Happy New Year?

when i was young we always had a big tidy up before new year as the way you saw the year in was the way it would stay for the year or something like that. basically, if my room was tidy for the bells it would stay tidy all year.... think my mum just wanted me to tidy my room!

there are lots of things about the start of the new year that i don't really get. there's the whole resolution thing. some people set them, break them then beat themselves up for it. other people state that they are wonderfully happy with who they are so don't need to set them. 

i used to be in the first category, set a resolution, generally break it before i went to bed on the first then felt rotten for it for a wee while, especially when someone else pointed out i'd screwed up. you can pretty much tell from that statement that i'm a smoker and have been for a really long time!

this year i didn't set a resolution although i did write a list of things i want to do in 2011. my other half says that it's the same thing but i don't agree. guess like most of everything in life it's just a matter of perspective.

i also don't believe that we need to wait till the start of the new year to make a change if we're not happy. i quit drinking in november 2009. it was after one of those really bad nights out where i acted like an arse, was way too drunk, spent way too much money and was probably quite violent (my memory is fuzzy surprisingly enough). 

like lots of people i'd said "never again" before and not meant it. i'd made new years resolutions to drink in moderation and not get wasted again before promptly getting smashed. what it came down to was how miserable drinking was making me. obviously it's a depressant in it's own right but the aftermath was the worse thing. i hate hangovers, and the older i get the worse they are. more than hangovers tho i hate the memories of what i'd done while drunk. 

so i stopped drinking. don't get me wrong, it's not a case of 400 odd days with not a drop of booze going past my lips. i've had the odd bottle of beer but always stopped at one and now i pretty much don't ever fancy it.

this isn't meant to be a "look at me, i quit drinking story" but just a bit of my history to remind myself that i don't need to wait till the end of a year to change something i'm not happy about.

so bring it on 2011, there's gonna be lots to do and also my big three oh is this year and i plan on celebrating in style... although i'm not sure what style yet!