Christmas is well and truly over. Glittery decs put away, cards in the recycling, house tidied and ironing done. It's back to the grindstone tomorrow.
I love Christmas, with all its sparkle and cheesiness. Which makes the new year return to work seem even greyer and less attractive. I'm conscious I'm always whinging about work and that in reality there are lots of other people with much worse jobs than me (or even no jobs) but I honestly feel I didn't sign up for this much hassle on a daily basis.
My parents would not have recognised the modern workplace. The pressures to perform, tight finances and the knowledge that you are only one step away from the dole queue. In their day, the public sector really was the tea drinking pen pushing environment of comedy (at least in some departments) and the private sector was where hard work was rewarded with high salaries. In some ways, some of that is still true but I do think the boundaries between the two sides have blurred.
Nor would they have suffered from the motives that push us on - mortgages, rampant consumerism (not all of you reading this will suffer from all of these, and nor do I, but many do) and keeping up with the Jones's (whoever they are), plus the availability of credit cards and loans causes many of us to fall into an enormous financial black hole without even noticing. Whilst they were poorer, they were certainly less stressed and happier.
However we are where we are. A domestic council of war in the new year about money (already had two years of no pay rise, and only 1% due this year despite inflation running at 5% ish for the last three years means we're VERY skint), plus resolutions (already propounded on this blog) will keep me busy. I am resolved to go forward in a spirit of optimism no matter what is thrown at me. I wonder how long it'll last?
Showing posts with label new year's resolution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new year's resolution. Show all posts
Monday, 2 January 2012
Sunday, 1 January 2012
New Year's Day
Happy New Year everyone!
Having had a superb new year's eve evening with good friends, have felt somewhat below my best today. I didn't drink that much, but I didn't eat much either, so serves me right.
However we have had a day to ourselves today; in fact because of the way Christmas and new year have fallen this year, we have had a nice long break and lots of wonderful time together, instead of the usual situation of being apart (ie we're not at work or doing chores). It has reminded me of what is important in life, of what we need to make the most of and maximise, instead of what demands our attention and exhausts us, which should be minimised and put into perspective.
Him Indoors and I have had lots of discussions about 'balance' in life during 2011, and both of us have singularly failed to have any sort of positive influence on things or change them. Our jobs, demanding and time consuming as they are, have solved some financial dilemmas and hopefully will continue to do so for a considerable period to come but have levied a considerable cost in many other ways. So time together, particularly time which is over a special time of year (Christmas, our wedding anniversary, new year) is very valuable.
Today has been nothing special. We went to Homebase, put up some new shelves (how domestic) and did some long overdue tidying. But it was just us, our timetable, and no one and nothing else. We bodged around, joked, laughed and got things done. And remembered why we love each other - we approach life in the same way, share the same values, and appreciate the way each other does things (very differently to each other, but it seems to work all the same).
So we intend to try, in 2012, to find some better 'quality time' (awful phrase) for each other in the busyness of life. We will make some time at weekends, and try not to be too late or too committed to other things in the week. We will revisit some of the simpler things we both like (gardening, walking, cinema) and stop spending money on things we don't need to spend it on and which we have done because we have been lazy.
2012 is shaping up to be a year of resolutions. Health, fitness and valuing our relationship. Oh, and if I just could win that lottery and this time next year be a millionaire, that would be good too!
Having had a superb new year's eve evening with good friends, have felt somewhat below my best today. I didn't drink that much, but I didn't eat much either, so serves me right.
However we have had a day to ourselves today; in fact because of the way Christmas and new year have fallen this year, we have had a nice long break and lots of wonderful time together, instead of the usual situation of being apart (ie we're not at work or doing chores). It has reminded me of what is important in life, of what we need to make the most of and maximise, instead of what demands our attention and exhausts us, which should be minimised and put into perspective.
Him Indoors and I have had lots of discussions about 'balance' in life during 2011, and both of us have singularly failed to have any sort of positive influence on things or change them. Our jobs, demanding and time consuming as they are, have solved some financial dilemmas and hopefully will continue to do so for a considerable period to come but have levied a considerable cost in many other ways. So time together, particularly time which is over a special time of year (Christmas, our wedding anniversary, new year) is very valuable.
Today has been nothing special. We went to Homebase, put up some new shelves (how domestic) and did some long overdue tidying. But it was just us, our timetable, and no one and nothing else. We bodged around, joked, laughed and got things done. And remembered why we love each other - we approach life in the same way, share the same values, and appreciate the way each other does things (very differently to each other, but it seems to work all the same).
So we intend to try, in 2012, to find some better 'quality time' (awful phrase) for each other in the busyness of life. We will make some time at weekends, and try not to be too late or too committed to other things in the week. We will revisit some of the simpler things we both like (gardening, walking, cinema) and stop spending money on things we don't need to spend it on and which we have done because we have been lazy.
2012 is shaping up to be a year of resolutions. Health, fitness and valuing our relationship. Oh, and if I just could win that lottery and this time next year be a millionaire, that would be good too!
Saturday, 31 December 2011
New Year's Eve
Well it's new year's eve. When we all wake from our alcohol induced sleep tomorrow morning, it will be a fresh new year with fresh new hopes.
I blogged yesterday about my new year's resolution, so I won't bore you with it again here. And I do intend to do something about it, but not until 24th January - those of you that know me and know what I'm doing for the next three weeks will know why. Then I have almost three months of uninterrupted time to focus on ME, and make it happen.
New Year's resolutions are odd things and probably not worth the time and angst that they take up. I wonder what percentage are broken within 7 days? What percentage within 2 days? I bet it's very high, maybe as high as 90%. And why wait until 1st January to do something about your weight / ambitions / relationship / job / etc?
To be honest, even if I only achieve limited success it will be more than I have achieved in 2011, which has been a pretty crap year all round. Hopefully 2012 will be better; we need things to start picking up or frankly we'll all be up s**t creek without a paddle regardless of whether we have a job or not. At least we can sit smugly in the UK and be thankful that we never joined the Euro; my poor Greek friends are really suffering and the trouble is (as it is everywhere) the people that are having to pay are not the people that caused the problems in the first place. But they keep smiling, smoking and drinking coffee! The fact that the Germans are trying to wage World War III by stealth with the French hanging on their coats tails is, of course, neither here nor there. I mean, why invade when you can take hold of another country's fiscal policies?
Healthwise, I need all my limbs to start functioning normally and be able to be more active and do some exercise. I don't want to compete as part of Team GB, just be fit enough to get through another year without anything hurting! There's a zumba class within walking distance which I'd like to do, and as I said yesterday I must go back to the gym. And I must do something about the fact that I'm a lardy-arse!
Of course there's plenty to look forward to in 2012. The Olympics for one thing, which even if you are not sportingly inclined will be a great spectacle (although a nightmare to get to work if, like me, you work in central London!). HRH's diamond jubilee, which if nothing else gets us an extra day off and a feeling of national pride. I read somewhere that satisfaction with the monarchy has never dipped below 70% even in their annus horribilus a few years ago, and with the Queen herself never gets below 80%. In an ethnically diverse and opinionated country like the UK, that's quite an achievement.
So let's go past midnight in a spirit of hope and enthusiasm, and all try to make the best of it. It'll be better for some than others, but overall let's try and have a good one.
Happy New Year, everyone, where ever and who ever you are!
I blogged yesterday about my new year's resolution, so I won't bore you with it again here. And I do intend to do something about it, but not until 24th January - those of you that know me and know what I'm doing for the next three weeks will know why. Then I have almost three months of uninterrupted time to focus on ME, and make it happen.
New Year's resolutions are odd things and probably not worth the time and angst that they take up. I wonder what percentage are broken within 7 days? What percentage within 2 days? I bet it's very high, maybe as high as 90%. And why wait until 1st January to do something about your weight / ambitions / relationship / job / etc?
To be honest, even if I only achieve limited success it will be more than I have achieved in 2011, which has been a pretty crap year all round. Hopefully 2012 will be better; we need things to start picking up or frankly we'll all be up s**t creek without a paddle regardless of whether we have a job or not. At least we can sit smugly in the UK and be thankful that we never joined the Euro; my poor Greek friends are really suffering and the trouble is (as it is everywhere) the people that are having to pay are not the people that caused the problems in the first place. But they keep smiling, smoking and drinking coffee! The fact that the Germans are trying to wage World War III by stealth with the French hanging on their coats tails is, of course, neither here nor there. I mean, why invade when you can take hold of another country's fiscal policies?
Healthwise, I need all my limbs to start functioning normally and be able to be more active and do some exercise. I don't want to compete as part of Team GB, just be fit enough to get through another year without anything hurting! There's a zumba class within walking distance which I'd like to do, and as I said yesterday I must go back to the gym. And I must do something about the fact that I'm a lardy-arse!
Of course there's plenty to look forward to in 2012. The Olympics for one thing, which even if you are not sportingly inclined will be a great spectacle (although a nightmare to get to work if, like me, you work in central London!). HRH's diamond jubilee, which if nothing else gets us an extra day off and a feeling of national pride. I read somewhere that satisfaction with the monarchy has never dipped below 70% even in their annus horribilus a few years ago, and with the Queen herself never gets below 80%. In an ethnically diverse and opinionated country like the UK, that's quite an achievement.
So let's go past midnight in a spirit of hope and enthusiasm, and all try to make the best of it. It'll be better for some than others, but overall let's try and have a good one.
Happy New Year, everyone, where ever and who ever you are!
Friday, 30 December 2011
New Year's Resolutions - must lose weight
The excesses of the past few days are definitely catching up with me. Just like when you go on holiday, and a few days in you collapse as the adrenalin which has kept you going gradually recedes, I feel exhausted. My digestive system is groaning and I have an ulcer the size of Vesuvius on my tongue which must be the result of too much acid (ie wine!) in too short a space of time. Knowing it's my own fault for being an overeating, wine guzzling, chocaholic couch potato doesn't make it any better.
I am therefore determined that once we get into the new year (and probably after the panto which also involves an excess of wine and bad eating habits) I must do something about a) my weight and b) my general fitness.
How many times have I said that before? Well yes, several, but this year I really must. I can't go on putting on weight at the rate I have over the past decade for the next few years; if I do, by the time I'm 60 I'll be bigger than Hattie Jacques (you know, the fat one in the Carry On films - although by all accounts she was quite a girl with a voracious sexual appetite). And I refuse to buy clothes where the size label starts with the number two!
The big question is how to do it. I've tried Weight Watchers in the past and it wasn't too bad, but I was hungry quite a lot and it was expensive. The online version is OK, but doesn't have the discipline of the weekly meetings and tellings off by the 'Leader'. I've tried basic calorie counting but that's friggin hard work, weighing everything out and again, being very hungry quite a lot. I don't fancy the idea of food combining (too much thought) Atkins (gives you shocking wind and bad breath) or detoxing (don't like wheatgrass that much). I have obtained a supply of herbal appetite suppressants and colon cleaners from the internet which I'm going to try, but not for long because basically they give you the shits and you should never trust strange pills from strange men!
I'm also just going to eat less, cut out chocolate completely and cut out alcohol in the week. Think using side plates as dinner plates and halving the amounts I'm inclined to eat naturally. I'll hate it. I also need to do some exercise and I think that means I'm going to have to go back to the gym. Because of my bad back and knees, I can't run so I think some low impact stuff on treadmills, bikes and cross trainers is probably what's needed. Awful thought, and might have to get the Wii Fit back out, too.
I'm gonna hate this, and will need to be nagged. But I'm determined that by the time I go away in June, I will be at least a stone and a half lighter, be fitter and have more energy. At least, that's the plan.
I am therefore determined that once we get into the new year (and probably after the panto which also involves an excess of wine and bad eating habits) I must do something about a) my weight and b) my general fitness.
How many times have I said that before? Well yes, several, but this year I really must. I can't go on putting on weight at the rate I have over the past decade for the next few years; if I do, by the time I'm 60 I'll be bigger than Hattie Jacques (you know, the fat one in the Carry On films - although by all accounts she was quite a girl with a voracious sexual appetite). And I refuse to buy clothes where the size label starts with the number two!
The big question is how to do it. I've tried Weight Watchers in the past and it wasn't too bad, but I was hungry quite a lot and it was expensive. The online version is OK, but doesn't have the discipline of the weekly meetings and tellings off by the 'Leader'. I've tried basic calorie counting but that's friggin hard work, weighing everything out and again, being very hungry quite a lot. I don't fancy the idea of food combining (too much thought) Atkins (gives you shocking wind and bad breath) or detoxing (don't like wheatgrass that much). I have obtained a supply of herbal appetite suppressants and colon cleaners from the internet which I'm going to try, but not for long because basically they give you the shits and you should never trust strange pills from strange men!
I'm also just going to eat less, cut out chocolate completely and cut out alcohol in the week. Think using side plates as dinner plates and halving the amounts I'm inclined to eat naturally. I'll hate it. I also need to do some exercise and I think that means I'm going to have to go back to the gym. Because of my bad back and knees, I can't run so I think some low impact stuff on treadmills, bikes and cross trainers is probably what's needed. Awful thought, and might have to get the Wii Fit back out, too.
I'm gonna hate this, and will need to be nagged. But I'm determined that by the time I go away in June, I will be at least a stone and a half lighter, be fitter and have more energy. At least, that's the plan.
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Back to work today (briefly) before a few more days off. I'm really struggling to motivate myself, it all seems so DULL.
I'm sure the worthy residents of the wealthy central London borough where I work deserve to have their local authority open today, but actually it all does seem rather pointless. Most teams only have a skeleton staff available and things will just tick over. Nothing will actually get done.
I know lots of people feel really motivated and proud of their jobs, and indeed I used to feel like that. But more and more I can't really see the point of it all. After all, I'm not really making any difference to these people's lives and they are increasingly ungrateful and rude. It seems that the more we try to do for them, the more they expect and the less we get thanked. But perhaps I'm just feeling slightly jaundiced about the whole thing; I'm sure some of them think we are doing a good job and certainly if you work in the social services (for children, families, the elderly and the vulnerable) you really can improve and change people's situations. But planning, in Knightsbridge and Belgravia? Please! They're all filthy rich and most of them are foreign!
I've opened up my laptop today to 68 e-mails (not bad, but that's since 5pm last Friday), about half of which are rubbish, and half of the rest are whinges. I'm getting sick of it. Once, just once, it would be nice to open up an e-mail that says thank you.
I should be working now. Dealing with the problems and writing the reports no one wants too read. But I'm not, I'm writing this. The trouble is, jobwise I'm not sure what else I could do, and once you start to earn central London money, it's very difficult to move away from it because you take on commitments to match. I'll just have to make the best of it, won't I, and bide my time until I'm old enough to retire and do the things I really want to do. But by then I'll probably be too old and decrepit to do them!
So 2012 is a year of resolutions. I am shedding my commitments this year and focusing on ME! Weight, fitness and other general interests and leisure activities are coming first. That's my resolution! Let's see how long it lasts.
I'm sure the worthy residents of the wealthy central London borough where I work deserve to have their local authority open today, but actually it all does seem rather pointless. Most teams only have a skeleton staff available and things will just tick over. Nothing will actually get done.
I know lots of people feel really motivated and proud of their jobs, and indeed I used to feel like that. But more and more I can't really see the point of it all. After all, I'm not really making any difference to these people's lives and they are increasingly ungrateful and rude. It seems that the more we try to do for them, the more they expect and the less we get thanked. But perhaps I'm just feeling slightly jaundiced about the whole thing; I'm sure some of them think we are doing a good job and certainly if you work in the social services (for children, families, the elderly and the vulnerable) you really can improve and change people's situations. But planning, in Knightsbridge and Belgravia? Please! They're all filthy rich and most of them are foreign!
I've opened up my laptop today to 68 e-mails (not bad, but that's since 5pm last Friday), about half of which are rubbish, and half of the rest are whinges. I'm getting sick of it. Once, just once, it would be nice to open up an e-mail that says thank you.
I should be working now. Dealing with the problems and writing the reports no one wants too read. But I'm not, I'm writing this. The trouble is, jobwise I'm not sure what else I could do, and once you start to earn central London money, it's very difficult to move away from it because you take on commitments to match. I'll just have to make the best of it, won't I, and bide my time until I'm old enough to retire and do the things I really want to do. But by then I'll probably be too old and decrepit to do them!
So 2012 is a year of resolutions. I am shedding my commitments this year and focusing on ME! Weight, fitness and other general interests and leisure activities are coming first. That's my resolution! Let's see how long it lasts.
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