2017 seems to be seeping in too

Christmas and New Year sort of slipped by a little too quickly – they get faster every year. Happy New Year to anyone who reads this; I hope that 2017 is a good one for you.

We had a quiet Christmas: Olivier came home for a few days and then went off to spend New Year with friends.

The good news is that Olivier will be starting a new job in February – in Prague! As his mum I am a little sad that he is moving so far away, though I’m really looking forward to going to visit him in his new country! All of this has brought back lots of memories of when Rob and I gave up our banking jobs and moved to France, 32 years ago.

We had sad news at the beginning of the year; Rob’s mother died at the age of 94. She had been more or less asleep since mid December, so it didn’t come as a shock, it’s still upsetting just the same.

I only wrote 21 new posts for this blog last year. Hopefully I’ll do better this year. The best year was 2005 with 336 posts – almost 1 a day!

Optimistic

I cleared away the Christmas decorations this morning. Always a little bit of a sad task for me. Now it’s time to take the New Year by the horns and look forward to a great year.

About those New Year resolutions

I’ve actually written some down.

I wonder how many people like me have decided to lose some weight this year. Millions, judging by all of the advice that is cluttering up my email box. I’ve  read  a few (100 or so) ideas and surprise, surprise, I already carry out a lot of them. I drink water, don’t take sugar in tea or coffee, eat breakfast, eat plenty of fibre, don’t snack between meals, dessert at lunch time is always fruit and so on. I know what my problem is – portion size. That’s another resolution for the list, reduce portion size.

One useful tip I did pick up: Just aim for a 5% weight loss and then take it from there. A lot of health websites tell you to aim for 10 %.  5% seems more obtainable to me.

 I’ve also decided to exercise for at least 10 minutes 3 times a week (as well as the normal walking I do). I accidently discovered something to help. Just now, I thought I’d start off with 5 minutes to music. I put on Boz Scaggs; an old friend of mine for exercising to. 6 minutes passed without any effort at all! I hadn’t realized how important a good tune was to get me moving.

 I’m also aiming for more blogging. I’ve been rather slack over the past year. I’m also going to try to make my posts more interesting. While I’m at the keyboard I need to write more fiction and poetry. Hopefully I should have slimmer fingers at least from all of the typing.

They've all gone.

We had a lovely Christmas and New year.  Nothing exciting just Rob, Dom and J-M, Olivier and I.  It was the first time J-M has been with us for Christmas so I was a little worried about everything turning out well.  My sister in the UK was running around for the same reason.  Her son was bringing his girlfriend with him from the States for Christmas for the first time.  Dom and J-M left last Monday and Olivier came and went as he had to work at KFC.  He was sort of here for new year, but was with his friends. Rob and I watched a film on new years eve.  We stayed up, but fell asleep just before midnight.  We were woken by the famous Can-Can music finishing and the cries of the dancers from the Moulin Rouge (obligatory for new year) on TV.

  Olivier came in for feeding and a shower before leaving for Poitiers for exams and KFC.  When he comes home next time he'll be 21!  Where did those years go? The house feels so empty now.