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A very happy new year to you all. I didn’t make it to midnight. Not that I died, just in case you were worried (or did I? Wooooo!), but I went to bed and slept. I was awake after 11pm, which surprised me, but not conscious as the new year rushed into the vacuum left by 2018 or woken by any fireworks (and I am sure there must be some, as now fireworks are pretty much a daily occurrence). And I was glad of it.
I have often said that I am no fan of New Year and its enforced celebration and the one good thing about having kids (and it’s the only good thing, so balance things up carefully before having kids just for this reason) is that you don’t have to be a part of it any more. In fact you can’t. Cos you’re too tired, especially if you’ve been celebrating Christmas to any degree. I never really liked staying up for any day of the year. My friends all seemed to think there was kudos is staying up til dawn, but I really liked to have the evening sorted by 11pm if possible. I was never interested in staying up all night to get lucky. If I hadn’t got lucky by 11.30 then what’s the point? By the time you got home you’d be too tired to do kissing.
So Catie and I had a bottle of champagne earlier in the evening and went to bed at 10 and she very kindly let me have a second sleep in in a row and I was up just before 8am. Doubtless some of may friends were still awake from last night at this point and showing off about how cool they were. Well the joke’s on them. Because I had been asleep. Though I didn’t even have a dream as exciting as the American car park pay machine one. I think my life is over.
I cracked onwards with the script for most of the day and I think with one more day’s work will have a workable first draft. Which is lucky because I have to give it in tomorrow or the next day. It’s going to be a bit too long, but that’s kind of inevitable. Due to the ad breaks on the channel that’s showing it, the script is meant to be about 23 minutes long. And there’s lots to get in. And I believe they also want some jokes along with the plot.
I feel it is going quite well though. We shall see. I mustn’t make it too good or they might ask me to write more.
And as usual I made the resolution to lose weight and get fit again. It works out about once every five years, but I think it’s now five years since I last made it a success, so that’s a good sign. I am certainly taking some time away from alcohol, which has been basically a daily habit in 2018 (though rarely more than a couple of drinks) and try to give up sugar and start running again. Day one went well. I allowed myself 1700 calories (plus any calories burned off by exercise) and had over 100 calories in hand at bed time. If I can just repeat that for the next 100 days then I should be down to a weight where I can fit into all the nice suits I bought in 2014! (Narrator) He did not repeat that for the next 100 days.
But I am going to make an effort to take on less work than usual. I did a bit better with that one in 2018. And thanks to the entertainment industry for helping me out with this by understanding that they shouldn’t offer me too much.
Anyway, I am taking it one day at a time. And will start each day reminding myself that I am 51 (until the day comes when I am 52 and then I will remind myself I am 52) and that I need to slow the fuck down if I am going to get to 61. My wife and I have managed to build ourselves a lovely and comfortable life, but when we both have deadlines screaming in our faces, it’s easy to lose sight of that. And I intend to make sure that once we get through our work that we make an effort to enjoy the down time.
But how will we do that without alcohol? Shit, I really haven’t thought this through.
Still one day down in this new and healthy regime.
