Friday 30th December - Getting into training...

Just two days left to set myself up for the New Year - oh, now that it is heading to the end of today there's even less time left...

I'm making a clear difference between New Year Resolutions and Good Ideas

The resolutions that I chose more than five years ago have served me well and I have no intention of changing them. I've managed to keep them without too much difficulty, and so enjoy the nice warm glow this gives me that I'm not going to risk upsetting that. They are;

Eat chocolate several times a week.

Deliver, otherwise put by, two bags of stuff for the charity shop every month (size of bag and quantity of contents not important).

Keep on with writing a page in the diary at the end of every day. My bright yellow 2023 Moleskine page-day diary is all ready for Sunday evening.

Now Good Ideas are an entirely different matter. If one, or several don't happen in any day, or in any week - well, that's life. It's just an idea.

It is a good idea to eat more fruit, and having a fruit smoothie every day would be one way.

It is a good idea to eat more vegetables, so how about a side salad with lunch (main meal) or supper?

It is a good idea to be more active, so trying to do the 5 minute balletbasedmovement videos everyday is a way to achieve this. Also aiming for a daily total step count of more than 1500, even more if possible, would go a long way to maintaining a minimum level.

I've been practising the Good Ideas all this week to be ready for Sunday. So far so good...

Tuesday 1st February - Looking back, looking ahead

 I'm not doing 'New Years Resolutions' this year. I decided to start each month afresh, with a 'wish list' rather than resolutions, and see how I got on.

So, January;

Did I learn the new piano pieces? NO! And I didn't do much practice either. Ah well. I did make a start on the Jacques Ibert 'Little White Donkey', and it wouldn't take much effort to finish it. I think I'll carry that one forward.

However I did finish the mitten (memo to self, next time DO use a smaller needle for the ribbing) and also a pair of socks, my first ever. 

I am amused to see that laying the socks on top of the printer for the photograph has resulting in me awarding myself a star! 

The socks have pointy toes; I did graft the toe end of the RH sock but had the sock in the wrong orientation. Who cares! I am going to use them as bed socks, which is one of the reasons why the legs are so short. The other reason is that I wasn't sure if I would have enough wool.

I did finish the other two projects; a cowl (now chopped up in the compost bin, memo to self; DO NOT knit things like that in pure Shetland wool, far too itchy) and the little white Christmas ornaments, now stuffed with lavender and reposing in my sock drawer.

Walking happened - and I now that I have discovered I can convert 30 mins ballet to approximately half a mile of walking, I shall make faster virtual progress around the Ring of Kerry.

Weight-wise I ended the month a couple of pounds lighter than I started it - in spite of the Christmas Chocolate stash, home-made macaroons and rockish scone-ish cakes, pannetone, and other delights. 

So, looking ahead...

Finish learning the Little White Donkey,

Make another pair of socks in finer wool and try and get the green jumper going again (it's stuck at the moment as I work out what to do next. Following a proper pattern would have made this much easier!)

Do more drawing/panting

Walk more, now that the weather is improving

See if I can end the month a little lighter than when I started it

That's five items on the wish list. Plenty.

The new picture at the top of this blog comes from when we took a short break in Tewkesbury, oh so many years ago now. Maybe it was 2014. I notice the month is April, but it was bitterly cold when we were there, more like February. The dragon lives at the bottom of someone's garden, facing across the water meadows and the River Severn. We spoke to owner; she had commissioned it as a memorial to her husband, who came from Wales. 

Here he is again, for people using their tablets or mobiles to read this post;

 

   

 

Hello 2022 - Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

I've had those words as an earworm to several days now. Anyway, I wish you all a Happy New Year, and also"Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow", today and every day.

And, should you know the tune, I apologise for infecting you with the earworm. Although there are probably worse things to have running around in your head.

This time of year the sun rises more or less opposite our bedroom window. The view might not be wonderful - all roof lines, television aerials, street lights, telegraph poles and BT wires, but one can look past and through them to see the glorious skies;

I have not made new resolutions this year - although I will continue with the old ones of  'write a page in the daily diary every the evening' and 'eat chocolate at least once a week'. These are not so much resolutions and habits now. The other one of delivering two bags of 'stuff' to the charity shop every month is a bit tricky at the moment.

Somewhere I read about the 'Texas Sharpshooter', who fired his gun at the barn door, and then painted  targets on it, with the bullseyes centred on the bullet holes. That seems a promising approach to making guilt-free 'resolutions' for this year.

Oh help. I have just googled this on the source of all knowledge and discovered that is is a description of one of many fallacies that abound in statistical analysis... nothing is so likely to wake the sleeping tigers in our household as yet another example of misuse of statistics on the news. 

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, my bullet holes in the barn door are a series of soft and flexible suggestions for myself for January...

1. Taking up the Active Repertoire Challenge at www.pianodao.com, which is always to have a couple of pieces that one can perform anytime, anyplace, without music, and without anxiety. At the moment my 'go-to' pieces all date from my childhood, when I memorised everything I ever learned to play as a matter of course. I plan to resurrect something a bit 'meatier' than the Bach Minuet in G, and also learn something new which I will probably be teaching later this year anyway.

2. Sketching throughout January

This is an exercise from (one of the many) books I have acquired over the years. It is a place we visited about 4 years ago on a bleak Spring day quite near to where we live. The house is in a hollow quarried out of the side of the hill, and I took the photograph from a sort of treehouse built around the trunk of a huge beech tree near the top of the steep slope behind the house.

3. Walking (off and on) throughout January - a nominal notion of maybe reaching a total of ten miles by the end of the month sounds attainable.

4. Writing more letters and postcards, sending more emails to friends and relatives. Walking to the post box and back is about half a mile, which should help me along the way to covering ten miles.

Our nearest post-box has been decorated for Christmas!

Friday 1st January 2021 - 8th Day of Christmas

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As I said previously, last year has taught me not to MAKE plans, just yet anyway. I do have travel hopes for a possible future date; they are relatively modest in scope, if not financially. I'm talking about a river cruise, or two, or three; like Amsterdam, Bordeaux, or the Rhine?

Other daily routines and resolutions are more problematic. I don't know why I am so attracted to 'daily lists' and routines, which I know I will never manage keep.

• lose weight - exercise every day
• write every day
• draw and paint every day
• practise the piano every day
• go for a walk every day
• do some housework every day

Maybe a good resolution is to not mind if I don't do these every day? Just a couple of times a week? Keep these things ticking over? 

Here are my official resolutions for this year which I think I will manage to keep (I have a policy of not setting myself up for failure); 

• write up the day in my new diary, as I have been doing now for seven years.   
• eat chocolate several times a week
• enjoy the pleasure of life singly (this was suggested by a friend and is a really good idea - the number of times I have absent-mindedly eaten biscuits or drunk coffee with hardly any memory of the taste - what a waste.)

Finally;

I found this poem on twitter - so far no sign of the author (but if you know, please comment and I'll acknowledge)

I won’t arise and go now, and go to Innisfree

I’ll sanitise the doorknob and make a cup of tea.

I won’t go down to the sea again; I won’t go out at all,

I’ll wander lonely as a cloud from the kitchen to the hall.

There’s a green-eyed yellow monster to the North of Kathmandu

But I shan’t be seeing him just yet, and nor, I think will you.

While the dawn comes up like thunder on the road to Mandalay

I’ll make my bit of supper and eat it off a tray.

I shall not speed my bonnie boat across the sea to Skye,

Or take the rolling English road from Birmingham to Rye.

About the woodland, just right now, I am not free to go

To see the Keep Out posters or the cherry hung with snow.

And no, I won’t be travelling much, within the realms of gold,

Or get me to Milford Haven. All that’s been put on hold.

Give me your hands, I shan’t request, albeit we are friends

Nor come within a mile of you, until this virus ends.

There's a cheerful start to the year - but yes, it did make me laugh. 

view through arch at Field Place, Leith Hill, Surrey

One day....

n twitter

Thursday 31st December - 7th Day of Christmas

 only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other.... (Macbeth, somewhere)

I did get out for a walk after lunch in spite of the frost still lying on the ground, and the ice still in place on stray buckets of water. A whole 200 m - but before you say 'was that all?' let me explain...

I thought it would make a change to go out of our back gate, along the secret path we hacked through the dense laurel hedge at the bottom of the garden, and down the steep bank to reach the footpath/cycle track running along the stream. Then I planned to stroll along the path until it connects with the road, and I would be able to complete the circuit home walking on pavements.

Arthur Rackham illustration

The first part of the plan was a great success; and I reached the bottom of the bank without losing my balance on the slithery slope, or tangling my feet in the brambles. The path, however, was lost in a sea of mud... The river comes up out of its gully and floods the path given sufficient cause - like storm Bella, maybe? - and I think this must have been what had happened. 

I picked my way along one direction, far enough to know that my red suede shoes were no match for this terrain, and made my way back, past our house as far as was reasonable (not far, then!).

Never mind. I had had an outing and some fresh air, and now I would return to central heating and sitting around at home.

This is where my problems started; I couldn't find the place to enter the secret path back to our gate. After a couple of exploratory scrambles halfway up the bank, I selected the most likely route and forced my way up, clinging to branches just about strong enough to assist. Disaster - I was too far over; but there was no way was I prepared to go back down to mud level and try again (and again, and again).  

I had my mobile with me - I could phone for help! as in 'ring ring, ring ring, I'm stuck at the bottom of the garden'? 

No. I'd got myself into this ridiculous  predicament, and I would get myself out of it. 

I went down on my hands and knees and crawled through the branches, rescuing my hat before it was seized from my head by the hungry grasping laurels. Eventually I reached a space where I could stand upright and wait until I had caught my breath... then walk on towards the gate and catch my breath... then slowly walk up the path to the back door... then go upstairs and change my trousers...

Maybe it was a mere 200m today, but it involved a good deal of physical effort... at least I stayed warm!

Janus wikipedia

New Year's Eve is a time for looking backwards over the past year, and forwards to the next. If 2020 has shown me anything, it has been to not fix my heart on plans for the future. That's why, looking ahead to 2021, I am not making dreams, setting goals, thinking about ambitions. Not a one. 

Last Year's Resolutions also went by the board quite quickly - two bags of 'stuff' to the charity shops every month, for example. Not a chance. I did keep the daily diary, and the 'eat chocolate at least once a week' resolutions except when lock down severely impacted my chocolate supply.

I'm mulling over suitable resolutions for this coming year... I have bought a new daily diary so that's definitely going to happen...

      

December 31st - Resolutions, Challenges, and all that bullshit

The Usual Resolutions;

1. Eat Chocolate every week
2. Keep up the page-a-day journal
3. Take 2 bags to charity shops every month - preferably with a few bits an pieces in them, preferably more stuff going out of the house than comes in

Challenges;

1. Do more drawing and painting - every day if possible
2. Do more piano playing (piano playing in the lessons doesn't count) - every day if possible
3. Do more writing - every week if possible 

Other Stuff;

1. Finish the Granny squares blanket - one or two squares to complete, connect all 15, 16 or 20 squares together and crochet a border (maybe - depends on how much wool I have)
2. Finish the Christmas Shawl - I'm at about 200 stitches across now; the shawl is finished when I run out of wool, which will be in about 80 rows time, increasing by one stitch on each row.
3. Make a start on the tapestry which is cluttering up space in the house and in my mind 

We shall see.....

Tuesday 1st January 2019 - Happy New Year

We didn't stay up to see the New Year in last night - by about nine pm we looked at each other and agreed that an early night was in order... although we woke briefly when the fireworks went off all around... and I woke in the middle of a complicated and confusing dream about burglars at some early hour. I think that might have been when the offsprings were creeping upstairs, returning from the party they had been to somewhere else...

Today was a slow start, unsurprisingly, and then a jaunt out to Petworth for lunch. We braved the crush at the cafe, and then went round the 'Georgian Christmas' exhibition.

Then we went our separate ways - the offsprings towards their own abodes, and us two back home.

That's Christmas not nearly over, though; the tree and decorations will stay up until - I'm not sure when - Epiphany? 6th December? or even Candlemas? 2nd February? I'm not sure when we will have an opportunity to pack everything away in the next few days.

Christmas is going to last until the 25th January anyway;

These chocolate calendars were reduced to £1 each at the corner shop. So that's a chocolate a day until 25th January.

New Year Resolutions?

Just the usual; a daily, weekly and monthly resolution. They have served me well for several years now.

Write a page per day in my diary

Eat chocolate at least once a week

Take two bags (of unspecified size) of donations (of unspecified size and number) to the charity shop every month.

  

 

 

New Year - 1st September 2018

New Year? Yes, the new School Year.

I'm still a teacher - which means that I 'manage' three different kinds of year; Calendar Years, from January to December, Tax Years, from April to April, and School Years, from September to July (where did August go?)

I suppose that means I can make three different sets of resolutions... no, bad plan.

I've just these two days left - Saturday and Sunday - before I have to start wearing my watch again, and plunge into Teacherworld, wherein I will be submerged util December, with a short break to come up for air in October.

Most of my timetable tangles are resolved now; just three schools and three piano pupils to go. Just an overwhelming list of emails to send out, pupil packs to assemble, TeacherBags to clear out and the last few sheets of old paperwork to shred.

We don't have a shredder; I rip the paper into tiny fragments and stir it into the compost bin for the slugs and worms to feast upon. Yum yum.

Sunday December 31st - Promises, promises...

This year's resolutions might not have gone as well as in previous years -

I do have an entry for every page in my journal, although there were a couple of sticky patches when I found my self trying to write up a whole week in one go. That's what I call a memory test.

I did eat chocolate every week. At least, I didn't keep a record, but I can't imagine a week without chocolate, so it must have happened.

It's the "two bags of stuff to the charity shop every month" resolution that I'm not sure of. A plastic tub sat in the hall collection stuff for months, before I finally managed to get round to dumping donating it all to a randomcharity shop. So I might have managed it, but probably not.

 



Still, they are good, workable resolutions, so I will stick with them for another year. saves me cudgelling my brain to come up with something different. 

I'll retrieve the tub from the shed, where all the extraneous clobber has ended up over Christmas/NewYear, and make a start on filling tomorrow. Or the next day. Sometime soon.

 

Sunday 12th February - Finishing Off

Well, at the beginning of the week, it was pretty much me who was finished off - but the antibiotics that I started the previous Friday were kicking in by the end of Monday.

I took Monday morning off, much to the cat's approval. She is always hoping I'll have a duvet day. In the afternoon I had an appointment to discuss treatments for osteoporosis - an unwelcome side-effect of being on steroids. It was a bit of a done-deal really - the previous load of pills had disagreed with me, so I knew that they would probably be recommending an infusion, which should last for a year and hopefully without ALL the side-effects of the last stuff.

As the week went on, I felt more and more like my usual self, buoyed up in the knowledge that this weekend (11th/12th February) I had very little scheduled.

It snowed very briefly this week - lovely fine brilliant white crystals on Friday night - on my way to African Drumming. It was soooo coooold at church, and no heating on (again) so I unlocked the hall and we had a good time sitting in a corner near a heater there. Just the four of us this week - usually there are a couple more - and for some reason we sounded Really Good together. Maybe because we weren't shivering as usual? The snow had stopped, coming home, and there was just enough left on Saturday morning to act as a reminder that it hadn't all been a dream. Apparently the current full moon is knows as the "Snow Moon", so I'm glad that it did do a bit of snowing.

One of my "unofficial" resolutions is to finish something every month. I'm not sure if finishing the back of my green knitted jumper counts. After all, I have to knit the front and two sleeves and then sew it all together before it is properly finished.

There are a couple of other jumpers I want to knit, but the problem is choosing the right yarn. The recommended yarn would make it a very expensive project, and I'm not prepared to lay out that amount of money unless I am sure I am going to finish it. So, I bought a ball of cheaper wool, and knitted up a swatch to see if I could get the right tension (so many rows and stitches in so many inches). The answer with this wool was "not quite" - right number of stitches, but too many rows. However, this pattern claims to be do-able in a couple of hours:

That seemed a good plan, as I gave the last hat I made to number 1 daughter after her umbrella failed to survive a bruising encounter with a lamp post. (Can't find a picture of it.) Anyway, I cast on 50 stitches and set to. It should have been knitted on circular needles, but I don'y have any in that size (10mm) so I knitted it flat, and got in some more practice at sewing up seams.

Result, three hours later, (with pause for supper).

It was very straightforward. A certain amount of "un-knitting" was required as I was watching "Sense and Sensibility" on television at the time. Something went a bit wrong with the knitting at the same time that something went a bit wrong between Marianne and Willoughby. But that's what advertisement breaks are for - sorting out the knitting. I was forewarned, though, and set it aside when Edward Ferrars visited the Dashwoods at the end of the final episode. All's well that ends well, including the hat. Which fits. And I have met that unofficial resolution for this month.



I've also finished a novel that I have sort of enjoyed. A friend recommended it after I had described how taken aback I was at the monumental rudeness of two African characters in a murder mystery I had read, where an African, of African descent, shouted "you son of a slave" at another African, or Caribbean descent. The fact that both characters were clergymen made it all the more shocking.  This is a love story, but also illuminates the differences between being American Black and African Black, and how it all works in America, Nigeria and London. I might not have got around to finishing it, if I hadn't had the "unofficial" resolution at the back of my mind, but in the end I'm glad I did. I think this story ends happily too. I can't be sure, because the ending is really a beginning, if you see what I mean. I'll find something easy and cheerful to read next, before I pluck up the courage to read the next "real" book on my list:



which I bought in my favourite bookshop, in Petworth, last time we were there.

Somewhere I came across the idea of creating a list of 100 things to do over the course of the year. I've put together about thirty or so, with room to add other ideas as I think of them. It's a mixture of mainly small items. Like "go for a pic-nic", "take in the view from the top of a hill", "spend a day at the sea", "eat a vegetable that I have grown in the garden". I like lists, and marking off when things are completed. If the items are too large, I might not have the pleasure of putting in a tick beside them. I loathe the "One hundred things/places/books to do/see/read before you die" types of lists. Maybe if I were about twenty-something I'd feel differently.

Now then. Are you ready for Valentine's Day on Tuesday? Me neither. But I Have A Plan...

Sunday 15th January - A Letter From Home

Dear Everyone,

So, the first full week of teaching has happened, and I can draw breath. There were a couple of potential dragons lurking at the beginning of term, to do with tricky parents and stroppy students, but luckily the dragons that looked as though they were going to be the most awkward turned out to be very small fry, and the bigger ones will eventually just take themselves off without me having to do anything about them. More I cannot say - one of my unpublished resolutions is to try not to be so snarky about people that irritate me for one reason or other.

We visited Petworth to return twenty djembes that our church had hired last term. Calling in the second-hand bookshop I parted with £1.50 of my hard-earned dosh for this:

   

It's a sort of anthology of snips and snaps, all with John Burninghams' illustrations which I have always enjoyed. There was a paragraph in it which caught my eye at the time and made it worth the money. I forget which it was now - but this morning I read this which made me laugh;

The idea of the two old folks sitting by the fire having gin and tonic and boiled eggs for supper amused me. (I've just downloaded "A Very Private Eye" by Barbara Pym onto my kindle for a future read.) We are totally electric now - apart from the central heating which relies on an electric pump. But we could always use the old storm kettle to boil some water.

It is very effective. Getting the eggs in and out of the contraption could be a challenge. And it won't make toast. Somewhere in among the garden stuff is our ancient barbeque, and the chimenea. Perhaps we would have cup-soup and BBQ steak in a power crisis? It would be a bad idea to bring any of these exciting miniature furnaces inside; I suppose would could line them up just outside the french windows and hope the flowering jasmine didn't catch fire.

Flowers have been a good source of cheerfulness this week. The snowdrops under the apple tree are late this year - they are normally up and nodding about at Christmas. However, after the last couple of properly could days they are now in flower. I'm not going out into the horrible dank seeping rain to take a picture. This is last year's.

We bought a couple of pots of hyacinths to take when we were going to visit my godmother a few weekends ago. In the event we postponed the trip, as it was the tremendously foggy weekend and it would have been foolish to venture out unless completely necessary. A few days ago they, too sprang into life. Just a few buds in the morning, and all in flower when I got home in the afternoon - a lovely surprise.

January's resolutions are sort of happening, especially the one to do with eating chocolate several times a week. The last box of "teacher chocolates" has just been opened (and eaten). We are pretty selective - eat the ones we like and lob the rest. Apple and chocolate? I don't think so. I've just got the musical tin of biscuits left now. There are the "unpublished" resolutions, but I'm only going to mention them if they actually happen. The "less of the Snarkiness" one needs a bit more practice, but some of the others might manage it, at least through January.

Well the afternoon draws on, and we are going out soon, in order to start the planning for a complex trip, involving seven different households and potentially three different embarkation points, not to mention all the events for when we arrive at our destination. There is one single fixed point about which everything gyrates - we should think ourselves fortunate to have even that amount of certainty to base our itinerary upon. Luckily we have a month or so to get it all together. All will become less unclear in time.

Love to you all,

x

     

Monday 2nd January - 2017 - Resolutions

I have so many journals and blogs and diaries to keep up with this year, plus projects and plans...

Blogs;
www.themusicjungle,
www.a-letter-from-home.blogspot.com

Diary;
the page-a-day I write up - I was going to put "every evening", but sometimes a few days can slide by and then I have to rack my brains to try and remember what happened

Journals;
I've been given "A Colorful Life" journal for Christmas, for doing painting and what-ever-ing in and also "A Sketch-a-Day" visual journal, and a sketching pencil

Reading;
Finish some of the books I started last year - I have a terrible habit of starting books and then abandoning them after a couple of chapters. My kindle is full of unfinished books.

Projects;
Learning a Scarlatti sonata every week on the harpsichord
Finishing off the current piece of knitting
Starting a vegetable patch in the garden
Continuing to ream out the clutter that has accrued in the dark corners of the house

So, regarding New Year Resolutions - as I make it a policy not to set myself up for failure, I'll stick with the usual;
Eat Chocolate at least once a week
Take two bags of stuff to the charity shop once a month

There are a whole load of other resolutions I'd like it if I could keep, but if I don't write them down, I won't mind so much when they don't happen.



  

January 1st 2016 - Another Year

So, Another set of resolutions...

well, no, mostly the same as last year. They have served me well for several years now. One friend says she likes to "challenge" herself with the resolutions each year, (and then laments that it didn't work out as she had hoped).

I've kept these resolutions for several years now, so at the end of each year I can look back and feel very satisfied. Here they are...

1. Write up a diary entry each day. (Sometimes I get a few days behind, but providing something gets written on each page, that will count. Even blah blah blah, can't remember what I did, although I have never resorted to that yet.). Last Year was purple, this year is green



Reason - because the days and weeks and months and, in the end, whole years were flashing by and I felt as though I was not taking stock, remembering the way the rooks appeared in the tops of the trees when they were nesting, when the first daffodils/bluebells flowered in particular patches, driving through pale translucent arches of beech trees just come into leaf, and later through little whirlwinds of brown falling beech leaves. And how I felt when, and what happened when, and so on.


2. Eat chocolate every week.

Reason - I like chocolate. Some days require chocolate.

3. Take some stuff to a charity shop every month.  

Reason - we just have tooooooo much stuff in the house. I don't set quantities - just Something with do. One of my uncles, who lived in a small flat (so I'm told - I never visited him there) has a "one in means one out" rule. Acquire a book? Then another book has to go. Buy a shirt? Then retire a shirt.

I have added some items which are Not resolutions but Good Ideas. That means that if I don't keep them, it doesn't matter.

1. Pray every day, using a prayer book. Prayer has been about the only thing that has made last year survivable in any way whatsoever. So I would like to formalize the concept. I have bought "The Divine Hours" by Phyllis Tickle (what a great name!) and have been using it for a week.

2. Stretch every morning. Just for a minute or so, when I get out of bed. Loosen up. Pretend to do some exercises. I've got a book called "5-minute work-outs" and I just to the easy bits out of it.

3. Transfer money to savings every month. I sort of do that anyway; I'm going to do it more consciously this year. I read, in a book called "Flip-it" (thanks for the recommendation!) that one way of organising money is to have 3 month's worth of living expenses in the first (current) account, then aim for 6-12 month's worth of savings in the next (savings) account, and when that is achieved (hahaha) put the rest in a longer term savings account. As someone who counts their accumulations of lucre in hundreds rather than thousands of pounds, this will be an interesting project...

To keep me on track, I have made a really pretty chart for recording some of these resolutions, and some other tasks (like remembering to take my "lunchtime pill" - that's red) in glorious techno-colour.

Nice.

Which makes me  more likely to do the task so as not to spoil the pattern. Childish? Who cares, if it works.

Saturday 3rd January - Waiting for the New Year to begin

These are the last few days of the Christmas Holidays. It seems like a kind of limbo; as though the New Year hasn't properly got started yet.

I've spent the day in this and thattery;

Domesticity 
loading the crock pot with a beef stew which is destined for our depleted freezer
the first of many, many loads for the washing machine to prepare for a sudden surge in laundry, because of

Partings

Son and daughter have gone their separate ways, back to their own lives. It's very quiet; me on my computer, he on his, one cat asleep near him, the other cat asleep near me.

More clearing up and throwing away
Some more kitchen utensils have been binned as past their 'use-by' date or added to the pile for the charity shop

Music Teaching

Several work-related emails, pro-formas and schedules have been dealt with

A number of worksheets have been prepared ready for next week

My 'black bag' that I lug around the schools has been emptied and re-stocked; pencil case with forty pencils, eraser and sharpener - check, glue stick - check, whiteboard pens - check, clean the laminated blank sheets that I use to make flash-cards - check; folder of clean white paper - check, folder of scrap paper - check

I have worked through another couple of sections of my 'green folder' - one section for each school - sorting, updating, throwing the paper as appropriate.

Diary

This year's diary arrived today. Purple, instead of last year's orangey-red. I wanted yellow, but for some inexplicable reason it was going to cost an extra £5. Purple will be fine.

Ridiculously, I struggled to remember what we had done on the 1st and 2nd January. That's one of the reasons why I found it well worth the effort of keeping a diary last year, and why I want to carry on with it. I got there in the end, racking my brains to remember... which brings me to

New Year Resolutions

same as the last few years - they have worked so well, why change a winning formula?

Keep a daily diary/journal

Eat chocolate at least once a week (though I might restrict it to only once a week for a little while, having stupidly weighed myself today)

two bags, of any size, with an unspecified quantity stuff inside, to a charity shop every month

I'm also working through the list of '116 things to throw away' which I picked up on my new time-fritterer, Pinterest, and have signed up for 'The January Cure', a daily email which should 'get your home in great shape'. Apparently completing each assignment 'will absolutely add to the momentum of positive change that lasts long after the Cure wraps up'. These aren't resolutions though - after all, I'm ignoring the first assignment, to vacuum or sweep or mop every floor in your house, moving furniture to make sure you get into every corner. What's the point of doing that until after I've taken down the Christmas Tree? That's just plain daft. I'm also supposed to go and buy some flowers 'as a gift to my home'. I've plenty at the moment, so I'll consider that as done!   

Church

I'm playing the piano at the 9am service tomorrow. I usually only play for the 1st Sunday in the month, as there are so many organists at our church that we take turns on a rota. I share with someone who dislikes playing the piano. She will play the hymns (Lord of all hopefulness, The Lord is my shepherd, And can it be) and I will play the song, even though it is one of my least favourite ever (I am anew creation). Hey - what about some more Christmas carols? I'll sneak some in during Communion. Heheheh.  

New year's Eve 2012 - Resolutions

The resolutions I came up with for 2012 have worked out pretty well, so I think I'll stick with them for the coming year. I deliberately chose resolutions that would be easy to keep, that were slightly "good", and that would make me feel good about life, and myself, and the world in general. I really, really, don't need to set myself up to fail!

So, here they are:

1. Take a charity bag (unspecified size) with some (unspecified quantity) unwanted stuff (unspecified contents) to a charity shop at least once a month.

Some months I forgot to take any, but then in other months I took two bags. When my parents were moving I took loads of their stuff (hey, I never specified WHOSE stuff had to be taken to the charity shop!) By the way, I have discovered that our AgeUK shop will take rags, and all those irritating little snips of fabric left over from dressmaking and patchwork.

I reckon I probably came close to keeping this one. Think I'll "bank" some bags by taking several in January to get ahead.

2. Eat some chocolate every week.

I didn't keep track of how well I did with this resolution last year either, but I reckon that I kept to it  well enough. My piano pupils have ensured that I have enough to get started on this resolution from tomorrow without delay.












I might add a new resolution; light some candles from time to time. Today I used the last of a box of festive extra-long matches handed over to us by friends when they emigrated about 20 years ago. I used it to light the advent candle, which has only got as far as day 6.










I've also lit the "God Jul" twirly-whirly that we brought back from a memorable trip to Copenhagen just before Christmas 2010. It seems an appropriate message for tonight. (Yes, I do know that "God" means "Good" - but I enjoy the double reading)







In a couple of hours we will go round to my father's flat and see in the New Year with him, and my brother's family.

What will the New Year bring?

I visited my mother with my father and brother this afternoon for a "goal-setting" meeting. There are some formidable obstacles to be overcome if there is to be any chance of her coming home. At the moment she needs two nurses to move her, see to her personal needs, reposition her in her chair or in the bed. She has no connection with her left side at all yet. If she came home, she would need carers to come in the morning, at lunchtime, and in the evening to get her up, take her to the toilet, and tuck her up at night, all a two person job using a hoist. Once in bed, she would have to stay there until the morning. I doubt she could be left alone in the flat for any length of time during the day or night.  

On the plus side, she is still improving little by little, mentally and physically. It's just that there will have to be a "step change" in the rate of progress, in every area, physically and mentally. We'll meet again for another review in three weeks, and then decisions can be made, will have to be made. Until then - well, there's some hard work to be done by all of us.

I think I'll just eat some chocolate now.