Dissolving resolve

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Frank Norman

I know it’s a bit late to be talking about New Year’s resolutions but I was on holiday in January – the normal time for resolving – so my resolutions have only just kicked in. (Everyone knows that New Year resolutions don’t count when you’re on holiday, the same way that all calories and units of alcohol are zero-rated on holiday). The danger of starting my resolutions this late is that I’ve missed out on that fin d’annee zeal, the mental willpower that seems to accompany the 1st January. My resolve is dissolving.
OK, so I have stopped eating naughty cakes and biscuits with my coffee (though I had one today) and I have abstained from alcohol for 4 weeks (except on one weekend away – that’s the holiday rule again) and I have been going to the gym more or less regularly (though I haven’t started running again yet). I have also walked instead of catching the bus (unless it was icy or raining, which is just about every day at the moment).
But I haven’t been back to NN reading, commenting, and writing this blog. Until now!
Perhaps it’s the memory of seeing this statue on holiday, on the island of Corregidor, and the famous promise made by that General (prizes for identifying General and his promise).

I haven’t found a failsafe way to stop the dissolving resolve, but I’m going to try.

About Frank Norman

I am a retired librarian. I spent 40 years working in biomedical research libraries.
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13 Responses to Dissolving resolve

  1. Stephen Curry says:
    February 17, 2010 at 10:44 pm

    Good luck with the resolutions. Is there a link from them to who I presume is General MacArthur?

  2. Henry Gee says:
    February 17, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    MacArthur. He was the one who flew back to front, if memory serves.

  3. Frank Norman says:
    February 17, 2010 at 10:50 pm

    Stephen – you’re right. It was his promise to the Filipino nation that I was thinking of…

  4. Alejandro Correa says:
    February 17, 2010 at 10:59 pm

    I really the only one I know is the General Gee of the battalion P-450 of Pteranodons:

  5. Frank Norman says:
    February 18, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    In case you were wondering, after being forced to evacuate from Corregidor in 1942, General MacArthur promised that he would return. And so I have returned to NN.

  6. Eva Amsen says:
    February 18, 2010 at 2:58 pm

    I also skipped January in my resolution, because I was moving. I’m trying to track my expenses this year, to see where all the money goes, but I thought that it would be easier to do that all in one country, and to not include the exorbitant sum I paid for relocation. I’ll just try not to make that a regular expenditure.

  7. Henry Gee says:
    February 18, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    And so I have returned to NN
    Hurrah!

  8. Frank Norman says:
    February 18, 2010 at 5:01 pm

    @Henry – thanks.
    @Eva – Ooh, I hadn’t picked up that you have moved. If you ever come up to Mill Hill drop in and say hello!

  9. Cath Ennis says:
    February 18, 2010 at 5:21 pm

    Welcome back, Frank!
    I make my resolutions at the spring equinox, rather than at New Year. It’s so much easier to keep them when it’s warm and light outside than trying to form new habits at the darkest, coldest time of year!

  10. Lee Turnpenny says:
    February 18, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    Glad you’re still about. In my own custom-bucking way, I’ve long since resolved not to make NY resolutions. (Which is, err, kind of a resolution, I suppose.) I’m walking more, but that’s because I’ve scrapped my >183,000 mile, MOT-failed old banger. And if I abstain for a month, I opt for February, because it’s the shortest – but, I’ve just been to Ireland for a long weekend, where the Guinness is better, so forget that one. If I had any sense I’d stop playing football, because it now hurts, every week. What to do, eh?

  11. Richard Wintle says:
    February 18, 2010 at 7:05 pm

    “I’ll be back”.
    Schwarzenegger.
    What do I win?

  12. steffi suhr says:
    February 18, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    Welcome back Frank – I missed you!

  13. Frank Norman says:
    February 20, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    RichardW – I think you won the wooden spoon…
    Steffi – thanks!

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