Happy New Year

Good Morning 2013.

Yes, 7 days in and I am facing the new year which has a little something to do with today being the first day of school, yesterday being the last day of panto and a lot to do with having made some lists. I am not a resolutions kind of person. I get really bored and frustrated by routine, particularly if it is one I have constructed for myself for no discernable reason. I am in education, or have worked in education for the last 7 years so for me September is the start of the year not January. But I have been quite inspired by a trend for 2013 goals (rather than resolutions) that have appeared all over my blog feed and I reckon I can get on board with this approach. So I made a list. I also made several sub lists, got distracted, started doing something on a list and then made a cup of tea before doing some more. I'm trying to keep it simple and achievable. I am going to be trying to set mini goals each month so this year I've kept it to three.

coffee date with BorderlineStraggler keeping to resolution #1

1. Take the camera out of the bag Before applying to college I splashed out one of my last proper pay cheques on a DSLR. I love the pictures it takes by I am too worried I'll break it embarrassed to take it out in public. It makes me feel like a tourist, I don't have the right camera bag, it's too heavy. I never see anything all that fun to photograph. Blah, blah, blah. No more excuses. I now have a great camera bag and am determined to get over this worry. Especially as I am at art school where it doesn't matter if you spend twenty minutes photographing a wall. I need to take advantage of this!

2. Graduate Which will obviously be prefaced with creating my final collection, submitting my dissertation, passing my degree but that is a lot of pressure in a list so I'm sticking with graduate.

3. Read 12 "proper" books I read a lot. I find it hard to sleep without reading at night and I read a lot of very easy books. I like a wedge of trashy crime books, fantasy and a sprinkling of chick lit. This year I'd like to widen my horizons and challenge myself a bit more - though maybe this should be after I have completed goal 2 because really I am kinda busy..... One evening at work I asked everyone to suggest a book for me to read and the list so far reads:

• Mansfield Park
• A Brave New World
• Cat's Cradle
• Homer's The Illyad

I have downloaded sample chapters of all the books to my Kindle and made a start on Cat's Cradle as it was the one that sucked me in. Any suggestions for books would be very welcomed.