A Last Rid Roond

For years my mother greeted this day - Hogmany - as the day to tidy, dust and clean the entire house from top to bottom. Nothing remained untouched. Beds were striped, curtains washed, towels boiled..... It was a nightmare. As a child you couldn't do right for doing wrong. In her frenzy she would scream at everyone. Come 6pm my sister and I were sent to bed and re-awoken at 10.30pm in time for the bells and the open house that everyone had. We regularly had a house crammed with people, some I'd never seen before.

This is one of the traits I chose not to take with me when I left home. Despite this we do have a possible 12 for 'Ra Steak Pie Ramorra', so a modicom of cleaning is required. I set the elves about it as I fiddled with the apperture to see what would happen. Not great but it gives a flavour of their frenzied rush to finish so that they could move on to more interesting things.

New Year can be a difficult time for many, a time of reflection. I favour looking forward, appreciating what we have had this year and considering how to best handle the challenges of the New Year.

Ditch what you don't like and take up something you want to. Make time for things that are important and give pleasure. Adjust things to include some time to relax. Find positives in your negatives. January is a perfect time to put this into practice, it may soon fall apart, but at least you can say you tried come next Hogmany.