I'll be green as well as lean in the new year - I hope
WHEN the time came to draw up some new year resolutions, it seemed sensible to revisit the ones I made last year.
So step into my office, Mr Wolstenholme, for your annual appraisal.
Here are the resolutions I set out in last year's column.
* "I will give up fretting about my wife being late."
Pass! When the taxi driver's bleating horn can be heard above the drone of the hairdryer, I am serenity itself.
* "I will worry less about child-related squalor."
Pass. But only by cheating. Since I made this resolution, a kindly neighbour of mine has taken to coming into the house while we're out and clearing up for us.
I know, I know, I'm extremely lucky. (And yes, I do occasionally express my gratitude by material means.) But a pass is a pass.
* I will worry less about the inevitable effects of ageing.
Fail. My problem is that, when I revisit last year's new year's resolutions, I feel like I made them - oh, three months ago. Time is passing quicker. That's an 'inevitable effect' of ageing, and it scares me.
Still, two out of three ain't bad. Although it looks like I was setting my sights deliberately low. There's nothing in there that involves saving money, for instance, or doing my bit to save the planet.
Speaking of which, it seems strange to be contemplating global warming when I'm sitting in trousers still wet from this morning's wade through the snow, but my resolution for 2010 is to get my act together green-wise.
Working for much of the year alongside my former colleague Victoria Sheard - a committed environmentalist - has had an influence.
Regular readers will remember I'm not entirely convinced that climate change is man-made.
But the Independent writer Johann Hari argues that that's no excuse for not heading the warnings.
Imagine you and your family are about to board a plane, suggests Hari, and a group of mechanics tell you it's faulty and is sure to drop out of the sky. Another, smaller group tell you it's probably fine. Would you still get on the plane?
No.
So I'm going, if not green, then greener.
Again, I'm setting my sights low. You won't find me giving up my car or breakfasting on soya milk.
But I can at least recycle bottles, use more locally-sourced veg and cut back on beef.
And if I can't, I might as well accept that my character is an incorrigible, crusty thing that won't bend to my annual good intentions.
Now that really would make me feel old.
* Many people this year will be resolving to lose the weight they've gained over the Christmas. But at the time of writing (Christmas Eve - it's a page-planning thing), I'm hoping not to gain any.
This week I've waded through so many press releases about 'shifting the Christmas pounds' etc that it's spoiled my appetite for festive gorging. It's a bit like getting a hangover before you've even had a drink.
So I'll be lean as well as green in the new year. That's my resolution anyway - and we know what can happen to those.
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Weather for Batley
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
