The Bad Daughters Club is going to lobby for a change to New Year so that in future it takes place in September. Despite being well past school age I still get that back to school feeling, a shiny new term full of possibilities, even the opportunity for a new pencil case.
The summer is like a full stop and paragraph in the year, what went before no longer applies and it’s time to start again refreshed and relaxed. So perhaps it really is the time of year to make plans and resolutions.
The perfect time not to diet
The good news about having New Year in September is that you don’t need a resolution to go on a diet because you’re still vaguely on the diet you started back in January…. and anyway you’ve probably still got enough of a tan to hide those pesky holiday pounds.
Another bonus of having New Year now is if you decide to have a dry September then the days are long enough to get out in daylight to fill up the cocktail hour(s) with activity. Dryanuary in the depths of winter with long dark evenings is enough to turn anyone to the cooking sherry.
Summer madness
It’s the long days of summer that also make me think about making better use of all that extra daylight time with a slight feeling of panic that they’re disappearing; more cinema, more fitness, more adventures, and even considering entertaining friends, and that final act of post summer madness, offering them the exotic cocktail which seemed so delicious only a month ago.
This is the ideal time to sort out your wardrobe. I like swapping my clothes between winter/summer and vice versa – re-discovering boots I loved last winter, and a few things I bought and never wore but which mightactually fit this year – thanks to the aforementioned successful diet resolution.
Alongside my new pencil case there is also a new notebook reminding me to make some plans with Mum and Dad for the winter – planning for their long and increasingly enforced hibernation. Some plans are easier than others such as getting the boiler serviced and flu jabs booked in.
Diary Negotiations
Others are less easy including suggestions to fill shorter days and longer evenings with fun things to do; worse is the next round of complex diary discussions with family about who visits when and who does what; as well as returning to the ongoing logistics for the next round of GP/Doctor/Hospital appointments.
Guilt, resentment and angst are already beginning to replace my summery disposition as I try to juggle MY plans with THEIRS and EVERYONE ELSE’S plans. And so the Bad Daughter returns from her summer. Full stop. Paragraph. So much for New Year new me.
