So, I’ve had a think about the New Year’s Resolutions I intend to make and break for 2013.  Okay, that might seem a bit negative but let’s face it I’m not going to stick to everything completely.  Anyway, if I manage to stick to all my resolutions perhaps I’ve been too easy on myself!!

Firstly, and really rather predictable and boring, I need to pick back up with exercise, healthy eating and doing more walking.  The biggest problem with this in the past year has been the weather.  Now, I know you’re probably all groaning loudly but it does seem to have rained a lot this year and frankly I don’t want to walk to work and be drenched when I arrive.  It just makes the rest of the day very damp, miserable and uncomfortable.  But, I’ll just have to get over myself and my aversion to getting wet because the weather certainly doesn’t show any signs of immediate improvement.  Perhaps some waterproofs?  Wellies  – not exactly renowned for walking in!  A very large umbrella – I have a vision of taking off during a large gust of wind or even worse causing some sort of accident as my umbrella is taken by a particular strong gust and whipped into the path of oncoming traffic!  Okay, no brollies!  The drowned rat look is going to be the new black for the next 12 months!

Okay, having got the obvious resolution out of the way – reading!  Well, this year, I failed miserably on my challenges!  100 books in a year – nope, nowhere near (about 70/80ish).  I did take part in a few events and readalongs however and, in my defence, I didn’t include every book on my list because a few I didn’t review and a few more I never finished (and I’m not reviewing a book if I don’t finish it because it doesn’t feel fair).  It’s not my biggest pet hate when reading reviews but it does feel wrong to me so I don’t go there (my biggest peeve is people who give books 1 star on Amazon or Goodreads, etc, and then base that rating on the price of the book!  What?  Just no.  Look, I know this can become an expensive hobby, particularly if you read quite a few books like I do, but I want to know what you thought of the book not the price.  And, anyway, if you object to the price you could always wait for the price to come down or wait for your library to get a copy – don’t down mark a book because you think it’s expensive!  So, do I try and chill a bit with my books.  Don’t lets be silly!! I’m taking part in a couple of events in Jan/Feb focusing on sci-fi and also a read along – interesting in taking part in any of these none challenges??  Check out the details here, here and here.  They’re going to be good so you should really sign yourself up.  Throughout the year I’ll also be reading some books from the Mercury Retrograde’s catalogue.  More details to follow on this.  I think I probably will enter the 100 books a year challenge (because I’m pigheaded and don’t like to admit defeat) and I will try and be a bit more focused but, at the end of the day, my reading is just for fun, relaxation, escape, whatever.  It’s not a chore.  On top of that, having looked at some of the expected books for 2013 I don’t think I’ll have a problem reading lots this year and probably exceeding my challenges!

My final mission for 2013 is a bit odd.  I’ve decided to actually do something with our photographs.  I know that probably sounds random, particularly as we’re in the digital era and a good deal of our pictures are stored electronically but I quite like the idea of going through and selecting some (not all – that would be too big a task not to mention incredibly expensive) and putting them in some kind of order.  A bit of a pain because I’ll have to start having pictures printed out, etc, etc, but I quite like the idea and it will give me the opportunity to revisit some of our past holidays.

There they are.  Fairly low key really.  Healthier eating, exercise, reading and something a bit family orientated.

Let’s see how well that all goes and what falls flat at the first hurdle!