New Year's Greetings

This is a picture of Pendennis Castle in Falmouth, as requested by the Rotten Correspondent. Though I would hasten to add that we walk around this castle's large moat every morning, not the castle itself, which is owned by English Heritage and so you need to pay to go in.

January the First is traditionally the time for News Review of the Year, a programme I worked on in my television days. It was fun compiling an hour long programme of the disasters of the past year, the howlingly funny sound bites, the moments of achievement. We made it in early December, of course, as tapes and scripts had to be sent round the world by courier in those days. I would crouch in the newsroom, trying to send pages and pages of script by the temperamental fax, sworn at by the editor of the day desperate to use the machine for some far more urgent business. Oh happy days.

But it strikes me that the new year should surely be a time of looking forward. If your hangover permits, that is. Our upstairs neighbours got in at 4.30 this morning so you can guess what they’re going to be feeling like today.

I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions, but I have goals, and they are mostly to do with work. That is, make more money out of my writing. Journalism and fiction. These are not just professional aspirations but part of a plan that involves looking after a husband who, like many of my friends, has next to no pension and can’t afford to give up work. No that there is much at the moment anyway.

The long term financial future is not one that I care to look at too closely.

So that’s my goal for this year. I would also take a leaf out of our friend John’s book and adopt his maxim for life – to go my own way but help others when I can. That sounds fearfully priggish but there is a selfish motive to this – it makes me feel a whole lot better. Cheering someone up, or taking a cat to a vet doesn’t take a huge amount of time or money. But it’s worth it when you see that smile.

So here’s hoping that 2008 brings us all health, wealth and happiness. Most of us can survive without the wealth, but the other two are vital.

Cheers.