Happy New Year

Happy 2011 and all that bollocks.

We spent New Year's Eve in the company of good friends; two other couples that I've known for many years - the wife of one I've known for nearly 40 - and we spent the hours drinking, laughing and cuddling rabbits, of both the hopping & pooing and stuffed toy variety:

This is J, sitting between TLH (on the left) and my oldest friend C (on the right).  J is an ex-punk and a multi-level black belt Master Coach in Wing Chun Kung Fu.  He knows many people, both savoury and otherwise.  He is a diamond geezer and someone I'd want on my side in a battle. I think you can tell this from the picture. 

We weren't intending to stay for long, possibly not even until the chimes but I did point out to TLH that it was pretty pointless going out on New Year's Eve if you don't hang around for Big Ben, so we thought we'd just see how long we lasted.  We eventually rolled home at about 1am - TLH and I were sensibly soberish but S (J's wife) was wandering down the middle of the road declaring her vast and undying love for her friends!

I don't really hold with resolutions.  I mean, I think they're a reasonable concept but, in reality, you're just setting yourself up for failure when you don't manage to achieve whatever target it is you've set yourself.  However, I don't think it's a bad idea to contemplate the forthcoming 12 months and maybe think about stuff, rather than letting the months just roll over you in unstoppable fashion until, suddenly, next Christmas and New Year are upon you once again and you're one year nearer to death.

Sorry to be a bit maudling there but my 2010 had too much death in it for my liking - this year we said goodbye to TLH's father in July and Pepper Bean the cat in November.  We did, however, welcome Lyra into the family in  February, the latest addition to my brother's brood, but it would be nice if no-one else died in 2011.

There is stuff I really ought to do but probably won't succeed at - such as lose some weight, try and make some money, get fitter by doing more exercise - and stuff that I'm more likely to achieve - learn to knit, make more jams & pickles, do more baking, read more, get more proactive down the allotment.  And then there's the stuff that I would really like to do - travel a lot more, go on a whole load of courses to learn stuff like silversmithing, photography, stained glass, painting, languages - which are very unlikely to happen.  But I dunno, the thought of an entire year stretching out in front with all its possibilities seems terribly daunting and a little scary, to tell the truth.  It's very easy to just sit back and resume normal service, and get nothing new done in the process.  Trouble is that I'm lazy and I know it.  I spend far, far too much time piddling around on the internet.  Oh, sure, I've learned stuff from it this year - I taught myself to crochet at the beginning of 2010 via videos online - but I've also spent far too much time living my life vicariously through it.  But I'm not about to chuck away my laptop - it's a dilemma.

And I don't think I'm alone here, am I? Hmm?