New Year's Eve can get me down. I usually spend some time during the day making lists, each item beginning with 'No...'. No chocolate, no cheese, no chips, no crisps....(do all fun foods begin with 'c'?) This is followed by a year plan, a timetable for each week, a 'To Do' list for each day. And then I try to figure out how I can escape from all the rules I've created.
So this year I'm trying something different. In no particular order, this is my Top 10 list of simple pleasures, things I plan to do more of in 2012:
1. Winter morning walks with the mutts along our herby hillside paths, and the sun rising over the Sierra Lujar
2. Getting scarlet shellac nails done at Natalya's salon in Lanjarón
3. Wash, blow dry and Spanish conversation practice at Vanessa's salon opposite La Caixa bank in Lanjarón - all for under €10!
4. Best coffee in town and bite-size apple danish at Denebla (aka Café Arpy), while reading 'Mujer Hoy'
5. An afternoon at the Hammam, the traditional Arab baths in Granada. Not the one in Santa Ana, the newer one in C/San Miguel Bajo
6. Dinner with old friends at Bar Health in Lanjarón.
7. Tea and a ciggie on the stone bench down at the lily pond, watching the sun set behind the cypress trees on the hill.
8. Emma Kirkby's Renaissance and baroque songs while I'm getting dressed
9. Spanish Renaissance music and songs by Jordi Savall and Hesperion XX1 - delicious to drive to!
10. Fred making supper, the woodstove glowing and a favourite thriller on TV
What about you? What do you want to do more of in 2012? Whatever it is, if it's legal, decent, honest and truthful, I wish you more of it in the coming year! Feliz año!
PS: This is Fred's Rich Fruit Cake - flavoured with orange and lemon picked an hour before from the terraces around Los P. His first culinary hit of the new year!
Thanks Leftbanker. You too might have discovered that carrying out dissolutions requires perseverance and steely resolve. Self-abnegation is much easier, but I will forge ahead. All the best for a bucolic 2012.
Posted by: Arpi Shively | January 05, 2012 at 08:58 PM
Hi John, thanks for your positive comments. I just got fed up trying to be good and decided to love what I love instead! All the best for 2012, hope youll keep reading. Best regards, Arpi
Posted by: Arpi Shively | January 03, 2012 at 07:24 PM
Dear Lori, here's a piece of virtual cake. Maybe next week - a virtual Hammam visit. Second thoughts, let's plan on the real thing! x
Posted by: Arpi Shively | January 03, 2012 at 07:21 PM
Ah, Happy New Everything to you guys.
Tim has already started with The Great Purge. Last night saw him running off into the darkness wearing his head torch and a pair of fetching fluorescent green leggings that I had given him for Christmas. They were a joke, but don't tell him.
I can't make resolutions, because I know that I will break them. I always find a sneaky get-out clause for a Marks and Sparks toffee meringue. You are always so strong. I am envious.
Much love and happiness for 2012.
from a small villiage in kent xxx
Posted by: Sohelenbell | January 03, 2012 at 03:55 PM
please send me a piece of that cake! I love your list - I think I will make my own list, and one item on it will be joining you at the Hammam!
Posted by: Lori Theriault | January 03, 2012 at 03:18 PM