Are there enough months in the year?

ELEANOR GOGGIN A

FRIEND was sharing her plans for 2018 with us the other night. It seems that she plans on doing something special for herself every month. Something to make herself feel better. An achievement or a treat of some sort. And I decided I’m going to do much the same. No more drifting from month to month.

Now when I sat down to think about it I got stuck on January. I’ll be going racing in January. Is that an achievement? Will it make me feel better? Probably not when I lose my shirt. I can’t really work out what constitutes an achievement or a treat. Is it a night away or a new outfit. A cream cake or a bottle of decent wine. Given that I treat myself every week or even every day I’m going to have to come up with some fairly big ideas to make this new regime have any impact. Maybe I’ll just stick with the achievements and forget about the treats because they are going to happen anyway. So for January I’m going to take out my painting stuff and embrace my inner creativity. Whether I have any or not is another matter. My son bought a table-top easel for me to be dabbling away when I’m watching telly so I’ll give that a go. Paint one decent picture and get it framed. Stick it on the wall for everyone to snigger at. Now to February and I’m struggling to think. My son suggested that I bake a cake. Imagine I’ve arrived at this great age without having ever baked a cake. That would be an achievement second to none. Now I’m absolutely terrified of flying. Or should I say I’m terrified of crashing. My son went for a flying lesson the other day and absolutely loved it. So who knows by March I might decide to conquer my fears and get up there. God knows by December I could be bungee jumping.