Happy New Year!

As we sat around on New Year's Eve with our friends from many many years, all speculated as to what would be written about them in my New Year blog. It amused me somewhat, as, like my children, there was a sort of semi celebrity issue at stake here. But as our yearly new year gathering (which has been almost the same for the last sixteen years bar two, with one or two additions to the guest list on occasion) is one of my favourite occasions of the year, I shall just leave it there, with a certain amount of respectable anonymity and the knowledge that the evening was full of happy contentedness that you feel only with oldest friends.

As for the new year's resolutions, well that's a different matter!

I have four.

First: I intend to discard, dispose of, give away, sell(?) ten items of what can only be described as rubbish from our house, every day of the year, this year.

Now, this may sound drastic to some, but bear in mind that we have over the last sixteen years managed to accumulate one of each, and sometimes two, of the entire contents of the stock of The Early Learning Centre, The Book People, Mothercare, Next children's wear, Ladybird, Tesco, Asda, anyone else that makes children's clothes, plus enough paper to rebuild a rain forest. Many of these items have been kind gifts from friends. Many have been given to us secondhand, and the odd thing has been bought by us.

As a hoarder however, as each new item has arrived in the house, I have failed to throw away anything.

And now we have much too much what can only be described as unusable unrecycleable JUNK!!! So hence the grand throwaway. And for all those that expressed concern at my radical actions, I do promise that if I come across anything that belongs to anyone else in the process I will carefully return it to its rightful owner, and of course if and when there comes a point that throwing away ten items a day starts to leave us devoid of essential stuff, I will stop......

Secondly: I intend to lose 2lb a month. Not a week. That's unachievable. I know, because I have tried that before and lost and regained, a bit like Paradise. So, a month. However I am starting on January 14th, to give us a chance to finish - and enjoy - the last of Christmas. If I don't feel deprived I won't cheat! Well... I might not anyway.

Thirdly: I intend to put two photos a month into frames. We have thousands of photos in several different formats, and many (especially school ones) are simply on the mantelpiece, unframed and ageing. 2007 will be the year of the frame. Not too many at once though, because that would be unachievable. And we wouldn't want that.

Fourthly, I intend to write a readable book by the end of the year. There. I've said it. I can't go back now. I shall just have to start. Otherwise I shall have to admit this time next year that I failed in one of my New Year's resolutions.

So here goes.

2007 here we come...