Friday, January 2,
Mind you, I’ve made a good start. My first resolution is to contact everybody in my email contacts list within the next four weeks or delete them. So far, I’ve fired off 52 emails and got 10 replies, including one from
My second resolution involves health and fit-for-nothingness. I’ll avoid being any more specific at this stage. Just in case I’m tempted to give up before I manage to start. Here too, though, I can announce progress of sorts. I went to my local gym today and asked for a special monthly membership rate. They said no. Still, at least I went. I had a small glass of red wine to celebrate this evening, which was perhaps less commendable. I’m currently fighting the urge to uncork the bottle again.
My third resolution involves a musical instrument but, again, I’m keeping quiet about my exact goal until I have consulted with an expert on the matter. I don’t want to get too ambitious. To date, all I play is an iPod. TB and SYOD tell me that whatever I choose must be equipped with a mute button.
There’s more, involving German irregular verbs, a few rounds of golf, my derisory annual earnings, computer technology, a web site and the state of our house. But, again, I’ll try to avoid heightened expectations by remaining suitably vague. I’m not good with heightened expectation.
As a member of the TRSNYRC and provider of the recent choc pud still staining Tony's teeth(I really should tell him) I thought my first entry should be an apology for encouraging Tony in this venture. It has been my practise over several years now to provide as much stony ground as I can for the almost incessant flow of ideas he has-but some just take root and here we are. The idea of new year resolutions when slightly tipsy and replete with good food is always attractive but as the statistics show the majority of good intentions are ultimately doomed to failure. The most attractive characteristics of this venture for me and which I thank Tony for is that its not about giving up anything its about the journey and like all good journeys the pace is manageable and there are plenty of refreshment stops planned along the way. This means I don't have to give up any of the things which make me fat(which I should do of course) or enable me to embarass my children in front of their friends although I must admit Clare is much better at this particular activity than me when she wants to be.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of weeks before I have to decide what I will do and intend to make good use of this time. I have a number of ideas although learning to write with my left hand does not seem quite as useful or having had a practise run as attainable as I first thought. While mulling this over I recalled a Scottish friend of mine who was a great man for self improvement or lost causes I could never make up my mind which one and who for reasons best known to himself decided he needed to improve his English vocabulary. I dont recall he had any problems ordering beer or kebas and I remember at the time advising him that as a Scott the only words he needed to really remember were England, worldcup and winners alas he did not take this suggestion very well. Despite or maybe in spite of my well meaning counsel he resolved to learn five new words every day for a year and on the 1st of January I was deputed to test him on these words everyday on our long journey between our house share in Woodgreen and our workplace in Victoria. Even after several decades I still remember three of the 15 words ...... and for the life of me I have no idea why he chose them, discombobulate, pulchritude and commingle. I can guarantee that Jim still remembers the words I suggested to him but these three, what do you think? As the clock ticks down to the first meeting I am considering that my resolution should be to get all three of these words into a meaningful sentence in a decent Scottish brogue.