I thought I’d try and blog the twelve days of Christmas as a way of reviewing my year. I was going to try and do links according to the song but the ones I have are tenuous. Forgive.

I have neither partridge nor pear tree to offer you but here instead is a picture of my phoenix tattoo and a red guava, which at least looks like a pear. Incidentally, in Marathi, guavas are called “peroo” I assume because they were thought to come from Peru. I could be wrong. Is that tenuous enough for you?

The guavas you find here are much larger and juicier with softer centres than the ones you find in India and are my favourite fruit. I particularly like what these red ones from Taiwan.

Oh, you want to hear more about the tattoo? I had it done in August and it’s my second one. In keeping with the Chinese way of doing things, it balances the dragon I had done five years ago. Dragons and phoenixes go together. This is the work of @sophiesparrow_tattoo, who initially didn’t think I’d actually have it done. I’m really pleased with it.