I can’t decide which is easier; to be in the Northern hemisphere and it be winter, with a short break from school/work, or Down Under where the summer stretches long and warm(ish). Either way, it’s a New Year and with that comes the expectation that we’ll all be making resolutions. Groan!

In a previous lifetime I used to employ quite a large number of staff, and each January they would roll their eyes to heaven (& quite often emit a barely audible grunt that I would fervently refuse to acknowledge) as I started the first meeting of the year with; “New Year, Fresh start!” Not everyone enjoys, as I do, the new diary and empty calendar. I had one of those old fashioned shiny wall charts with the coloured stickers to signify staff holidays, events, training blocks, manager’s meetings etc. As I cut the little strips, peeled off the backing, and neatly marked out the details as they came in, a slightly deranged Cheshire Cat grin would tell anyone in the vicinity of my office that grand plans were being laid down. I was a stationery storeroom slut!

Some years later and my 2014 diary looks and smells delicious. It’s a treat to myself from duty free-so irresistible even so long ago as last August, so admired I almost gift wrapped it. However, I could not resist making early entries; so far term dates and a couple of shows and concerts.

But the weather is such a distraction, as is the cricket. How can it be borne? Sun shining, England finally getting enough runs to inspire the Barmy Army to make a bit of noise! The diary has lain untouched for entire days on end while I immerse myself in a book, or subject myself to the agony that is the Ashes series on tv. What happened to my resolve?

I do in fact remember, after a cold and bleak midwintery Christmas and New Year, replete with hot puddings and several too many chocolates, that it used to be just as hard to blow the cobwebs away and get down to it. It required a deal of effort to heave oneself out of a squashy sofa. So either way, whichever the hemisphere, what’s to be done? Maybe a list; organised in order of priority, and even with the addition of colourful stickers, or fluorescent highlighters. We all need a break, so maybe pick a start date a few days hence, and there’s nothing to be gained by bemoaning the days past. I will perhaps take a trip to a sexy Swedish store to stock up on sticky stuff and storage boxes (did I just alliterate to a record breaking extent?). There’s a lot to be said for new stuff to make a new start-take note England’s board of selectors, it’s time to write a to-do list!