Have you ever noticed how many articles are written on "improving your health" after the Christmas and New Year holiday season is over? In the past week, I must have read about half a dozen on the subject of "dry January". Mercifully, there are not as many articles on losing weight. This year everything seems to be concentrated on drinking less alcohol and getting more sleep. Two good ways to start the New Year, I have to say. But then, I don't drink that much. I like the occasional glass of wine with a meal, I like an Irish Coffee now and again after a meal, and I like to drink a shandy with pasta or pizza. But not every day, you understand. Just whenever I feel like it. So that's one New Year resolution I can skip.
Regarding sleep/not enough of: I have to admit that I am a bad sleeper. In my heyday (we won't go into how long ago that was!) I needed a good ten hours which I never got owing to having two kids and working a busy full time job. Now, as a retiree, I can sleep all day, except I can't! I sleep a really deep sleep for maybe two hours then wake up to go to the bathroom and then it's a toss of the coin whether I get back to sleep again fairly quickly or whether I like awake listening to the radio (I have heard some really fascinating stuff on BBC's world service at 4 a.m.) or if I feel too unsettled, I'll pop into the sitting room and turn on the TV to some news channel (France24 is a favourite). I usually read before I put out the light at night, so I don't feel much like reading a book or writing for that matter. I have several books of poetry and I might read through one, or - my favourite occupation at any given time - I'll trawl through my Oxford Book of Quotations. I'll crawl back into bed when I feel sleepy enough and then I will sleep until 9 a.m. I don't let my disturbed sleep pattern disturb me despite reading some of that new book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker where he reckons we all don't get enough of the proper kind.
I haven't seen as many diet suggestions this year but I always look through recipes in magazines. The only thing is, I find that some of the suggested ingredients puzzle me. For example, there was this one for a salmon dish - and I love salmon - but where am I going to find Aleppo pepper and if I do find it, how will I recognize it? Then there's an ingredient for another dish: half a Jalapeno it says blithely with an accent over the n. Where would I get that? Certainly not from my local supermarket which is strong on peas and carrots and potatoes but anything remotely exotic is not to be found there. And let's be honest, in a country town, people are more traditional in their cooking. You've guessed it: I end up substituting what I think belongs in the recipe and it usually turns out fine.
Now that schools are back and the month of January is advancing at the brisk pace of a born-again jogger, we'll all have forgotten whatever it was we decided we had to do for the New Year. Let's start looking at summer holidays. Not long to go now.
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