Well here we are, 2008, a whole new year to go at. Unspoiled so far, mind you it is only ten days old. But with my resolve to become a ‘glass half full’ person I can see this being a very good year.


This also signals the end of two years of retirement which is very hard to believe, it just seems to have gone so quickly, helped I think by us spending 5 months of the first year in The Bahamas and then over six months of this last year in Barcelona. Doesn’t seem a bad life but it’s not all been easy, it hasn’t been a holiday of course we have simply been visiting the family. I have also had to do a lot of work at home in the periods we have been there so maybe this year I should be looking to take things easy for a change!


As usual with each new year comes the new resolutions. The ‘no drinking’ lasted until the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Watching football down at Alfonso’s Bar in Castelldefels didn’t seem right just drinking a lemonade so a bottle of beer was ordered and that was the end of that resolution. But that one was never going to last, every time we see the school bus we open another bottle.


The diet! How can you diet when a ‘menu del dia’ costs around eight euros for three courses and includes a bottle of wine. So the diet resolution lasted just as long as took us to eat all the excess of food we had bought for the holiday period. When I think about it having eaten all the excess food in the few day’s after New Year and then popping out for a ‘Menu del dia’ I think it’s fair to say that this resolution didn’t even get of the ground.


Getting fit! Yes this one is still going well, Christine and I are taking the air walking an hour a day along the promenade. This isn’t really too much of a hardship as the temperature is still around the 18 to 20 degrees in the afternoons and the Mediterranean is calm and blue with even people still sitting on the beach. The down side is that the walks are on the promenade and not the beach. Beach walking seems to have lost some of its appeal since the summer, I am just having a little trouble trying to put my finger on what it is. That’s it, the beach bars have gone, oh yes and maybe the girls sunbathing in next to nothing but I don’t think I used to notice them anyway. So keeping fit is going OK, an hour’s walk a day is better than nothing.


But where the real problem comes is with the ‘glass half full’ resolution. I have decided to rid myself of the Victor Meldrew image that certain people seem to have of me. I really don’t understand where this comes from as I am the most easy going person I know to get on with. I have lived with Christine for over forty years, I must be easy going but I seem to have this reputation.


So here we are ten day’s into the new year with me being even more understanding than usual, not having a raised voice with anyone, being pleasant all day and what happens? The kids are complaining that I am getting at them about the state of their bedrooms and how long they spend on their computers and how two weeks holiday from school at Christmas is far too long. Does this sound like me? I just happen to mention the odd thing now and again and suddenly I am Victor Meldrew.


Christine tells me I am complaining everyday about going for the walk, when all I happen to mention is that it is not like it was on the beach in the summer. On reflection I do seem to mention it most days and just maybe it would be better if I stopped the grumbling and just did the walk. Maybe tomorrow!


It may just be of course that I like being Victor Meldrew so maybe this resolution wont last too long if in fact it has started at all. On the other hand when I ask Christine what resolution she has made for the New Year she simply replies, as she does most years, “To be even more perfect than last year”. Pass the bottle!