The Year in Review: 2023
Is it really that time already?
Yes, it is. While the Covid years seemed to drag interminably along (well, they did for me), normal service has been resumed in 2023, which seems to have flashed by in the blink of an eye. Presumably this will remain the case until the next pandemic pops up, although I think I would rather endure the sweeping by of the years then another globe-sweeping illness.
Indeed, it feels like only a few weeks have passed since I sat down to scribble down The Year in Review: 2022, although I know it was in December last year, a full twelve months ago. It feels like even less time has passed since I sat down in January and told myself that if I were going to write a similar review for 2023 I really should make a few notes as the year sails by. Of course it was not long before that resolution fizzled out. In February, I think.
And so, with the help of one month’s worth of notes, and eleven months of cathartic confabulation, I have penned my review of 2023. And so while you sweep away the crumbs of the last mince pie (I finished mine yesterday – perfect with Lustau’s East India Solera) and ponder which exercise regimen to sign up to in 2024 (chair yoga looks good – the adverts on Instagram tell me ten minutes each day will have me looking like a 1980s Schwarzenegger in just four weeks), take a few minutes out to reflect with me on the year that was, and will forever be, 2023.
I slide into 2023 with a dining trip up the east coast of Scotland. Covid-19 is fading from the news cycle, nevertheless the hospitality industry is still apparently stumbling along. On a three-night trip, the first restaurant I book decides to close its doors on weekday evenings, due to a dismal level of bookings, which leaves me eating in the local Hôtel du Vin in St Andrews (where the porchetta is top-notch, so all is not lost). And on the next day I am the only diner in the restaurant (so kudos to The Cellar for not similarly cancelling my reservation). Strangely, however, the next day the rather palatial Gleneagles is heaving with bejewelled punters, all paying through the nose for the privilege of partying in a crowded bar and restaurant. Let’s hope Covid-19 really is on the wane.
