We all have our little routines every day and develop new ones when life changes. Per example after I retired some years ago, I no longer had a need for business suits except for one nice dark Italian suit and a couple of blazers in case I need them for a special day.
Usually now it is casual wear and here on the Island it is more like vacation comfortable wear, though we have done formal and business suit on a few occasions.
I may or may not shave on a day because I have no were to go and am not meeting anyone that day. On the other hand dishes and laundry gets done promptly now that we no longer have a cleaning lady.
Meals are planned that morning for the day and I keep tabs on what we have in the freezer and the fridge. We also see friends on a more impromptu manner, not much is planned unless it is a special occasion.
Every night we have cocktails at 5:30pm after the dogs have had their dinner. We have a 3 course dinner around 07:30pm unless we are going out to a concert or event. We always use dishes and the table is set with cutlery and place mats. We have dinner in the dining room, a bottle of wine paired for the meal and tapered candles are lit on the table, there is also music softly playing in the background. It is the same routine every night.
When we have guests for dinner or lunch, we will have drinks first, we will set a menu and we will never serve the same menu to guests twice, if we had a chicken dish once, the next time they come we will serve something different. Depending on the season the menu will vary greatly, we never serve a salad as a main dish and I find it very gauche to do so. A salad is just an intermediate course served with a prepared dressing not something from a bottle.
When we have a party, there is one coming up in 10 days, we think ahead of what we will serve, are people coming for a meal, or just drinks and nibbles which means serving good quality nuts and olives, a paté or a hard cheese with selected crackers. In this case we thought of doing a salmon mousse or a chicken liver paté with wine. We will chose a wine something which will go well with the event and if people bring a bottle of wine, I prefer to set it aside and go with what I selected for that night in white and red. Recently we had a pizza party and I asked my guests what they wanted, some preferred vegetarian other with meat or cheese or gluten free. Then I ordered from a pizza place here in town which makes really good pizza on thin crust, it tasted a lot better than the stuff from a commercial chain. We had a great party.
All these little details make for routines which define our lives and make everything more pleasant on any given day.
