New Year and all that jazz...

well, here we are... all a part of this new year, waiting spectators of any doom, gloom or joy that may or may not come our way in the coming 358 days. it is all very exciting and i seem to have been swept up into the whirlwind of excitement.

never have i really felt the need, inclination or desire to set myself a series of resolutions... rules to stick to and feel bad about if i don't end up doing them (as, odds are, i will not end up doing most of them, as i am a bit of a lazy piglet). this year though, i really feel like i need to take hold of my life. not just for myself, but for husband and our lives together.

things between husband and i have been much better. christmas was full of delight and i got several fabulous gifts... they included, but are not limited to a cupcake stand, a sewing box, the most precious glockenspiel ever, some bath sheets, yorkshire pudding tins (which i promptly used on christmas evening to successfully make the best yorkshire puddings ever!), some home made spiced rum, some eraseable gel pens and a sexy star robe, which is the most fluffy, splendid thing ever.

husband, on the other hand, got a stupendous espresso/coffee machine that has turned our house into a starbucks... only better.

all gifts aside, things have really been alright. i have been quite out of sorts lately because i ran out of my medication over christmas and was off of them for two weeks as a result. i am back on them now and everthing is calming down.

anyways, back to the good of our relationship and resolutions... i guess all i can really do now is just get on with them.... here goes!

• become better with money... i have two credit cards. i SHOULDN'T, but i do. i want to get these sorted out. i plan to pay the smaller of the two off entirely and pay at least half of the other off, by the end of the year. not only that, but i want to change my pattern of behaviour which makes me live from paycheck to paycheck. i want to have money left over in my bank account every month.
• cut down on cola products... so then, like many people in the world, i have a cola problem. i usually have one with my breakfast at work, one at lunch and one or two each night when i get home. i am aware this is not good for my teeth OR my general health, so i want to cut back massively. yesterday i started by NOT having a coke with breakfast and only having one to celebrate the beginning of celebrity big brother last night. ideally, i want to cut back to one a day and then from there, just a couple a week.
• sort out my health... and not just physical. i want to get my mental health into a good place as well. obviously, i do want to get myself into a better physical state. i need to hydrate myself more, eat more sensibly, lose some weight... these are all things i am going to do. i also want to look into joining the gym. husband and i could have a stupendous time going to the gym together... i want to lose at least fifty pounds. i know it sounds like a lot, but i am becoming more and more aware of the history of health problems in my family and i really don't want to end up diabetic, blind and osteoperosis-ridden. so, i am going to get my physical health under control along with my mental health.
• crochet more... i REALLY want to crochet more. i have so many projects i have started and not finished or have REALLY wanted to do and just haven't gotten around to. i plan to get on the ball with my crochetting and deplete my wool stock dramatically.
• finish all my started projects... it came to my attention the other day that i have the most stupidly shocking amount of projects just sitting around that need to be finished. at least four blankets, several sheeps, dolls, paintings, collages... i could go on. i just need to get on the ball and finish all this stuff.
• write people more... i realised this year that a lot of people in my life have come and gone, some of which i miss hugely. i am going to make sure i don't lose any more and try to get back into contact with some of the people i have lost. not only that, but i have started hanging out in a community that is generally for pen-pals and stuff, so i have started writing several NEW people as well. i have really fallen off the friend train lately and i need to get back.
• tidy more and better... since chris and i have been together i have have tended to be much less than house-proud, which has really gotten him down because he loves having a tidy house. i do enjoy it, but i enjoy being lazy more, but i want that to change. i want to help him create a place that will make him happy and less embarassed to be in.
  

other things i want to work on, without the blurbs are...

• blog more
• learn to bake the perfect cake... not cupcake... PROPER cake.
• watch more films
• collect more lists
• go out more
• spend more time with husband DOING stuff.
• take more photos
• read more
• BE IN AMERICA FOR CHRISTMAS 2009!

yay!

24: what has changed most about the neighbourhood you grew up in?

well, i guess all i can really say is that it is a vast amount cleaner.

going through the neighbourhood in april for the first time in like, three years really shocked me. it almost didn't look like the same place i used to prance as a child. a lot of the trees were cut down, a lot of picket and chain-link fences were put up and everything had a beautiful blanket of grass covereing it.... bar the streets and pavements, as you can imagine.

23: what activities besides eating when on at the kitchen table in the home you grew up in?

ohhh...

well, our kitchen was mostly a haven for two of our many dogs who just didn't get on with the rest of the pack. bambi and buck. they resided in the kitchen, behind the confines of a baby gate. mostly the kitchen was not used for anything other than a dumping ground for junk and so i feel i can safely say that the kitchen table served merely as a secret place for bambi to have puppies when she was pregnant.

22: What secret fantasies and games did you have as a child that you told no one about?

okay... so, this is a good one.

i used to hang out at the laundrette my mum worked at and do this thing... SO weird.

bare in mind whilst i am telling you this, that i was like, nine or ten.

i used to hang out in any little secret place i could (corridors, under tables, around corners), any place was fine as long as i was within ear-shot of a youthful gentleman who was laundering alone. i would sit there and sing love songs. mostly whitney houston. i would sing these songs and imagine that this person... this gentleman, would hear me, become entranced in my beauteous siren song and come find me only to fall madly in love with me.

needless to say, this never worked. i blame it not on my singing and siren abilities, but the fact that the washing machines and clothes driers were TOO loud.

21: What was the craziest thing you did in your youth?

well, as young lady i participated in far too many things to list... i am trying to think what would be the one that would strike people as most out-of-the-ordinary.

mostly i enjoyed hiding in people's rooms and watching them do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do if someone (especially a little girl) was watching.

one incident i remember particularly well was when my friend Jessica and i hid under the bed of a guy called Bo, who rented out a room in her basement. we was QUITE the stud, and we decided we were going to hide and surprise him when he came home from work... little did we know that he came home, got into the shower and came in the bedroom naked... that is the day that changed my little girl mind forever. after this incident, i was on overdrive for sneaking around and seeing older people's secret bits.

yes. i was a delightful child.

20: In what organisations or extracurricular activities did you participate?

i was never really one for participating in anything that didn't involve barbies or pretending to be reba macintyre.

when i was REALLY young i was in the brownies. it was fun mostly because there was a girl there was Tai who was a big, beautiful, sassy black girl who had two older brothers who's tales of mischeif she would always divulge to use prior to our macaroni-decorating and card-making.

i a little later i was in the Youth Group at church where i took part in a group where we created and performed dance routines to youthful religious songs every sunday. it was special.

19: What is a special compliment you always received?

i was regularly told that i had incredible hair as a child. this was due to the fact that i had the THICKEST hair anyone had ever seen in their lives.

despite the fact that it was very lovely, it was also the bane of my existence, as it loved to rebel as much as it could by way of turning into a rat's nest within twenty minutes of brushing it.