Sorry I have not been in touch (in 140 characters or other), for almost a year. Where does the time go?
I will answer that in my next post - promise!
But Christmas and New Year is always a poignant time. Amidst the hubbub and excitement, looking back on the year gone by, one contemplates the distances between friends and families and the absence of departed loved ones.
While it is a hackneyed old cliché, this year has flown by. I wish I had been more in touch in the past months, and hope to be in the ones ahead. I hope you have a wonderful and happy Christmas, full of joy and love and the promise of a peaceful and fulfilling year ahead.
This time of year Mr Springgirl invariably asks me what my resolutions are for the new year.
I invariably answer that I have none. I never want to disappoint anyone.
"Be a better person", "eat better", "be more patient". Who cares about such vague and unattainable aspirations>
I dare not tell him my true ideals. To sleep 8 hours a day, catch a daily fix of my favourites programmes, spend excellent quality time with my lovely friends and family and learn something new every day, while having my book published and my novel sold to a Hollywood studio...
So I tend to hold back.
But last year amidst the 5000 pieces of never to be completed jigsaw puzzle that arrived on Christmas day, feeling like an enormous failure (hate not finishing a jigsaw), I decided to shake things up. I resolved that I would try new things and seek out adventure in 2013. Looking back, in a small way I managed this. I started a new job, took up acting (they call me Puck in some circles), made friends with literally scores of new people (mostly estate agents but they are terribly nice young people all the same), and embarked on the acquisition of new skills - scooting (life-changing, efficient and freeing and very youthful), kayaking (admittedly I only tried it twice, over the summer, but more will follow if I can find a strap to hold my glasses on my head, means of keeping my head out of water and wetsuit that will complement my short hair-do) and driving (though this was not so much new, as dormant).
Now as 2013 has drawn to a close and I contemplate that question so deftly dodged last week, I turn to 2014 - now a week old!
Happily we will be moving house in the new year (needed more space for my scooter and acting awards). We will be closer to the kayak club too. Though the new sewerage pumping station will also be quite close, so perhaps dry ground rowing at the gym may have to suffice. The Off-Spring need more room to store their Harry Potter wands. And Mr Springgirl relishes the prospect of a refurbishment project around the corner from a tennis club. In sum, we are all delighted at the idea of each having a room of our own with no loud smoking neighbours banging around overhead, creaking the floor boards, throwing cigarettes on our window sills and slamming their front door.
So with these happy and exciting prospects before me, I resolve in the coming year to mix things up some more, while at the same time, slowing things down somewhat (new slow cooker already taking up half my bench space in soon to be old kitchen).
So that's it - to be more, but do less. And to be thankful. And to walk in the country more. And take up bridge. And singing in a group (very good for one, they say). I also resolve to breathe deeper and laugh longer.
Tell me what your resolutions will be - I promise I won't hold you to them. Nothing worse than being reminded of something you once said...
