The Longest Journey Begins With The First Step.........

The first day of a brand new year, or an arbitrary date made up to fulfil our desire to find meaning and orientation in our universe, either way this year for me it was hangover free. It's not as if I stayed at home on new years eve and sulked either, on the contrary Mrs Norman and I visited some old friends, (all our friends are now old - I don't know how that happened) who were happy to drink the new year in with us. It's just that what with joining a slimming club and the vagaries of taxi services this time of year I decided to drive and not drink. The down side was that I remember everything that happened New Years Eve and it all seemed a lot less exotic than those times when I couldn't remember and had to rely on recovering drunks to fill in the blanks. The up side is that I start the year bright eyed and bushy tailed full of energy and eager anticipation for the year ahead. It also means apparently that I can lie much more easily as well.

My human contacts on this first day of the year were my ever present shadow, my wife and my youngest daughter accompanied by the newest member of the clan, our beautiful granddaughter. My deed was to accompany the three ladies on a walk through our local park and my thoughts were on the coming year.