Are you having the 2012 I am? I know at least one person who has moved to an exotic island in the Mediterranean, and quite a few who have changed jobs, which I guess count as Life Events, but my life and that of many others around me has been one Grand Nul so far. I spent the first two months of the year in the grip of some debilitating something that not only removed my will to live but also meant I had to grasp handrails to get upstairs. Seriously, it was that bad.
So let's review those resolutions...
1. Spitalfields isn't Soho - get over it and set off for the Central Line prompt at 17:00. I'm doing well on this one, especially after changing my morning routine by getting up an hour earlier (!). And with the recent warmer, if not more pleasant weather, I've been going into Shoreditch for my lunches, and I'm starting to feel some minimum connection with the area, especially since finding somewhere unutterably cool but not busy to write at lunchtimes.
2. Go to the gym at least three days a week. Not only that, but I changed my routine shortly after feeling that what I was doing wasn't working. I put myself in the hands of Renata the Ju-Jitsu champion, and those routines are working. It's making a difference, but it's hard work.
3. Not eat chocolate late in the evening and avoid excess carbs at lunchtime. Okay. You understood this one was aspirational. Right?
4.1 Take two week-long holidays abroad and a couple of short breaks in the UK. Nah. Not been in the mood. Crap weather. Pass.
4.2 One weekend, take the sleeper to and from Penzance. Still a possibility.
5. Spend more time researching stuff that's useful to my various projects. I'm doing this, but exactly how useful it's going to be, I don't know.
6 Do my "36 Views of St Mary Axe" photography project. I still have time for this. I can't take photographs in cold weather, so I'd better strike soon.
7 Read "Finding Time Again" so I've "read Proust". Result! See this post.
8. Make Saturday Special - details to follow. Still haven't sorted this one out.
9. Make the best of the seven-week Olympic period. So close, so close.
10. errr... that's it.
So here are some changes.
2. Go to the gym every night after work - even if it's just for a quick swim. Only reason why I can skip is an 18:00 movie. Or not being in London. Or off sick.
3. No more office cakes. Do bedtime prep after 21:30, because a lot of my compulsive chocolate-eating happens after 21:00. If I know I'm not trying to stay awake until 23:00, I may cut that back. More fruit salads - with single cream for the mouth feel and satisfaction - and more vegetable stews. Stop buying bars of chocolate and packets of biscuits, even if it is from Garcia in Notting Hill. There's more to say about this, but not now.
5. Commit to the analyst blog. Or stop thinking writing stuff for it. I'll discuss this later.
7. Finish with the freaking Riemann-Roch theorem already!
8. If the weather is remotely acceptable, head out of the house early to have breakfast somewhere. N'importe ou, just anywhere.
10. Go to a weekday AA Meeting every fortnight - every week would remind me of why I get fed up with them. Maybe even tour round some of the ones I used to do in my early days.
I've felt flat for much of the year so far. A lack of movies I want to watch is one factor, the grim weather is another, and the Met Office tells us that the air quality and pollen this year is the worst it's been for a very long time. You're not affected by that nonsense, I know, but I'm a delicate plant and I am. Nothing quite satisfies me: not food, not music, not books, not the gym, certainly not work, heck, even chocolate doesn't do it for me. The closest I've been all year was walking back from Holborn to Waterloo at half-past eight on the first warm evening of the year after seeing Goodbye First Love at the Renoir. How much simpler does a pleasure get? Or maybe, because it's so rare, it's not simple at all.
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