Hobbly New Year

 

On New Year’s Day, running to answer the door, I stubbed my little toe on the corner of the bench in my sitting room. It seems ridiculous but two days later, it is still surprisingly painful and I am still limping around. If you are following my ill-health, you might like to know that this toe is on the same foot that I sprained late last year. I can’t describe this as a good start to 2013.

I spent most of the 52nd week of 2012, crashed out at home. The preceding two months had felt, for one reason and another, good and bad, like I was swimming through custard. Around the 29th or 30th December, as I was lying on my sofa, and watching so much television that my head hurt, the thought of having to get up and start all over again in the new year, planning, talking, negotiating, performing, falling, getting back up again, filled me with dread. This wasn’t a good way to end the year.

But now that I have gotten up and I am wearing trousers for the first time in two weeks that doesn’t have an elasticated waistband, and I am back in shoes, albeit ones where the right foot is twice the size of the left as I’ve loosened the laces to accommodate my bruised little piggy, the thought of starting all over again, planning, talking, negotiating, performing, falling, getting back up again, sounds like something I can do and even enjoy.

I have made my first drawing of the year, written down my resolutions and filed my tax return and all that remains to be said is that I wish you all a very happy and healthy new year.