I've never been a fan of making New Year's resolutions. There didn't seem to be much point making a vow that no one seemed to expect you to keep. Whenever asked what mine were I'd scrabble around in my brain for a response that would satisfy, rather than searching for something meaningful and achievable. For many years I didn't even bother, “I don't make resolutions,” became the stock response.
I spent this New Year's Eve with new friends, and not having celebrated the New Year with them before I was surprised by the seriousness with which the making of resolutions was undertaken. Surprised and delighted as it turns out, as the ensuing discussion delved into many areas of our respective lives and gave us all a bit to think about and made us laugh.
I held steadfast on the night and didn't make any resolutions then, but I decided to spend some time thinking about what resolutions I could make if I did want to make some. One friend suggested that five resolutions was a good number, so you could cover off maybe one largish goal, a couple of medium sized ones, and two smallish goals. And if you don't keep them all, the odds are that you'll keep at least one or two, which would be an achievement in itself.
Eleven days hence I've managed to come up with three, and they are neither exciting nor particularly challenging. That's the way I'm feeling right now anyway, on the tail of a three week break from the work/school/life grind. But on the eve of hurling myself back into the maelstrom of fulltime work, I wonder how long it will be before these three resolutions are harder to stick to.
I've spent the last three weeks simply pottering around at home gardening, cooking, eating, sorting, reading and I reckon I've spent about a third of that time washing dishes
1.Leave the car at home once a week and walk to and from the station.
Our family were without a car for three months in 2010 and while at times it was a pain in the arse we were all a bit fitter and leaner due to all the walking – there's a fair bit of festive season excess to walk off. The extra time spent walking together was great for our relationships, we had some top chats. A regular day of the week will be set once we know the children's school and extra-curricular activities schedules for 2011.
2.Cook something I've never cooked before at least once a fortnight.
There's a stack of cookbooks in my kitchen, I scour the recipes on the cooking pages of The Age, and I'm a huge fan of the dinner spinner on the AllRecipes iPhone app. Yet I don't cook new dishes all that often. I was gifted a new cookbook for Christmas, Jamie Oliver's Jamie does Spain, Italy, Sweden, Morocco, Greece, France and this seems to have inspired a rush of exploration of new ingredients and recipes. It's been fun so far, as well as tasty.
Recipes successfully attempted so far:
Chorizo and Tomato Salad
Croquetas
Patatas Bravas
Ratatouille-style Briouats
Choc Chip Banana Muffins
Jansson's Temptation
3.Establish a vegie garden
In some areas of my life I'm action-orientated, a doer. In other areas, such as say home improvements, I'm more of a plodder. Things can bother me for years before I act on them; and so it was with the Hills Hoist swing set. I remember the night it was assembled and installed. Like so many other parents that night we spent our Christmas Eve sweating and swearing in the dark while taking fortifying sips of Santa's whiskey. Many hours and skinned knuckles later we looked proudly on the safe and sturdy swing set, and in the morning two happy little faces shone when they spotted the contraption.
The kids grew out of the swing set about five years ago, and it has sat there taking up space in our suburban sanctuary ever since. Occasionally smaller children would visit us and take pleasure in swinging on the yellow plastic seats, but even those children have now grown too big for it. I kept telling myself I'd dismantle it when I had time, how hard could it be? Lurking in the back of my thoughts though was that sweaty Christmas Eve installation, and I imagined the task would be more daunting than I realised.
One morning last week I got up, walked out on to the back deck to survey my tiny kingdom (queendom?) and decided that was the day the swing set would go. I ventured forth confidently with my shifting spanner to undertake the massive task. I put on sunscreen, took a bottle of water out with me, and fretted about not wearing a hat. After all, I could be out there a while.
I was shocked by the looseness of the nuts – how had this thing stayed upright for so long? The long uprights that were pegged deep in the earth slide out easily. Twenty minutes after I turned the first nut I was swing-set free.
Idiot.
I'm going to use that space to establish a vegie garden.
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