New Year's Resolutions

I always make New Year's Resolutions, and *always* break them. My OCD nature means that if I resolve to save all my loose change, then need to use £2 of it for vending at work, I'll count the whole things as a failure, spend *all* the money, and give up completely. Same with diets - if I have *one* meal out where I eat dessert, I'll give in totally for the rest of the year. So, this year I'm *still* making my resolutions. But there's an extra one, which will be number 1 on the list. Without further ado then, my New Year's Resolutions, 2006:-

1. Don't be so hard on myself. I need to realise that there's a time and a place for everything, and that just because I may *choose* to eat something I shouldn't, or borrow from my change jar, all is not lost.
   
2. Focus on lowering my blood sugar and blood pressure. This one encompasses things like taking my medication every day, drinking enough water, eating low carb as much of the time as I can, and generally cutting out the junk.
   
3. Open a savings account and save monthly, straight from my wages. I won't miss £25 a month, and every little helps.
4. Save my £2 coins. There's already £24 in my terramundi, and I'm not breaking it until August. It's spending money for New York.
5. Try and be a bit more sociable. I'm being really anti-social again at the moment, which is never good.
6. Be me. At this point I'm not sure I actually know who *me* is, but this is the year I'm going to try and find out.
7. Stop worrying so much about what other people think.
   
8. Buy a new bed.
9. Learn more photography techniques and skills.

Owwwwwwwwww...

OK, so it's Boxing Day - the day I traditionally clear out my bedroom, trying to make way for new items received at Christmas. I didn't have a huge amount to make space for this year, but decided to start tidying anyway.

This brings me to Kirstie's Holiday Tip Number One - When lifting a box containing a solid glass photo frame, approximately 14" x 10", that has previously been opened, making sure you're holding it open end *up* is a good idea, to avoid dropping the *^&£%!@ thing on your big toe!!!

I now have a lovely bruised toe that's black under the nail, and hurts like *hell*. And tomorrow I have to put on shoes that are ever so slightly too small to be comfy, and do 9 hours on my feet at work. Fun!

It wasn't them ...

The two firefighters who were killed in the fire at Ringmer yesterday have been named today, and I'm relieved that neither of them were people I knew. I still don't know whether either of my former colleagues or my former neighbour were among the injured, but I do feel a little less worried today.

Maybe I'm naive, but I never expect to see events that are local to me on the front pages of the national newspapers, so it was something of a shock to see the story on the front page of the Daily Mail, the Mirror, and one or two others this morning, as well as the local paper, of course. It made it so much more real, somehow - the knowledge that something happening just five miles up the road from me was the biggest story in the country's news today.

I don't quite know how to feel today - a part of me feels so sad at the events of yesterday, while the other part still feels rather detached. There are interviews and reports telling of people hearing the explosions and seeing the smoke in Lewes, Uckfield, and for several miles around, yet because I was at work, where it's almost like a bubble away from the 'outside world' I didn't hear anything, or discover anything about the fire until I came home from work. It's almost as though I've heard that it happened, but haven't been affected by it, or seen any 'proof', so I can't quite believe it yet. Things like that just don't *happen* around here .... until now.

Worried ...

I came home from work this afternoon to hear on the news that a fireworks company a few miles from Lewes has burned down today. The latest news is that two firefighters have been killed, and several others injured in the fire and explosions, which were still occurring at 7pm, five hours after the initial blaze.

I'm worried because I know at least three of the Lewes firefighters, though the ages given would indicate that only one of the people I know could be either of those killed, but the injured could easily include my former colleagues. I keep refreshing the web pages, hoping to see names listed, just so I *know*, but nothing yet.

As most people reading this will know, Lewes is huge on Bonfire, and the company destroyed this afternoon was owned and run by part of one of the main families involved in Lewes Bonfire. The owner's house has been destroyed, as well as everything they've worked for, some of their staff have been injured, and many members of the emergency services have been injured, or lost their lives, yet on the Lewes town message board, all one individual can think of to post is a diatribe against fireworks, and Bonfire within the town. Priorities much? Moron.

BBC News report