The Norwich Anglican Cathedral is massive, ancient, and central to the city. On Christmas eve it was absolutely packed for the 3.30 pm service and procession. Ailsa and I were early enough to get seats, albeit ones where all we could see of the procession were the tops of banners and the bishop’s mitre! Technology means I can share a link. The inability to see did not detract from the occasion.

It is a real pleasure to feel part of the community in this fantastic cathedral. Building started in 1096, and it was not completed until 1145. I often wonder how the first architects, stone masons, builders and clergy felt, knowing they would not see it completed in their lifetimes. Apart from the magnificent setting there is much to commend the event, although Ailsa had an unexpected sprinkling of lime or paster fall from the ceiling onto her lap!

The citizens of Norwich and the surrounds came in their hundreds, so many that some had to stand for the service. The congregation was mainly white and middle class (I am making an assumption on the class). In the row in front of us was a man with his two pre-teen children. He was trying to hang on to four or five empty seats for his wife and in-laws and was sending increasingly desperate text messages. It was clear, as they failed to appear, that he was getting more and more exasperated, and in the end, he had to give up the space. I felt sorry for him.

The order of service was, as always, a mix of readings; prayers; and carols – some sung only by the choir and others by the choir and congregation. The choir and clergy progress through the building in the course of the service, which lasted about 90 minutes. I take great pleasure in being able to sing some of the carols without needing to look at the words. I can manage In the Bleak Mid-Winter, While Shepards Watched their Flocks by Night, Oh Come all ye Faithful and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. For others where I am clueless, silence is the best policy.

The Cathedral Chapter earmarks the Christmas collections for specific charities. This year they were the Christian Aid Christmas Appeal for South Sudan; Shelter, a charity that works to provide appropriate accommodation to the homeless; and the Joe Dix Foundation set up in memory of a teenager stabbed to death in Norwich in 2022. Knife crime in the UK is getting a lot of airtime, and unsurprisingly it is young men who are usually the victims. The causes are a good mix of local and international. Interestingly, increasingly the older people in our circles give to charity instead of exchanging gifts, and the need is so great that this makes sense.

It was a family Christmas with my sister travelling from London. This year Ben and Rowan did the cooking, and what a feast it was. Ben and I were the only carnivores at the table and were well catered for, but the vegetarians had ample choice, including a nut roast as main dish. They really pushed the boat out and I will list the dishes. Two styles of potatoes – the roasted ones done to perfection, crisp outside and fluffy inside, kale, peas, red cabbage, roasted carrots and parsnips, Yorkshire pudding, both a meat and a vegetarian gravy and, of course, Brussels sprouts both boiled and roasted. I suspect they had leftovers for at least a week. I took home a small container with a selection of meat, so I, too, did very well!

The weather is unseasonably warm but consistently grey and drizzly. There has, in fact, been mist and occasionally fog here. This is unfortunate as the airport is nearby. The forecast suggested a week of this weather was in the offing. At least the days are, at last, slowly getting longer. One of my Christmas gifts was a rain gauge, but it is unlikely that there will be anything to measure for a week or so! I increasingly wonder how people can deny the reality of climate change when the evidence is right in front of our eyes.

Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the shocking Boxing Day Tsunami in Southeast Asia. It was covered in a number of documentaries, and I finally watched the excellent film, The Impossible. I remember the event vividly, and, in the aftermath, hearing of people I knew and family of friends who lost their lives. There was some hopeful coverage of the way in which survivors were able to put their lives back together. The most touching was by Andrew Harding, a BBC journalist who covered the original disaster, who went back for the 10-year anniversary and yesterday reported for the 20th. He interviewed Mawardah Priyanka, an 11 year old survivor who lost both her parents, and in 2001 was: ‘exhausted, grimy and alone’. It was good to see her grown up and happy, albeit with the trauma in the background. Humans are resilient.

The Tsunami was a natural disaster. What is going on in Gaza and Ukraine is not! It is intolerable that we can allow this to happen. It shows that nations have no need to take notice of universal disapprobation, and little can be done. And yet the South Africa experience is informative. The sanctions imposed on the country in the 1970s and 80s were not the only reason for the change that led to majority rule, but they played a big part. I know this because I lived through it. I think sadly for some of the more closed-minded members of the white minority, one of the tipping points was the sense that we were global pariahs, and to a small but significant extent that we were not able to play sport internationally.

I know this last point may not seem to be that significant, but the success in rugby world cups was celebrated nationally and brought people together. As a reminder South Africa won in 1995, 2007, 2019 and in 2023. Last year they won the world championship. The first win was the most important! There were few people in the country who do not celebrate this, and, I would like to think, everyone was aware of it.

It is very depressing to contemplate what might happen in 2025. I believe the election of Donald Trump means the Ukraine war will be ended, and not to the advantage of the Ukrainians. It has also heartened the Israeli government. The bloodshed and suffering will continue. Of course there are many other troubled areas: Central Africa is bubbling as are parts of Sudan. We know it does not have to be like this. The Balkan wars of the 1990s eventually ended and there is an uneasy peace in the region. The big news from the Middle East was the overthrowing of Bashar al-Assad, where opposition forces captured the capital Damascus on 8 December 2024. Unfortunately the jury is still out on what will happen next.

Among my gifts was Anna Reid’s book Borderland: A Journey through the History of Ukraine (Weidenfeld and Nicholson), first published in 1997 but I have the 2022 edition. I am looking forward to reading it. I worked there at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic and was very taken with the people and place, although we did not get outside Kyiv. Another book gift was Jessica Bruder, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century (Swift, 2017). Although this may be outdated, I fear that the tales of woe will be amplified in the next four years. Sadly, the USA is not a forgiving environment, especially for those with limited resources.

There was, however, good news in the offing, especially about climate. There is an excellent BBC programme Rare Earth, the most recent episode was titled Reasons to be Cheerful. The caveats are political situations, which are uncertain. In 2024 the amount of energy used in the UK from renewables was greater than that from fossil fuels. Really interesting was the comment that business is taking the crisis seriously, the examples used were investment and insurance where this is ‘baked in’ to decision making. Who would have thought that capitalism, one of the major causes, could be a part of the solution, and how encouraging that it is seeming to take place.