.

This year we tried to plan the food shop carefully and swotted up on ways to make the most of leftovers.

It sort of worked, we had chicken sandwiches (yes, chicken, Asda had sold out of turkey by the time we did our ‘big shop’) and rustled up some soup.

But when I found myself having December 22, 23 and 24 out of the Cadbury’s advent calendar for lunch I realised I was taking an idea too far.

By midweek I longed for an apple but the closest thing we had to that was a Rich Fruit Slice, so it had to do.

Chocolate is all well and good but eventually you just crave some fruit and vegetables.

Eventually I treated myself to some Tenderstem broccoli from Tesco only to find we didn’t have anything to put it with – it was the Baileys pouring cream thing all over again.

Just a few more days of the festive season to go and we can get back to some sort of food and drink normality with proper meals instead of party snacks and edible Christmas gifts.

One place on my must-visit list for 2023 is the Wimpy in Fraserburgh.

How fascinating it was to read Chris Cromar’s interview in The P&J on Tuesday with franchisee Amjad Shahzad who took over the Hanover Street restaurant in 2015.

Amjad Shahzad is the franchisee of Fraserburgh’s Wimpy. Image: Wimpy.

Mr Shahzad runs what is now the oldest remaining Wimpy north of the border and says customers sometimes travel hundreds of miles for a taste of nostalgia and a traditional Wimpy burger.

He is hoping to make major refurbishments in 2023 which will expand capacity and highlight the brand’s heritage and I wish him the best of luck with that.

Harris Tweed

My other plan for the start of the year is to tune in to BBC Alba’s new drama An Clò Mòr that revolves around the Harris Tweed industry.

Launching on January 2, the six-part series was filmed in the Outer Hebrides.

Executive producer and director Tony Kearney said that filming in a traditional artisan Tweed mill on Lewis was an experience he will never forget, adding that “witnessing this 19th Century craft up close was an utter privilege”.

An Clò Mòr, the new drama which was filmed in several locations in the Hebrides, will be launched on January 2. Image: Darren Cole Photography / Solus Productions/ MG Alba.

From Fraserburgh’s Wimpy to Harris Tweed, sticking with a winning formula and nurturing the designs and ideas that people love is a sensible idea and often a sustainable one too.

That’s why it was good to see Aberdeen project Repair What You Wear win The P&J’s £500 Eco Heroes grand prize.

The garment-mending team of Ros Studd and Elahe Alavi create free videos and content to help people fix their own clothes and reduce fashion’s impact on landfill.

It’s a reminder that whatever is going on in the world, such as the extreme weather events in the US, making a positive impact on the environment can start much closer to home.

Ros Studd and Elahe Alavi are constantly working to figure out new ways to help people fix and maintain their clothing. Image: Kath Flannery/DC Thomson.

In a week that we lost Pele and Vivienne Westwood, Russia’s attacks intensified in Ukraine and chaos continued to reign in the UK economy, there are plenty of reasons to feel gloomy.

But, on this last day of the year, perhaps we can take inspiration from Aberdeen teacher Matilda Walker, who captured on camera the “precious innocent joy” of her Nigerian pupil’s first glimpse of snow.

Primary 6 student Raihannat Abd-Rahmane thought that snowflakes were beautiful, but “a lot colder than expected”.

That sounds a bit like life in general and a reason why we all need to capture and hold on to our own moments of joy, however fleeting they may be.

Primary 6 pupil Raihannat Abd-Rahmane, originally from Nigeria, sees snow for first time.

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