2008: the year of the binbag
This time last year I made a list of some easy-to-stick-to resolutions I planned to follow to the letter. These have also been floating around what used to be my desk (until Jim bought a piece-of-shit Vista desktop and took it over) so I would remember what I had said I would do. Before I decide what I will undertake this year, let’s review last year’s aims and see how I did, shall we?
1. End the year better off than I started it
Believe it or not I am ending 2007 much better off than I started it, thanks to a lot of luck and self-control. In March I received a not inconsiderable windfall and ever since, financial prudence has ensured that I haven’t gone into the red again. In twelve months I have gone from debt with no end in sight, to a credit balance and a regular savings plan. It can be done! And before you write it off as my simply getting some inheritance, I managed to rinse £2,500 back from my bank and credit card companies thanks to Martin Lewis. I cannot overstate how much money you can reclaim if, like me, you have been a bit careless in the past. Don’t just sit there: claim your money back!
2. Actually go to the gym
And after starting on such a high, I must now grovel for forgiveness. I have paid £17 per month for the gym, and actually completed a total of three workouts. That means I have paid £68 for on-and-a-half hours on the treadmill, one hour on the cycle and the same on the rower. Not exactly a return, is it? Jim has been a model of good behaviour and gets up at 6.30am every day to hit the gym before eight o’clock. I hit the shower at eight o’clock and still struggle to make it to work before nine.In my defence, it’s not been a total loss. My gym subscriptions helped subsidise cheap classes in different sports like trampolining, on which I did enrol. And I took Nathan, too - on the whole I think I probably recouped some of my money. And had a GREAT time!
I am a natural on the tramp (and have some natty socks, too). Next month: somersaults!
3. Read more
Honestly, I haven’t had the time. I have read sixteen books this year. Not exactly staggering, is it? But I have learned Sign language this year, which did require some of my reading time, I suppose. Sixteen books: 1.3 books a month. I can do better.
4. Write more
Well, I’m not as far along with the novel as I would like, but I have joined a writing group which I really enjoy. I know that writing groups have a bad rep - weekly meetings in the church hall where you make tea and talk about eachother’s divorces - but it really has brought me on leaps and bounds in my writing. The downside is that now I have to go back and rewrite whole sections of my novel because, having developed so much, I can see all the problems with everything I’ve written already. At least it’s a good pain, eh?
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So, what will I undertake in 2008? There’s no point in committing to read and write more since I will have to do that now with the new writing group. I can’t really finish off 2008 better off since, visa permitting, I will be moving to Australia before Christmas; and there’s no point in committing to the gym since it is apparent that I just don’t bother unless it involves jumping twenty feet in the air on a giant spring-loaded mesh. Creative thinking is required, so here goes:
1. Downsize
If the Australian Government agrees to grant us visas, Jim and I will be moving to Down Under in 2008. At the moment, our little flat is busting at the seams with piles of thing; some sentimental, but mostly junk. I’m not a hoarder on the whole, but you know how it is - you think something might be useful one day, or it has some tenuous sentimental link, or you might wear it again even though you shrank it/stained it/burned a cigarette hole in the arm (bastards). This year, I pledge to reduce my stock of ’stuff’ to shippable levels so that when we need to send it over to the other side of the world, we can do it in a couple of crates, rather than having to charter a ship of our own.
2. Move my blog to its own website
I bought the domain, I’m just not technical enough to get it quite how I want it. At the moment I’m struggling between Wordpress and Moveable Type. I like Wordpress and it would be easier to move with, but the sidepanel thing on WP annoys me. Have you noticed that all the type appears in a column down the centre of your screen? I hate wasting all that space at the sides and Moveable Type goes right to the corner! Revolutionary! If anyone has an answer, let me know. I’m pretty desperate.
3. Apply for my MA
I want to do this and if we go to Australia, I am applying to University of Sydney. If not, there are several places in the UK that I have thought about. Now I have the means, and hopefully a more mature ability, it is stupid not to do something about it. Enough stalling: time for some action.
4. Get a six-pack
Alright, I know I said I wouldn’t promise to go to the gym, but when I get to Australia it will be the start of the summer. There’s nothing I can do about my being the whitest thing on the beach, but I can certainly avoid looking like a bleached-out blimp. I know all it takes is a few months of diligent work and I will be trim and super, but I’m just too fucking lazy. 2008 is the year of the workout!
Happy New Year!!!!
