Right, then ...

So, it's a new year.

Last year I had a bad feeling about it at the start and it turned out to be quite a tough one. All the same, it had some pretty good points:

- I saw Celtic Connections, and heard much good music
- I improved my guitar playing
- I met new people and made new friends
- I went to burlesque shows
- I drove to Campbeltown by the scenic route, on the nicest day of May
- I celebrated turning forty, and my sister (who knows me very well) gave me an enormous box of lego
- I was on a SF convention panel
- I submitted my MSc thesis and graduated
- I sold a story

And there were various other things that took care of or began to solve existing problems, or set up good things to come.

This year I have a better feeling about the year ahead. I start the year with less hanging over me than I have had in quite some time and there are good and interesting things just about to hit.

So what am I going to do with it? I don't really make resolutions because I'm not so good at keeping them, but here are a few hostages to fortune:

Read better - I read a lot of novels; over thirty new books this year, not counting re-reading, but only two non-fiction. This doesn't give me a great deal of meat for writing, and I tend to comfort-read rather than go for anything challenging, hence re-reading. I'm going to read more non-fiction and a wider range of fiction.

Exercise better - I get some exercise from walking around and climbing stairs, and I like country walks and light hill-walking. However, I'm far from fit, gyms bore me and I lack the discipline for a daily routine. I'll go back to dancing and find some other active thing that interests me so that I shift myself.

Eat better - I currently don't eat particularly well, chiefly because I've settled into a routine of easy-to-cook basic rations. I enjoy cooking and there are two year-round farmers' markets in the city. Instead of just buying several bags of pasta and packets of meat once a month, I'll buy my seasonal vegetables and farm-fresh meat once a fortnight.

Go out - I see the usual suspects most weeks and visit my family once or twice a month, which stops me from going stir-crazy, but that's all I do. If I didn't go to work, I could go from the beginning to the end of the week without uttering a word. It's time I found some activities, preferably involving music and/or exercise and/or learning something new and preferably not encouraging drinking, that give me something to look forward to outside of work and stop me from getting really unsocialised.

Write - There is time to write among all of that; more some days than others, but still. I will write some words of fiction as many days each week as I can.

Play music - I have a guitar, a trombone and a whistle and I practise with each very infrequently. This is a shame because I know from past experience that the better you get with something the more enjoyable it becomes, and having lost the skill it becomes very frustrating to get it back. And I haven't sung anything worthwhile since last year's Celtic Connections. I will find more things to play, learn new tunes, and practise.