Last Year, This Year

Last year, aka yesterday, Kayleigh wasn't a very well little girl. But once she had vomited over my trousers, and I had prescribed the traditional Granny remedy of plenty of water, plain food, sleeping on the sofa and fresh air in the park, she perked up enormously and this year, aka today, she is well!

Last year...well, I wasn't particularly keen on last year. Oh, it had its good points - new bathroom, new cooker, the discovery of Herefordshire (by me, not in general), a bumper crop of apples and a significant weight loss - but as a whole, in general, it won't go down on my list on Top Ten Favourite Years 1965-2011.

Oh, and vis a vis the new bathroom, this morning I cleaned out the hair trap in the shower and I should like to say to the other inhabitants of the Manor who use the shower (unfortunately, I have had to share this facility), that yes, there IS a hair trap and YES, I am MORE than happy to share the cleaning out of the hair-trap, please don' think it's a job I am going to become precious about doing myself. And that's all. Actually, it's not - I should also like to point out that the new range cooker is also cleanable. I know! What a surprise! I'm just saying...

So, this year, here is The 2012 Plan! (It's okay, God is still at church so won't be able to laugh in the face of The Plan. Just as well, as Andy has already had a snigger at Item One of the The Plan which is...

1) Give up watching TV. So far, nearly 12 hours in, it's going very well. In fact, I haven't even looked at the TV guide!! I have decided there is far too much to do that is more interesting, creative and educational than staring at telly. For example...

2)Learn Italian. I have purchased, with a gift voucher, an interactive computer/ book/CD combo called 'Easy Learning Italian in a Click.' This is all to do with a decision to holiday in Italy when I am 50, which gives me 4 years to get a grasp of the language because I believe that if you are going to travel abroad it is good manners to 'when in Rome etc etc', rather than resort to that peculiarly rude English custom of shouting and speaking very slowly. However, this causes a problem with Number One (see above) because part of the whole Italian experience is watching 'Monty Don's Italian Gardens' on DVD. I have watched the first two episodes (last year aka last week), but there are still two episodes to go so the question is - does watching a specific DVD for a specific purpose count as watching TV?

I also want to...

3)Lose some more weight. Not too much but definitely the 5lbs I put on over Christmas, and possibly another 10lbs or so on top of that. Really I want to get fitter. To this end I have started the 10,000 steps a day thing and in the last week I have averaged over 13,000 a day. However, this average is in danger of plummeting if I don't get my backside in gear today, as so far the count for this year is 1640.

I think that's about it for The 2012 Plan. I'm probably going to have to start looking for a new job come Springtime, as my current contract is to cover Maternity leave and although the school say they are pretty certain they will be able to offer me a permanent contract, they won't commit to a 100% certainty, and I think it would be foolish of me to take the possibilty for granted. The sad thing about working in education is that you do have to look out for yourself if you are to survive.

Anyway, we at Much Malarkey Manor wish you all a Very Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous 2012, with no crazy or unpleasant surprises, like, oh I don't know, the Olympic Games suddenly turning up on your doorstep and wrecking the countryside.

What's that, Mrs Pumphrey? What was that you said about The Olympic Games? Sorry, I didn't quite catch that...