Happy New Year/Birthday

I celebrated the turning of the year at home with #1 daughter + partner, #2 daughter and #2 son. We'd planned to send off candle lanterns over the river, but it was a bit nippy so we did them in the garden instead; two ended up blazing merrily in the trees in the church garden opposite, and one crashed and burned in an ornamental bush next door. The fireworks I'd battled the shops for earlier in the day were more successful, and were so loud that two of the dogs disgraced themselves in the hallway and the other hid under a bed. After that we finished off the booze and played Articulate, which is quite a challenge for me and my dysphasia. I did however discover that although I couldn't describe the words easily I could identify them if someone else did.

#2 D was born 23 years ago on the 5th chime after midnight, and today abandonned her current fitness regime to enjoy some very rich birthday cake before going to bed. She says it always feels like two birthdays as she gets lots of celebration at the start, sleeps, and then has a whole day of it still being her special day. This year she has gone to a concert in Manchester with a group of old and new friends, with whom she'll be staying over before returning here till the end of the week.

I was just looking at my year-ago entry, and realise I'm in a much better state now. My resolutions were:

(1) Try not to break anything within my body.
(2) Don't die yet.
(3) Don't let fear of the above stop me having fun.


For the first time ever, I kept my resolutions. The coming year is one of big changes and challenges; another brain op and a Big Birthday being two of them. I'd like to set the same resolutions this year, with the addition of:

(4) Take each day at a time.
(5) Make this the year I start to be what I want to be, whatever it takes.


Happy new year everyone: may it contain everything you've ever hoped for.