Out With The Old

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to my first official post of 2019! Yay!

Yes, the festivities and the hootenany are now things of the past as we march headlong into the new year. In fact it’s possibly progressing just a little too fast for my personal liking. Two weeks into January seems to have arrived with more than the due haste and of course it’s left a few little jobs to do…

January is renown of being the month of new starts, of health kicks, good habits, and reaching those goals which were just missed in 2018 (and 2017, and 2016…). It is a time for renewal. A time for making a start on those new year resolutions, but of course before that can happen there is the inevitable cleaning of the decks, and that’s what faces us now.

Weighty Matters
We had a good Xmas and a passable New Year (Tina working a night shift n New Year Eve slightly taking the shine off the latter) but my word did we pay for it!

Chief among the prices payable was the gain in weight that I mentioned in my last post. This was something that had to change, and had to change quickly. Unfortunately the left over excesses of the previous couple of weeks has made this a challenge, one that has been met, but one which, in my case at least was delayed long enough to mean that I had to pay for a couple of weeks attendance at Slimming World. I was a Target Member you see, two and a half stones lighter than when I first turned up there, but, due to Xmas, temporarily lost the title and the perk of not having to pay that goes with it.

Paying For It
Now I’m a proud and stereotypically tight-as a-duck’s-rear-end Yorkshireman. That is, I am a little careful when it comes to monetary matters, and begrudge any wasteful expenditure so it irked me a little that such expenditure was tragically called for. I therefore resolved to get back in target as soon was humanly possibly, the only problem was, those aforementioned excesses are still very much evident at Seated Perspective Towers.

This leads to a little bit of conundrum. Yes, I wanted to loss the Xmas poundage, and I wanted to do it quickly. I also wanted to jam as many Quality Street into my mush as it’s possible to fit, leaving room only for that last mince pie, individual Xmas pudding, and half bottle of port. I could, of course have disposed of the offensively wonderful array of treats, snacks, and booze in the bin but that would have caused another dizzying case of cognitive dissonance in my flat cap wearing Yorkshire soul.

No, I was just going to have to show some fortitude in this respect if I was going to drop the weight and, I am pleased to report, despite eating half of a baked Camembert, and being called out to go for a curry with some friends, I have managed it. The weight has gone, hopefully not to return in anything like the near future. If only the rest of the festive flotsam was as easy to clear.

A Load Of Rubbish

It’s not just the choccies, you see, that are left over. It’s also most of the packaging, food waste and, other assorted rubbish that needs cleaning up and cleaning out. Most of it is in the black bin but there is a growing collection sitting in black bags in the garage, nicely out of sight and firmly out of mind. It wouldn’t have been a problem is the bin men hadn’t been on their Xmas jollies, or if they would collect recycling waste at the same time as general waste, but sadly neither of these things were the case. At least it’s ‘bin day’ on Wednesday though and we can get rid of the majority. As for the rest? Well I can see us making the dreaded tip tun to get rid of that.

To be honest the tip run is sorely needed anyway, if only to get rid of some larger items which have been happily lurking in random cupboards and drawers, not causing any obstruction, nor really doing anyone much harm. They are taking up space though, and since we got some new stuff for Christmas, that space could be much better used

New Brooms

So, it’s bye-bye, old broken slow cooker, hello food processor. Farewell cracked cafetière, hello shiny bright new one… and so on. And, as we will be braving it anyway, it might be a good time to have a look around the rest of the house, to see what else can be cleared up and shipped out. It might only be January, it might be midwinter, but the time is right for a bit of a spring clean.

Now where’s that duster.

Until next time.