1. Sit on my arse even more wasn’t actually a plan, but is a plan by default because I have some big phat books on my tbr pile, plus another Goodreads challenge of a book a week (which I blew out of the water last year — yay me!) and to confound matters we are now streaming American Netflix (and for the record, you may think we live in Australia but actually we live in 90210, like every other Australian paying double what Americans pay, plus a proxy fee, to stream American Netflix.)
2. Plant something edible that actually gets to the edible stage and then eat it is something I have already started on. (Doesn’t include parsley.) I squirted a little tomato my mother-in-law gave me into some potting mix*, both my husband and I have remembered to add water (so far) and voila, there are some cute little shoots. This is unbelievably exciting because for a good few years there I thought I couldn’t even grow mint. (And then it miraculously came to life, not quite proving my gardening expertise.) Next challenge will be keeping the little tomatoes away from our six free range chickens, who actually managed to steal a few of my other tomatoes for planting when I inadvertently left them on the ground beside my foot for two seconds. Will need to invest in some shade cloth from Bunnings and persuade my husband to erect some sort of enclosure with chicken wire, because I have tried to lift wooden posts and can’t quite manage it. So doing it myself is out.
*tomato squirted mostly onto my t-shirt but still, success.
3. Continuing to attend tennis, including social tennis in which I am slightly intimidated by having to play with men who are ten years younger than I am, is enough of a goal in its own right without heaping undue pressure on myself to actually improve any. I figure that will continue to happen if I just attend and do a bit of hitting, despite the coach’s dedicated and enthusiastic advice in which he seems to have mistaken me for a young, aspirational protege.
4. Learn to make goddam mayonnaise. How hard can it be? And experiment with nice salads that aren’t just chopped up cabbage mixed with frozen bits of corn. Be more regular about buying bones for soup stock in winter. Eat actual lunch instead of getting hungry around 4 o’clock and ruining appetite for dinner.
5. I am not going to drink coffee. I. am. not. Everyone is sick of hearing about it. “Oh, I thought you gave up coffee.” “Oh, you’re drinking coffee again?” “Do I offer you coffee or not?” Do not offer me the coffee. The reason this is so difficult for me is because my husband has a super-duper coffee machine and I hear that wonderful grinding/steaming sound constantly. The house smells of coffee constantly. And I do really like the taste of coffee. My palpitations disagree.
6. Don’t let the house get cold over winter. Turns out keeping the house warm is more efficient than letting it go stone cold. I was much better about that last winter and plan to continue, even though I feel like I’m babysitting smouldering sticks sometimes. This is a hard resolution to make at the height of summer with RFS helicopters flying overhead, but there you have it.
