Plans / aims for 2023

[Balderdasha]

I'm not big on new year's resolutions. They don't last, they make you feel guilty when you've already given up on them in the first week of January. But this year, I do plan to have a few things to look forward to / small goals.

Goal number one was to hold a birthday party for my son, which we have now successfully done. Check.

My current goal is to survive a week of solo parenting which is kicking off later today (I will likely resurrect the solo parenting thread for this).

Between now and February, the aim is to be gentle to myself, to do a bit more walking and swimming, eat more fresh fruit and veg, and generally survive as best I can.

February is going to involve a two week holiday in Plymouth and Bristol. We're accompanying my husband on his work trips again. In some ways it will be quite full on because I'll be looking after the kids on my own during the days in likely quite bleak weather, but there are many, many plus points. We'll be in hotels which means someone makes breakfast for us every day and I don't have to do any cleaning (though we will have to do laundry at some point in the two weeks). Living in a hotel means I don't have the option of staying in because the children would climb the walls in such a small space. Having to be up and dressed by a certain time to get the hotel breakfast gets us into a good routine, and then, we can spend the days out and about exploring the cities. Even if I wouldn't necessarily choose to be in Plymouth and Bristol in February, they are different places to home. They have different museums and libraries and shops which we can pootle round. I think some of the tickets I got in August, like to the Plymouth aquarium, allow me another free entry.

Beyond that, the plan is to get a shed / home office built in the front garden in early spring time. It's a building project that shouldn't cause too much disruption, which will give me more space and privacy for my work and will give my daughter more space and privacy for her bedroom (currently we share a bedroom / office).

Around May, I might do a yoga weekend with some friends as a delayed 40th birthday celebration. Need to get onto organising that.

At some point this year I'm hopeful we might be able to do a foreign holiday.

How about you guys? Any hopes / plans / aims for 2023?

[NickSTFU]

I just aim to be alive by 2024.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I always say learn to speak Italian and play the guitar, because I've been saying that since I was about 35. I'm not even sure what I'd do if I ever did learn to play the guitar and sing in Italian, the world doesn't seem to be screaming out for anyone else that can.

I have now been to 56 countries and a planned trip to Monaco will be 57, I could bump that up to 60 if I can convince Signora Rogin into a trip around Macedonia/Serbia/Albania in the autumn.

Mainly (and more realistically) though I'm looking forward to seeing the elder Roginette's graduation show and her Turner Prize entry. Oh, and that this bloody site and everyone on it is still around so I can boast about her in the summer if she does.

[Nocturnal Submission]

The two biggies are the kitchen and my niece's wedding.

When we went ahead with a loft conversion in 2021 we kicked off the process by replacing our traditional boiler with a combi to allow us to get rid of the water storage tanks up top. The old boiler had been located in the kitchen, meaning that what was a bit of a tired, old mess of a room before was now a tired, old mess of a room with exposed brick and pipework in one corner. If we had the money and patience we'd commission an extension for a bigger kitchen but we're just going to have to make do with relocating the washing machine and dryer to the utility room and tarting up the space we have.

Pencilled in for the summer. Budget TBC.

We're going to wrap a big family holiday around the aforementioned wedding, which will be in May. As mentioned elsewhere, the ceremony is in Canada and planning is currently underway, with a plethora of flights being booked and accommodation determined. Frankly, the bigger the cost, the less there will be for the kitchen.

For the last couple of years we've been trying to visit, or invite over, friends and family that we haven't seen for a while and we're planning to continue that in 2023. Leicestershire (Mrs. NS's aunt and uncle), Portsmouth (college friends) and Lymington (old work friend) are on the cards and perhaps Margate (cousins and families) too. I've already sent out dinner invites to a couple of friends and made the first tentative plans for an old work reunion.

We had a couple of friends over on NYE and they said that they were going to try to spend a bit less time on their house in 2023 and a bit more time having fun and doing some travelling, suggesting that we could perhaps all go together. So we probably will. The Lakes, York and Edinburgh were all mentioned.

Mrs. NS and I had some nice walks in 2022 (Dorset coast, Leith Hill) so we'll try to do a few more of those this year. Actually, a lot more exercise generally would be a good idea - I'd like to lose some weight, a stone or a little bit more is the aim.

My sister has got a big move coming up, from her detached house into a (large) two-bedroomed flat in a retirement village, so I'll be giving her as much help with that as she wants.

My son finishes university this year and will be moving home and starting his new business. I don't expect the impact upon the household to be massive, but we'll have to see how things pan out. My daughter has got some career decisions and moves to make - that's likely to be more of a test!

I'm semi-retired but have been thinking about going back to work, in some capacity. Still in the planning and consideration stage and may be influenced by Mrs. NS's decisions around her current employment position, i.e. whether she jacks in her current job and, if so, where she ends up.

In addition there is, of course, a ton of DIY and redecoration pending and a garden to try to keep in something like a decent state.

So, a pretty quiet year expected really.

[Reality Checkpoint]

The main thing that I shall be working on at least for the next few months is completing my BA in painting, culminating in my graduation exhibition in May. (At the Ballroom Art Gallery in Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast if anyone's likely to be in the area, bring your chequebook - just sayin' ) Apart from that my son may get married at some point although they are concentrating on trying to put together enough money for a deposit on a house (in that London so it may take a while). And in other property related issues we may have to deal with the sale of my father's bungalow as he has now accepted that at 98 and more or less totally blind he is unlikely to be moving back home from the nursing home that he is currently in. Oh and this is definitely the year that I'm going to finish off all those last little jobs that still need to be done following the completion of our house extension - just like it was going to be the year ... etc for the past 20 years.

[Patrick Thistle]

Fairly.modest aims...

Read (ie finish reading) 1 book a month.

Go see my sister's new house.

Maybe a holiday in North America.

I'm 3 football grounds away from 100. Should reach the century in February.

Silver wedding anniversary in September. Not decided what we are doing for it yet. Probably a celebration with family and friends.

Balderdasha if you're in Bristol and fancy a day out in Cardiff, let me know.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Hopefully return to full time work next month, which I'm really looking forward to. The novelty of a life of leisure ( for me, house work & childcare) has worn off. I fully appreciate how any woman with a promising career feels if she gave it up to raise a family and lives to regret it. I've only been doing this for 2 years and I already feel the burn.

Other than that, continue to improve my Spanish and I would love to get into a team sport that isn't football, but it's pretty difficult if you don't know how to play any team sport that isn't football. I intend to discuss this on a separate thread.

[3 Colours Red]

I just aim to be alive by 2024.

Easier said than done if the fucking Tories aren't forced to call a general election.

[jameswba]

Hopefully return to full time work next month, which I'm really looking forward to. The novelty of a life of leisure ( for me, house work & childcare) has worn off. I fully appreciate how any woman with a promising career feels if she gave it up to raise a family and lives to regret it. I've only been doing this for 2 years and I already feel the burn.

Other than that, continue to improve my Spanish and I would love to get into a team sport that isn't football, but it's pretty difficult if you don't know how to play any team sport that isn't football. I intend to discuss this on a separate thread.

Not wishing to pre-empt that discussion but, if we're talking about a team sport to play, volleyball might be worth a try, at least on a casual, among friends basis. I also like it as a team-sport to play in mixed-gender groups. I have no skill in it whatsoever, but have had a couple of phases of playing it fairly regularly with friends / colleagues, and enjoyed it.

I have a couple of minor hiking aims to accomplish, mainly scaling a couple of 2,000-metre peaks in the Tatras. I do a lot of hiking in my local area, but generally to highest points of 1,500-1,600 metres. Slovakia has an iconic peak called Krivan, which is almost 2,500 metres asl, features on Euro coins and which 'every true Slovak' is meant to climb in their lifetime (or some such bullshit). I'd quite like to make it up there one day, though doesn't necessarily have to be this year.

[Jah Womble]

I’ve made a number of resolutions over the years and have stuck to the most significant ones - such as giving up meat on 31/12/95, ditto quitting smoking three years later. Never returned to either.

One low-level resolution this year is to stop getting into pointless arguments with planks on social media. (By this I mean Facebook/Twitter, etc. Not this place, of course - most on here aren’t planks, obviously. So, pointless arguments with intelligent OTF types may well continue...)

[Simon G]

I don't do resolutions for the same reason Balders doesn't, but I have two big aims for this year:

1. Complete the final two modules to earn my CII Diploma in insurance. I've ordered the study materials for the first of those modules and aim to complete it within a couple of months. I have already seen the pathway for the final module.

2. Complete the Cheltenham half marathon in September. I did the 10k race in Cheltenham last year with the intention of completing the Tewkesbury half in May, however that has since been cancelled. I'm just getting through January, then regular training will start towards the half. I also want to exercise a bit more away from running to get rid of this gut that's ballooned in recent months.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I'd like nothing dreadful to happen. I have no way of making it so, though, so no plans.

[Satchmo Distel]

My resolution is just to be kinder and calmer. I think I was better at those qualities in 2021 than any previous year of my life but it's still a learning curve at 56.

Greece to enjoy in June for the first time since pre-COVID. Followed by first ever trip to Florence and Bologna.

[Eggchaser]

Build the Kyosho Optima Turbo that's been looking through the box, the delivery box and the walls of the lean to with a reproachful look since October. But I cannot decide if it's a runner or a shelf queen, because if the latter I need the steering servo, esc and motor. And I'll probably want to go "proper spec" on the latter two, which costs between £250 - £350 depending on the power level. And I'll have to learn to solder because they don't come with plugs to connect them, just the wires and contact plates.

Try and lose some weight, I have seriously put on the pounds in the last 6 months. Probably linked to my other goal of drinking less, and certainly not on Sundays. Last night I sat in the kitchen drinking solo whilst drifting through a YouTube black hole, and then noticed it was 1 a.m.

Improve my time management skills at work. I can do the job, but just react to crises and who shouts the loudest rather than anticipating the work flow.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Be more productive. Which means being more organised. I'm a carer, spouse and housekeeper. Don't know what percentage of my day that takes up, but certainly most of it. I need to plan better. My creative hours are fewer than they once were, which frustrates me no end. It's the hardest part of playing life's final quarter. There aren't many time-outs left, and they need managing better than I do currently. I suspect that means fewer books, and [sob!] less OTF time.

[Patrick Thistle]

Eggchaser has reminded me of another aim - to work on my "pile of shame" plastic kits and actually play a game of Dungeon Bowl, which i have owned for a year...

[gjw100]

The main objective for the first part of this year is to get our daughter settled and secure after a traumatic last couple of years. (I touched upon the abuse that she has suffered at the hands of her vile but soon-to-be-ex-husband on the best-forgotten Andr*w T*te thread last week). We will have to pay the bastard off to give up his interest in the house, which will allow our daughter to keep it for at least the remaining two years of the mortgage term. As we gave her the deposit (fortunately there was a pre-nup in place), and have paid ‘his’ half of the mortgage since July 2021, his actual financial outlay in the three years since they brought the property is relatively minimal, so he seems content to take £5K to sign an agreement as part of the divorce settlement, then walk away and find his coke dealer. I’ll be happy when it’s all done and dusted and we can then start planning on how to keep our daughter and granddaughter in the house beyond the life of the current mortgage.

On a far happier note, it will be our Ruby Wedding Anniversary in August. We aren’t having a major celebration but a BBQ for friends and family is on the cards. We are also taking the kids and grandkids away to a house in Dartmouth for a week that same month, and hoping to get back on board a cruise ship for the first time since Covid loomed over the horizon.

I’m also carrying out a major reconstruction of our lower patio in March/April, and will be laying the paving and building the retaining walls myself. I’m really looking forward to that, although I suspect my back will be complaining at the end of it.

As any attempt to set them up in the house will be met by a resounding ‘over my dead body’ from Mrs gjw, I intend to devote part of my outhouse to half-a-dozen small fish tanks for breeding betta splendens (aka Siamese fighting fish).

Finally, I will stick to the objective that I set myself at the back end of last year, which was to spend less time online and more time enjoying real life.

[San Bernardhinault]

The big plan/aim is to hopefully move back to San Diego by the end of the year. And, finances (and finding contractors) permitting, do a bit of a refurb on our house there before making we go. There’s always a risk that the schedule will drift out particularly with work being done. Hopefully that would coincide with selling the New England house. Which is all going to be quite intense and stressful, I fear, in the short term. But in the long term should result in a happier and more relaxed life.

Less big aims are to try and retain my current level of fitness, give or take; and to have more visitors come and visit us here in South Carolina.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Many many years ago a Jewish colleague of mine told me a joke: "How do you make God laugh"? Answer: "show him your plans".

[Gangster Octopus]

I just aim to be alive by 2024.

Quite. Which reminds me, I must make a will.

[George C.]

Finally stand for election, to a pseudo important public electoral body, in a pseudo 'national' scenario...

[Femme Folle]

I swore off so-called resolutions several years ago, but this year I set a goal for myself to get my apartment in shape. We will see.

[Sam]

I've never done resolutions, but since I've mentioned one target on my pool thread down in Sport, I'd better share it here too: by the end of the year I'd like to have run a rack of 9-ball on one of the tables in the pool hall I practise in (i.e. not on a bar table). That really only gives me ten months to get up to standard, because since I wrote that we've booked tickets to spend two months in the UK, where I won't be doing much practising.

The other plan for the year is to start therapy.

[Simon G]

I've never done resolutions, but since I've mentioned one target on my pool thread down in Sport, I'd better share it here too: by the end of the year I'd like to have run a rack of 9-ball on one of the tables in the pool hall I practise in (i.e. not on a bar table). That really only gives me ten months to get up to standard, because since I wrote that we've booked tickets to spend two months in the UK, where I won't be doing much practising.

This reminds me of a darts aim - 100 180s this year. I hit 94 last year with the aim of hitting 60. I've had a very slow start though with only 3 this year so far.

[Nefertiti2]

If you've got 3 in 9 days you're well on course for 100 a year