Friday Five: New Year's Eve quotes

Rainbow lorikeets in the back garden

We had a fantastic New Year's Eve with friends on the coast (Mr and Mrs Lovely-Bonkers and their offspring and her parents). There were beach walks and sea-swimming and bubbles and fishy foods and raucous games and bird-watching. Among the hilarity, there were some quotable gems that could be repeated in public. These are they:

5 Quotes from New Year's Eve:

1. If we run out of red wine later, you can always suck my shorts.
2. No secret identities at the table.
3. You've got sparkles down my top.
4. It was all aflame and now it's fizzled out. We've all been there.
5. I could see in the new year with a damp tea bag.

The Harry Potter wand sparkle-off

Friday Five: Calendars



Bamburgh Castle - Joe Cornish

A New Year means new calendars - I love calendars; great pictures that change every month for variety and colour in the corner of your office/ kitchen/ bathroom. Of course, they are functional for recording holidays, doctor appointments and Liverpool football matches (and mother's day - an important one that) but I reckon you can tell a lot about a person by their choice of calendar. The number I own is only limited by the available space I have to hang them. So you can make of this what you will, without further ado...

My 5 2013 Calendars:

1. One I made myself featuring photos I've taken over the past year of places I've been
2. Joe Cornish's Landscape Light - an annual gift from my sister of fabulous scenic photos of North East England with an unexpected perspective
3. The Chilterns in watercolour - I bought this when I was back in England; with pictures of Marlow, Henley,Cookham Dean, Hughenden Manor and Christmas Common, how could I refuse?
4. Railway Poster Art from the National Railway Museum collection - all the vibrant prints are designed to promote to travel to areas of Britain, such as Devon, North Wales or the Lake District - the one for the Yorkshire Dales boasts 'a land of narrow valleys and attractive villages, of heather-covered hills and moors, of ancient abbeys and castles, the principal dales are readily accessible by rail and form a holiday paradise for walkers, anglers and all who prefer the quiter place'.
5. London Underground Diary - yes, well done eagle-eyed readers; it's a diary, but it has got brilliant images of posters from the 1910s to the 1960s and 'interesting facts' about the tube - this week I learned that 'during peak hours more than 500 trains are in operation'.

Artwork by Ronald Lampitt

New Year starts here

My New Year's Eve celebrations have begun early - Stevie's back! He comes off the bench at Anfield to captain the team to victory and score a goal himself. You beauty - pass the champagne.

You lucky, lucky...

I have always wanted to be snowed in. It's a sort of ambition of mine. That time at Digbeth Coach Station doesn't count. Nor does the skiiing holiday in Norway - that's sort of expected, really, isn't it?

One New Year's Eve (2005) we went walking with Screy Sis and Mr Smartypants to the Old Lion Inn in Blakely. It was a cold walk (hence we were wrapped up warm).

As we began to thaw out by the fire, even those who don't drink (that would be Scarey Sis then) soon got a glow on.

As for those that do (and the Old Peculier was going down very nicely thank you very much) they were positively Ready Brek!

Sadly, although it was cold, there was no snow that night, and we were home and tucked up in bed snoring soundly by about two minutes past midnight. So I have nothing but envy for those stuck in the Tan Hill Inn (this fabulous atmospheric picture by Richard Quirk) - they got a three-day lock-in! Being snowed in over New Year's Eve in a pub must surely be a dream come true. The only danger is of the beer running out.

It was no surprise to learn that among those 'stranded' were members of DOSS AC - this is the club to which Him Outdoors belongs. They hail from Leeds University and are often to be found running up and down hills, drinking pints in or outside pubs and wearing a particularly virulent shade of yellow. That would doubtless help them be spotted in a blizzard. Whether anyone would then choose to rescue them or not is another matter... Here they are outside another pub; see what I mean!

What a way to usher in 2010 - now there would be a good reason for a sore head. I suppose there is a slight feeling of how can things possibly get better than that? As they say at the Tan Hill Inn; it's all donwhill from here. (Actually, I don't know if they do say that, but they should - highest pub in the country and all that).

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year everybody.

So, did you make any New Year resolutions? That's what my sister asked when she phoned me this morning. I don't really 'do' New Year resolutions, which I think disappointed her somewhat. She, incidentally, has resolved to wear more perfume. That's one of the best New Year's resolutions I've ever heard!

I would like to get my novel finished. I am about five full days' writing away from finishing the first draft after this stint over the holidays, so I think that should be highly achievable. I don't want to put undue pressure on myself, however. I have Him Outdoors for that.

I also aim to do more with photography. This is a little bit vague, I realise, which can be the problem with New Year's resolutions. I have a friend who once resolved to 'be nicer to people'. I'm not entirely convinced that she achieved this aim, as I don't know what her benchmark was. I have another friend who makes a resolution to give up smoking every year. He doesn't smoke, so he says he will always feel a sense of achievement.

Perhaps I need some goal to aim for with the photography. We bought me a camera over the holiday period and I have been practicing with various settings. So far I have got lots of photos of the cat. I haven't read the section on how to download them from the memory card yet though (I hate reading instructions) so they remain in the camera for now.

I have also resolved not to use phrases like 'credit crunch' and talk about things I know nothing about. If I'm interested, I will do some reading around the subject. If not, I will just shut up and avoid conversations with people who know equally little but have seen an item on the news and so are aping all the latest soundbites with nothing fresh to add of their own.

Neither am I going to read women's magazines about how someone is too thin/not thin enough/ pregnant/ engaged/ divorced. Those magazines are entirely aimed at making real women feel inadequate and I won't allow myself to feel like that just because I haven't got a multi-million dollar house and husband, cosmetic surgery, my own design label, and an array of adopted children from impoverished nations.

Finally, I would like to see Liverpool lift the Premier League Trophy. I can't do much about that apart from offer my wholehearted support. It's all yours, boys. I'm pretty sure you can't make New Year's Resolutions on the behalf of others, so maybe it's more like a New Year's Wish then.

We're four days into the year already, so many resolutions will be broken by now. A study by psychologists at the University of Hertfordshire (previously Hatfield Poly) of more than 3,000 people who made New Year's resolutions, found that only 12% achieved their goals. Who are these people, and would you trust them? If they can't even keep a promise to themselves, how can they expected to keep one to anyone else? Perhaps that's a question that should be asked of prospective employees or partners. It could save a lot of heartache. Just for the record, Him Outdoors doesn't make them either.

If you have made resolutions of your own, I hope you achieve them, or at least have a lot of fun trying.