First Monday of 2013

Photo

I tend to leave my resolution making until after new year's day. Usually I try to have them ready to roll out by the second week of January as, let's face facts, the first week is far too soon to pretend I'm going to run every day and not eat biscuits. By the second week I feel more prepared. I've become acquainted with the new year; the two of us have still been having a bit of a flirt with the saucy last days of dirty old December, but we're ready to move on now. Onwards and upwards. 2013, it's time.

I've tried to keep my challenges simple and practical this year:

I'm going to work hard on making my mornings productive. It takes me a long time to wake up properly even after I've had my coffee, so it makes sense to set the alarm clock an hour earlier so that I can relax and read, and by 9am I'll hopefully be in the game, rather than just pretending to be.

I'm going to broaden my culinary skills and try to add two new recipes to my repertoire each month, and also, eat fewer burritos from that place down the road.

I'm going to say yes to more things.

I'm going to get arms like Michelle Obama.

Don't tell anyone, but the biggest new year resolution I've made for 2013 is to spend next new year's eve on a beach, somewhere warm, with a glass of rum punch. This is by far the idea I've had in a long time.

This Year

Image

I have a love-hate relationship with the new year moment. I'm awe struck by being in the midst of one of time's turning points, where you're supposed to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. But as the hours draw closer to midnight I usually feel a mixture of excitement, nostalgia, and a tiny bit of panic about the unknown year ahead. Does anyone else get this?

Usually, I make the standard resolutions: eat more fruit, drink loads of water, go to bed earlier, run more. While I'm probably going to try and do all the same things again this year - why break with tradition - I'm also making a few resolutions about improving in other ways: it never hurts to work on being kinder, more patient, more optimistic and more thoughtful. To take each day as it comes, and not stress about the small stuff.

And just for fun, I'd also love to make sure that this time next year I've filled in a few reading gaps...

Ulysses by James Joyce (second attempt)
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

New Year Greetings

Image Credit

Hope your New Year's Eve was a champagne filled, glittery hatted, trumpet blowing affair. I caught up with friends, and we spent the countdown playing the post-it note party game where you have to guess the name stuck on your forehead. I was Germaine Greer! There was plenty of red wine, a few sips of fizz, and these homemade peppermint mocha cookies were delicious. I ate three in a row.