Obligatory Post About New Year’s Resolutions

I know I’m a little late to the party with this, but I’ve been incapacitated by the noroplagueflu since the early hours of new year’s day so the year has really only just got started for me.

I know that a lot of people think that new year’s resolution are lame and doomed to failure but I really, really need 2013 to be different to 2012, and so it seems like it would be useful to have at least some kind of a plan as to how I’m going to make sure of that.

So here goes…

1. 2013 is going to be the first year since I learned to write that I am going to start writing the correct date straight off the bat, instead of forgetting and putting 2012 until mid-March.

2. I’m going to emigrate. To China.

This is either a fantastic opportunity or the worst idea I’ve ever had. At the moment I’m switching my between the two at least three times a day.

Basically, I have a friend who is working for this company out there. He posted something on Facebook about what a great time he’s having, and I then made a comment about being jealous. The next thing I know I have a sweet job offer of my own.

Half of me thinks that this sort of change is exactly what I need to help me get my life together and back on track; the other half thinks that I’m not quite ready yet and that it’s all going to go horribly wrong. But I’ve wanted the chance to live abroad since the day that I learned that there was such a place, and ultimately I decided that if I turned down this offer I would only end up regretting it not-so-very-much later.

I’m going to be living in a moderately sized city, for China, of 4.21 million people. I’ve initially signed up to be there for a year; an all expenses paid apartment is included as part of the package; and if the place I’m going to be working is a fraction as good as the photos I’ve seen then working there is going to be amazing no matter what the job is like.

3. At the new year’s eve party that I went to, after toasting the clock doing it’s going past midnight thing, my friend insisted that we go round and everybody should tell an embarrassing story from 2012. Which was fine, except that I didn’t have one.

In fact I couldn’t think of any stories from 2012 at all.

Next to nothing happened to me last year aside from my being ill.

Which was unusual for me. In fact I’d spent most of the rest of that party swapping loads of stories about things that have happened over the last few years.

So my main aim for 2013 is to end the year with plenty of new stories to tell. Plenty of memories.

4. There have been so many times in the last few months when I’ve sat down to write about something only to finish up and then think, ‘Doh! Why didn’t I take a photo of that, it would be so great if I had a picture to go with this.’ It would also be nice to have the photos for myself as mementos. I love having photos up everywhere.

So my final resolution is just to start keeping my camera in my handbag, and to remember to use it more.

Now how hard can that be?