Decision Making and the Use of Time – 30th December 2017

The New Year is nearly here. I spend my time between Christmas and New Year thinking about what I would like my coming year to be about and like. There is a little bit of fanciful thinking (ie. if I won lotto what would I do) but generally it is a bit deeper than that. I looked at last year’s resolutions and laughed because I can recycle them this year as due to 2017 being one of those years, where life just didn’t go to plan. This is what I had listed for 2017 (which was also a list made up of previous resolutions):

• Join a walking group – this was from 2015 and we haven’t done it yet, but it came up again recently in a discussion with Pat as a way of improving our French and getting out a bit more.
• To spend less than we bring in this was from 2016 – which may be obvious but this year we overspent, which of course means dipping into the retirement savings – not something we want to do.
• My biggy for this year – this was from 2009 – only watching tv on weekends – this is to help me get a few more things done to the house (like making the couch cover that I’ve been thinking about for 8 months and had the material for, for 4 months).

My resolution to watch less tv, is an interesting one and one I think I will slightly modify this coming year – to something along the lines of – make considered choices with my time. So what do I mean by this is actually thinking about the decisions I make – if I want to watch tv – that’s fine, but to understand in making that choice I am choosing not to do other things – such as painting. So hopefully I will choose to do what is important to me at that point in time, whether it be making a sofa cover (still not done), my French homework, walking the dog, or watching an hour of one of my Japanese anime. I can make the decision that I consider the best at that time. It will be an interesting experiment. Though in a book I’ve been reading, they state the best thing is to schedule your time, so you know what you are doing when and you are less likely to make the easy choice (such as watching TV). Maybe I should do both?

Pat and I had a quiet Christmas and enjoyed our beef wellington rather than turkey. We also liked our presents to one another and Siena definitely loves her new toy and Wallis his new bed (he is now off the end of the bed – yah). However I’ve been thinking that next year it might be fun to do something different. Not sure what, but would love any ideas/suggestions that you have (travelling for a long time not an option).

We have enjoyed our week off between Christmas and New Year though the weather has not been great – mostly wet and windy and today very windy and lots of rain. We did however get to go into Limoges to see Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. I enjoyed it, a lot; it’s not the most intellectual of films, but a lot of fun.

Look out for our new blog next Saturday. We will do a link to it from our current blogs.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Birthday to my cousin C – hope you have had a fabulous day 🙂

Finally – just as a “wow doesn’t it look so much better” a photo of my thyroid op scar – it’s now been 6 months and while my voice hasn’t healed 100% (still no upper range and can’t project/yell) I’m happy with the scar.

the day the dressing came off (2 weeks after op)

6 months later