Three Holes In The Ground...

Well, well, well...

Thank you for your lovely New Year's wishes and my best to you, as ever!

2011, and what is different about me?

Nothing, zero, zilch.

I have some good intentions. Not resolutions, no. Intentions.

1. To exercise a bit more. Diane - (Please click on her name to get to her fabulous and wonderful bloglette) - inspired me last year by having set some goals, which served to spur her on to do more and to accomplish a number of runs for very worthwhile charitable causes. I'm very proud of what she has achieved.

I am going to let you in on a secret. I have pledged to run a 5k Race for Life later this year for a cancer charity. Oh yes! The button will appear and the begging bowl will be out, and I am committed (or will be!) to do it. Come hell or high water, fire or flood. -- And if you catch me out there with a box of matches, or pulling that boy's finger out of the dam, you will know I am trying to avoid having to do it!

2. I must lose weight. I talk about it, but then I don't change my lifestyle. Go figure. I wish I had a figure - Ho, ho! I am hoping that the drive towards the run and more exercising to get me into that state where I can at least jog a little, will also get me to lose some of this post-baby weight. (Note: Grizz will be 19 in February!)

3. We're off to Italy this year. 26th July sees our 25th Wedding Anniversary. How we got here (and we're not there yet) I'll never know, but in a mad moment on our wedding day, (I think it was then - Long veils of white shroud my memory), I got GJ to say that he would take me to Venice and Florence, (I've since added Rome for good measure and I like things that come in threes), for our 25th Wedding Anniversary if not before...

For our 25th it is then! And no, GJ, I don't think a day trip to Ventimiglia counts when we holdayed in Nice in 2006 - No, not at all! So, I'll have to mug up on some Italian before then. I shall blog about things I so desire to see later, like the Keats museum by the Spanish Steps, of course, but if any of you have any hints and tips for a less than millionaire-cost trip to Italy, I should be most grateful for them.

4. To have more fun and enjoy life a bit more. Seriously, I bore even myself to death with my low-rent, Olympic-range, whinging; I don't think I have a lot of fun, at least I can't remember loads of it. I laugh quite a bit. Mainly manically, but I worry loads. -- I'm hoping my Group Therapy might help me get to the bottom of that torment. I usually worry about money, and not having very much of it. And so, losing my job later this year will not be good for that, I know, sooooo...

5. Part of my plan to have more fun is to do more things with music, so I have a weekend in Shoreditch, London planned (but nothing booked!) for April, so that we can see our neighbour John Steel with his Animal friends performing at the East by East Festival - The Blockheads are also going to be on stage, so there's something else to look forward to.

We've Richard Thompson at the end of this month at the Sage with his Dream Attic tour, and I want to see the local comedian Sarah Millican, whom I adore, at her gig in Newcastle in April, I hope, but her tickets are selling out fast across the country, and well, I'm worrying about money again, so shoot me!

Above all, I hope to be a better friend and a fair, good enough mother and a decent partner. That is all. And Angels? If you can swing it my way to do even better in the Leek Competition in late summer, that'll be muchly appreciated!

Ciao, mes beaux... Mwah! Have a great year!