Happy New Year!

It is just a few days into 2010. What remains of Christmas and the holiday period is quickly waning; the turkey has been eaten (or frozen) and soon even the deccies will be coming down leaving nothing to cheer the cold January nights. Still, at least the nights are getting shorter.

Tomorrow the daily grind will recommence so before I pack away the ghost of Christmas past into its cardboard boxes and plastic crate, in true New Year stylee, I'll take a moment to reflect on 2009 and make promises to myself for 2010.

So, what of 2009? My first intention for 2009 was to blog more. I think it's fair to say, without risk of disagreement, that this is one resolution successfully achieved with 48 posts against 6 from the previous year! However, they say promises are made to be broken, and my intention to lose weight and be more active fell decidedly flat! Sing Live has robbed a little bit of my time and there's the OU degree, which is in its penultimate year, so it can be tough to keep up with all the comings and goings of life and still find time for being active. Losing weight, it appears, is always going to be a battle for me. Maybe 2010 will bring a bit more success in these areas!

And so to the New Year. I'm already trying to avoid thinking about all the things I have on my plate but there a hand full of things I particularly want to achieve. I intend to try and keep up the blogging - lets aim for at least 50 blog posts in 2010! My OU course this year is creative writing, so I should be writing everyday anyway. Most of this will be in my notebook / journal because I love the feeling of writing by hand, but if I can get into a good writing habit offline, it should reinforce my blogging habits! Next on my list of priorities is to get better at looking after my money. Thanks to my marvelous Mum, who has paid for carpets for our house (we have never had carpets since moving into this house three years ago!) the last of the major spending on our home is pretty much done. This should make money a bit easier, but it is time to start paying off the credit card and doing some saving as well. It would be nice to have a little pot of Christmas money for next year so that gifts don't end up coming out of two months salary, which is always a bit crippling! Of course, having not achieved it in 2009, I am also aiming to be more active and to lose some weight in 2010. I'd like to lose a stone (that's only 1lb every four weeks so it's not beyond the realms of possibility!) and I want to use the Wii to be more active. I'll aim to use it once a week to begin with but really I want to be on it everyday that I can find the time. Finally, my softer goals. I want to visit my friends Mel and Sven in Belgium at least once this year. It would also be great to visit Anders and Jennifer in Sweden, and I'd love to see Mieke from the Netherlands this year too. I would also like to get deltafleet.com back up on the net and finish the deltafleet story, so look out for that too.

So there we go... no small feet to achieve all of that, but hopefully some, if not most of my goals can be reached. But as I said before, promises are made to be broken! ;o)

Resolve

In 2000 I started working for QVC in London, making a weekly commute to and from Manchester by train and lodging in Croydon during the week. I did this for 18 months, working 12 hour shifts, one week on, one week off. I loved it, but the disruptive pattern took its toll and I went from an already overweight 13 stone up to a shocking 16 stone. Returning to a normal pattern of three square meals a day and a normal working day improved matters but I added a further two stone to my girth before the weight gain stopped.

In 2006 I managed to lose one and a half stone but last year I only managed to maintain my weight. Of course, being skinny is not my ultimate goal. I have never really suffered from the self-image issues that others do so I'm not bothered about looking like a mo-delle: I would rather have curves! However, I have two reasons for wanting to get my weight in check. First is the obvious health issues and benefits. Being obese puts me at risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, osteoarthritis and more. Second, in order to have a family, we need IVF, which can only happen if I lose weight.

And so, New Year's resolution numbers two and three is to lose weight and to be more active.

Welcome 2009

Forgive me reader; it has been 3 months since my last confession... er... indulgence... whatever... which is far too long! And so, being that it is the season of turned leaves (that are apparently new) and resolutions (that are frequently old) I felt the need to return and grace these electronic pages with a post.

A few weeks ago I received a surprise email from a friend of mine that I used to write with in my PBeM days. We'd been out of touch for a while so it was a pleasant surprise to hear from him. At the bottom of his email in his signature were a number of links, one being to his blog, so I decided to go and see what he'd been up to. I was horrified to discover that he had actually been quite unwell, recovering from a minor stroke that happened in April. However, as I read on, I had found, within his blog, the journey of an individual trying to find the way back to himself and struggling to understand and find answers in a world that rarely provides them. His blog inspired me to get back into the habit of blogging myself. Not because I could hope to produce anything as insightful or witty, but more because I enjoyed reading.

Aaron: Thank you!


So here lies resolution number one - blog more! Happy New Year everyone! :o)