I haven’t made New Year’s resolutions as such, but as I turn 60 this year I felt I should endeavour to complete some challenges. 2020 has made us all more aware than ever I think that we really cannot guarantee that plans will go as desired; so I’ve made these challenges in the full knowledge that acts of God or man or just my lack of ability, time or money may mean that I don’t achieve all the goals. I felt however that it was important to try to achieve something in 6 of the areas of my life that mean a lot to me.

The 6 areas are singing, cycling, swimming, running, writing and Italian (there is cooking as well, but I’m not 100% sure when I’ll be able to host any dinner parties again, and also I wanted to try to achieve things I hadn’t done before).

The goals for each area are:

Running – complete 9 Lakeland Trails (both ‘series’ and the half marathon)

Swimming – I have a list of lakes and a river I still want to swim in, plus ‘Swim Snowdon’ (walk/swim about 6 miles up and down Snowdon, swimming in the various lakes and tarns en route)

Cycling – I’d like to complete my circuit of Cumbria and then Writing – finish writing up ‘Round the Edges’, which is about running and cycling around Cumbria.

I’d also like to do a standard distance triathlon – perhaps Windermere – which would of course combine running, cycling and swimming.

Italian – I thought about doing Italian GCSE. I’d still like to but I’ve done very little italian study recently, and missed quite a few of the conversation group sessions. Still, there are 6 months until GCSEs are taken, if they happen at all this year. As an alternative I’d like to go somewhere in Italy and speak a lot of Italian.

Singing – I’ve been working towards doing some sort of Performance exam, probably my ARSM (sort of ‘Grade 9’). I’d love to do some more live singing this year before my voice gets too old and knackered, and I have some fab. repertoire. If circumstances permit I’d also like to do an outdoor garden party with live music in aid of charity – not just me performing but various of my musician friends as well.

And a venue is already booked for my birthday party in September; we’ll just have to see nearer the time how many people I’m allowed to invite (if any at all); and at the very least I think people will be keen to do WastFest again.

2020 started me on a journey of being fitter: it’s enabled me to get outside regularly and improved my mood when I’ve felt low. It’s a path I want to remain on for the rest of my life, but if I can use my brain for things like languages, writing, and reading history books as well, then life should be pretty full and good. Not forgetting friends and family to do all these things with when possible.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!