Cliché

Hello!

First things first: how are you all? I hope the second half of 2012 treated you well and that you had the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years. Mine were relatively (extremely) quiet compared to previous years due to contracting the lurgy. It's been quite a few years since I haven't had a drop of alcohol over the festive period, but hey you learn that health comes first in your old age, so instead of downing cocktails last night I was sipping lemsips and instead of shotting Tequila I had nightnurse! Rock and roll!

Anyway, let's get down to it: it's an understatement to say that its been a while since I popped my head over here, almost 6 months in fact which quite frankly disgusts me and I'm nothing short of ashamed of the reason why I've been absent for so long, but let's not dwell on that because it's a new year and with that come the resolutions...

I've always cringed at the over-used and tiresome "new year, new me" statuses that you so often see cropping up on facebook/twitter (although I'm currently bored of the "stop the new year, new me statuses" that everyone seems to be doing - I swear I've seen more of these this year than the others. Irony at it's best!) Anyway regardless of that, I swear the same culprits say it every year, yet nothing ever changes! Yet, this year I find myself being one of them (minus the status, obviously! I'd never stoop that low.) Subsequently 2013 shall hence forth be known as the year that I, Emma Jamieson, embraced the cliché of "new year, new starts" and actually tried to give it a go.

I'm going to go easy on myself and have set a few (hopefully, although I won't be surprised if they're not) achievable resolutions which are as follows:

• To blog at least once every two weeks.
• To say yes more often.
• To save money, no matter how little it may be.
• To put all change (under £1) in a jar and see how much I've collected at the end of the year.
• To be more spontaneous.
• To keep smiling, even when there isn't much to smile about, because the world looks brighter from behind a smile.
• To not be so easily distracted.
• To creep at least one person out/spread some joy (depending on how they receive it) every time I travel on the underground by smiling at them!
• And lastly to write down one good thing that happened or something that made me smile/happy every day so I can look back at the end of the year and see how easily pleased/shallow I am! (I'm predicting that a lot of "got a new lip gloss, day off, found a fiver, bought some new shoes, had a strawberry daiquiri" will crop up!) But regardless of how little the thing may be I want to appreciate that although every day may not be good, but there is something good in every day.

What are your new years resolutions and how long do you think we'll be able to keep them up for? Good luck guys!

...I guess I'll see you in less than 2 weeks! *fingers crossed*

Oh and ps, HAPPY NEW YEAR, here's hoping 2013 proves unlucky for none. x