I had a digital detox over the holiday season in December and January: it was back to the wonderful underrated custom of interaction between human beings  for me and I adored every moment! I passed the time at my house in France which is close to the Italian border, just close enough to pop over for an authentic pizza. Yeah, I know, sounds like I'm showing off... (just wait until I get to the Aston Martin story 😉 I'm kidding and I digress.  So - 10 for dinner on Christmas day and we ate outside under the glorious sunshine, until it slipped behind the mountain leaving us to decamp inside to light a fire and then eat the pud. Because I had taken a few weeks off, my baking gene had gone supersonic and every tin, box and tray was filled with sweet bites of heaven and the promise of that new year diet.... Nigella would have been proud. And so we continued – laughing, eating and drinking, my Dutch/English family, happy days.

A little while ago Aston Martin asked me if I fancied a few weeks razzing around in their commuter cygnet model. It just so happened that I was, surprise surprise, totally up for it. They delivered ( avec James Bond theme tunes cd, which made me roar as I pulled away!) and I experienced a very pleasant few weeks nipping around the cote d'azur, causing a bit of a stir at the valet parking counters I can tell you! Here's a piccy.