Jilly over at jillysheep has prompted me to think about what I might want to achieve in 2010. This is not something I normally do, as I have always been content to drift with the tide and see what washes up.
But in 2010 I would like to:
- Win the lottery jackpot (minimum £2m)
- Lose 50 kilos (I keep telling you I’m hugely overweight)
- Do all the cooking (like I used to)
- Get the bathroom rebuilt (probably requires #1 as a prerequisite)
- Get the house rewired (also requires #1 as a prerequisite)
- Get the whole house tidy, uncluttered and clean – and keep it that way
- Get the two-thirds of the house which badly needs it redecorated (another that requires #1 as a prerequisite)
- Go on at least three 2-week holidays, one railway-based, one to Europe and one naturist in the sun
- Travel from Thurso to Penzance by train.
- Have a good sunny summer and be able to walk skyclad all summer around my garden
That list was a joke! Yes, I would like to do all those things but the chances of achieving them are at best 1 in 14 million (ie. the chance of winning the lottery at any one attempt. If I win the lottery (odds over the year probably 300 in 14 million) all except #2, #3 and #10 become relatively easy.
OK, so let’s be realistic. What do I stand some chance of achieving?
- Lose 15 kilos
- Get out to the shops (even the dreaded supermarket) at least once a week (ought to be easy now I’m retired)
- Cook 3 meals a week
- Go out to take photographs at least once a week (also should be easy)
- Write 2 weblog posts a week
- Get the heating fixed (like Jilly, we have an annoying intermittent and unsolved problem)
- Grow a year’s supply of chillies – on the study windowsill (given that we use a lot of chillies and said windowsill space is limited this will need a very prolific variety)
- Get my Anthony Powell Society work up to date, and keep it that way
- Get the sitting room and dining rooms properly tidy and inhabitable
- Rejuvenate my fish tanks
- Go away on holiday for 2 weeks
- Make some major progress on my family history (yes that’s vague; first I have to take stock of what I’ve got)
And if I actually manage to achieve half of that lot I should be satisfied.
I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions – that’s just setting oneself up to fail, because they are always so unrealistic – so I’m not going to start this year and I’m not even going to commit to trying to achieve any of the above. They are what I would like to achieve. It’s a “wants list”, not a “must achieve or else list”. One reason I took early retirement was to get away from the incessant round of unachievable “must achieve or else” objectives. That way come madness and depression. 2010 is about relaxing and finding a life again.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Please don’t go out celebrating and get frostbite. 🙂
