Back to work

Well where did that all go? It doesn’t seem five minutes since I was flying round the house trying to find three spare duvets and a flat surface to put them all down on and poof! Christmas is over. It was as always “The best ever” and we squeezed in an awful lot – and I’m not just talking turkey.

We managed the panto, a ballet, a trip to the country cousins where I succeeded in getting the hire car trapped in two inches of snow. It reinforced all my cousin David’s worst fears about city cars and women drivers but thank God he was there with a tow rope and a 4×4 to pull us out. Just to make sure we wouldn’t be spinning our wheels till teatime he towed us almost all the way back to the main road which was fun – a bit like sledging indoors.

We arrived home in London for an impromptu series of four New Year’s Eve parties – each thrown by neighbours who all had the same idea – they didn’t want to go out on New Year’s Eve but equally they didn’t want to spend it alone. So we all trouped round to each other’s houses in turn and magically ended up at home just in time for the fireworks.

It only feels as if it was yesterday but that was almost a week and a whole year ago and as I sit here – with a big space where the Christmas tree should be and only a tray of crumbs where there should be a chocolate orange – I don’t feel ready to dig out my work ID card and sensible skirt.

As usual I’ve made a list of New Year’s Resolutions as long as my credit card bill and so far so good. I know it’s only day 5 but doing a reverse Jesus (replacing wine with water) seems to be going well as does my plan to “de-clutter a cupboard a day”. So far I’ve delivered two full bin bags to the PDSA shop (I only hope neither of them had the remains of the turkey in them) and filled the recycling bin with enough cardboard, sticky backed plastic and glitter to keep Blue Peter busy all year.

I even managed to pack the Christmas decorations into four sensible-sized plastic boxes that fit in the top of the wardrobe rather than festering all year in the shed. Now all I’ve got to worry about is finding my work memory stick, ID badge and a working bus pass. Last time I looked they were all swinging from the Christmas tree – a bit like my neighbours.

Posted by Amanda Blinkhorn