I think we all have to agree this has been a terrible year, and we’re not even at the end. Looking through some old posts on my draft list, I spotted this and thought looking back might prove to be a strange blessing and appropriate. We too often overlook the best reasons to be grateful:
Throughout 2009 I kept writing 2008. Maybe I was trying to claw back a year of my life, but I don’t think that’s the reason. I think so much has happened to me in the last couple of years I had lost track of time. When you’re young, the older generations tell you time speeds up the older you get. You turn away in disinterest, for only time can teach you how right they are. Yep, time has sped up in recent years and only partly because I’ve been so busy. [I didn’t realise how much was about to happen in the years ahead, including having to move twice, eventually ending up in the countryside, only then to have the move spoiled by health problems.]
Well, I spent the Christmas holidays and New Year slowing down as much as possible. I read but didn’t write (although I dreamed up a couple more story ideas and scribbled them down). I ate, but not too much. Drank, not too much. I put my feet up. Visited family. I slipped and slid in the snow, which melted the next day. I came home. Visited neighbours. I jumped around like a loony playing on a Wii console, amazed it aged me younger than my years. I relaxed as much as I could on my birthday and welcomed the new year in with ambiguous feelings, probably because I really couldn’t get my head around that number of 2010. Yesterday (Sunday) I took the decorations down and wondered how it was possible I was doing so because it felt as if I’d just put them up. The poinsettia — a gift — is the only evidence of Christmas left. [Now I’m struggling to get my head around the year 2020. Such fond memories, especially in a year of a pandemic which has robbed us of seeing family and friends.]
Many of us in the UK also said goodbye to David Tennant as Doctor Who and, try as I might, I’m not entirely sure I can give the new Doctor a chance. He’s too young for me, which must prove my age. LOL. Jon Pertwee and, to some extent, Tom Baker were my doctors — and for those who understand the programme, each generation has their ‘own’ doctor. David Tennant gave the show a new lease of life that I doubt anyone else can, mostly usurping the doctors of my childhood. The last episode gave him a parting line eloquent for the actor and us as an audience. David loved playing the doctor and didn’t want to leave, although it was his decision to do so. But sometimes we have to leave good things behind to move forward to better ones. Likewise, most of the audience didn’t want him to go, but gone he has, and the thing to do was appreciate the good things while they were there. Tennant is one of my favourite people on TV, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing what he does next. I’ve also got three hours of him in Hamlet to watch. [Note: Matt Smith eventually grew on me, and I wrote an audio short story featuring the 11th Doctor.]
So, new year and that often means changes. I rarely make new year’s resolutions, but this time I have. I have in mind what I want to do writing wise, holiday-wise… and the lovely experience of spending some quiet time with the one person most important to me in this world has made me determined to make more ‘home’ time, including time to get out for some walks, do some exercise, and sit down for a good home-cooked meal now and then. I do cook, almost every day, but I want to dig into my recipe books so every other Sunday it would be nice if it was a morning of freshly brewed coffee, some home-baked bread, or a nice dinner over a bottle of wine. We’ve been so busy in recent years, writing, working, moving, decorating, dealing with the unfortunate incidents life throws at you and some wonderful ones. We’ve forgotten what it’s like to do those things; the simple things. This is the year I want to remember. [Note: Life and health issues now mean I can’t touch the wine and have to be careful to avoid certain foods. I didn’t know when I had things so good.]
