My key tasks for 2023 – keep fit and Rummikub - Karen Koren

Back at the office today after a quiet festive season. It was only quiet because I managed to catch a terrible cold and cough and had to get antibiotics from the doctor.

Billy Bailey and Lee Mack complete the 100-mile walk for Sean Lock

It didn’t spoil the Christmas, I just didn’t party as hard as others – which was probably a good thing. I’m coming out of the fog now and not feeling as heavy and in need of a new body as some do at this time of year.

Though I am looking towards becoming fitter in the new year and I am not making any hard new year resolutions that I will never be able to keep.

I did do my first keep fit session and aim to do every Monday, Thursday and Friday going forward. Famous last words but at this moment in time I really feel that I will stick to it. Time will tell.

I also want to walk more – I was meant to go on Bill Bailey’s Walk for Sean Lock in the summer – but circumstances were such that I couldn’t.

As it was I would never have been able to do what Bill did which was a 100-mile walk over five days. I might have managed a mere 30 or 40 miles – well I’m going to try to up the steps a bit. Time will tell.

I mentioned in my column last year that my son-in-law Fredrik Bjerkseth and his partners Gordon MacKenzie, Emma McIntosh and Jonny Hamilton started a brewery in Leith at the start of the Covid pandemic.

Newbarns has gone from strength to strength and is being noticed by craft beer lovers everywhere.

In October they opened their Tap Room and it really has become a destination for many beer enthusiasts and their friends

My family and friends spent some enjoyable evenings in the Tap Room over the holiday period playing dominoes, darts, rummikub and bar billiards. You certainly don’t need to be a beer enthusiast to be there as their wine list is excellent.

Our staff and their friends have found it to be a place to meet like-minded people. It’s certainly somewhere that I go do to unwind after all my keep fit and walking, nowhere better.