AND FINALLY

I promise I’ll live life to the full

BEFORE Christmas I moaned that I had to miss a wonderful week in London — going to parties and galleries — because I was ill. How I coughed and sulked!

So my daughter gave me some wise advice, which was to reschedule the treats. Christmas parties can’t be revisited, but why not construct some alternative fun?

It went like this. Drive to London and check into a glamorous hotel in South Kensington called The Ampersand (that was Kitty’s gift), and then stride off to visit three small galleries: Iconostas, Beaux Arts and Messum’s, all in the Bond Street area. Why? Because art is my hobby and delight.

After that (and convivial drinks) we went to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club for dinner and music, then a nightcap at the hotel and some mirth about ‘dry January’. The next morning it was the Celts exhibition at the British Museum, then back to Bath.

That was it. The January break. I enjoyed myself so much it made me reflect on the importance of pleasure.

Obviously, we’d all choose to do different things in the capital: my appetite for clothes shopping has gone, but shops are fun and so is (say) a whirl on the London Eye or a thrilling visit to the Tower of London. What matters is the doing, getting out there and having some fun.

Each to his or her own: football matches, rock gigs, a week in Benidorm, a weekend in Paris, a quickstep around Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom, a lunchtime concert at the Wigmore Hall — all good.

So my new year resolution is not to give anything up, but to add to my life in as many ways as I can, add to the delight, because two exact contemporaries of mine are with us no longer. A wild and wonderful musician and a talented actor will see no more dawns promising pleasure, love and inspiration.

May David Bowie and Alan Rickman rest in peace — and may the rest of us realise how vital it is to seize the time while we can.