HAPPY NEW YEAR! I was planning to give up wine and just drink gin all month for Dry Ginuary and maybe champagne so that I could argue that I’m allowed to drink things that have fizz, but I’ve already failed, because, well, I sort of forgot and there was some open in the fridge when I was watching Grey’s Anatomy and anyway, I like wine so f*ck it, why shouldn’t I drink it if I want to even if it’s not very good for me, because I’m trying not to add anymore stress than I need to my life.
I hope you all enjoyed your New Year’s Eve celebrations wherever you were, either with friends and family or going to bed early, as per my mother’s favourite activity on that particular day. I started the day with a walk with a friend in the glorious sunshine:-
NYE walk
Then in the evening we managed to get together with a group of old friends and party our little socks off. This particular friend is my oldest – we met when we were 10 in Hong Kong and have been friends ever since:-
Partying with my oldest friend
It made me feel like I wanted to send this message (not only to my bottles of wine and gin) but to all my friends and family – it somehow feels more joyful to be appreciating everyone and everything a little more after our shitty year (I stole this from Atticus (the poet), I hope he won’t mind):-
Atiticus quote
The planning of our New Year’s Eve, like Christmas was a little comical – dodging the virus left, right and centre as well as trying to ensure that our children didn’t realise we had an empty house to party in, until it was too late and they’d made their own plans. So our celebration felt even more special. Walking along the promenade in Brighton on New Year’s Day felt incredibly uplifting – especially because I wasn’t one of the mad people in the photo who were going for a swim:-
Brighton Beach New Year’s Day
Whilst we don’t know what 2022 has in store, it does feel more hopeful in terms of emerging for the virus so far and judging by the sudden jump in European Tourism and airline stocks, everyone is beginning to feel that the Omicron virus isn’t going to be a huge threat and has only delayed the opening up of some parts of the world by a couple of months.
So I’ve decided that I’m not going to make any New Year’s Resolutions this year. I think it’s a year to be gentle with ourselves and that it’s good enough to just pat yourself on the back and say “well done” for getting through the last year. So whilst I’d like to be fitter, healthier, stronger, more focused, dedicated and committed so that I aim to become a whole new person, I’m going to instead embrace the person that I already am, because right now I’m happy, my kids are happy, my boiler is only marginally broken, my body isn’t aching too much and the sun is shining.
I don’t really feel I can ask for more than that at the moment… except maybe more cheese – I bought this cheese online from Neal’s Yard for our New Year gathering (I’m only every in charge of the cheese platter for our get together’s by the way – none of them trust me with the actual food production) and it was spectacular so maybe I’ll add that to the list of things I shouldn’t really be doing in January:-
Cheese platter
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