The inevitable New Year blog post

Happy New Year to all my readers, of which I just know I have many.  Far too many to mention you all individually, so I hope you'll forgive me if I don't just now.

Made any New Year's Resolutions?  Broken them yet?  My answer to both of those questions is: no, and of course not, because I am one of those people who scoffs at the very idea that the start of a new year heralds a smoke-filled BAM! moment after which instantly emerges a better, shinier version of myself.  'New for 2011 - Nina Version 33.7.  She doesn't drink!  She never thinks bad thoughts!  She writes at least 5,000 words every day and every single one of them is utterly profound and makes perfect sense!  You get the idea.  But I'm afraid I'm still me.  I still spend far too much time on Facebook when I should be working and I still think horrible thoughts about killing Aleksandr Orlov and Gio Compare in cold blood.  My fundamental personality isn't about to change; or if it does I'll realise it when it's too late to do anything about it, and that could be on a really radical date like the 31st July.

Yet in some ways you can't help but assess your life at the beginning of a brand new year.  Your mind just drifts there, no matter how much you might not want it to.  I think this is partly due to Christmas.  So many wasted days are spent in the run-up to 1st January; most people feel an unconscious (or conscious if you prefer) need to atone for the fortnight of eating and drinking too much, for receiving an abundance of presents, for lying around comatose and not doing anything useful.  "It's OK - come the New Year I'll sort all that out".  It's like the perennial "I'll start the diet on Monday" feeling slimmers get every Tuesday morning onwards.  I myself purchased a new workout soundtrack for 2011, because I couldn't escape the feeling that from January my workouts will be automatically rejuvenated, as if by magic.  Above my desk I've pinned a horoscope for 2011 which states that "this is the year to work on that novel you've always wanted to write".  (We'll skip over the fact that my Chinese horoscope says the exact opposite.  I'm not Chinese anyway, so that doesn't count).  

So you see, you can't fully escape that whole "new year, new me" feeling, no matter how hard you try.  I say, just go with it.  You never know, one year it might even come true.