Happy New Year to you and your loved ones. I hope you had as relaxing a Christmas as I did, or at least enjoyed eating all the food you spent so long slaving over!
My Christmas was a strange one for me as it was the first time in my life that I didn’t see any of my relatives over the Christmas period. We didn’t have a totally Czech Christmas though as Father Christmas (Santa Claus) visited our house on the night of the 24th/25th and we cooked 
a traditional English Christmas dinner which we took and ate at Radka’s father’s house. I know most English people have Turkey at Christmas but that became a tradition with the arrival of American soldiers during the second world war, before that any bird would do; chicken, goose, pheasant, turkey or duck. Radka’s father cooked a duck and we did the vegetables – carrots, parsnips, leaks in white sauce, as well as my favourite ‘pigs in blankets’ (sausages wrapped in bacon and roasted in the oven). Anyway, enough of that, it’s making me hungry.
So it’s that time of year when everyone makes hugely unrealistic New Year’s Resolutions; the promises you make to yourself about how to improve your life over the next 12 months. So hands up who has joined a gym? Given up smoking? Stopped drinking alcohol? Coffee? Decided to eat healthier or go running? Have you bought a new bicycle with the intention to start cycling? You get the picture.
I have never stuck to mine, EVER! I’m pretty sure (quite sure) that’s down to my habits but that’s another topic for another day. This year I have decided to keep it simple, so instead of giving myself the unrealistic target of running three times a week (which I would like to do) I will run just once a week and it’s in my diary because if it’s not in my diary it won’t get done! I will be better organized this year and have timetabled a space every week to plan the following week and look at the month ahead. This might sound obvious and very normal to you but to someone as spontaneous as me it has always seemed like a spoiler, a curtailment of my enthusiasm for the unexpected surprises of life.
Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions? Leave a comment below and share your commitments with me, it’s easier to keep your promises when you tell someone else!
So what can you look forward to from me in 2016?
My continuing support of your English learning will be enhanced with the offering of some one-day and weekend Masterclasses in specific areas and themes of English, I’m working on a free e-book to help you with the Present Perfect Tense, I’ve started writing my first book and of course I will continue to write you beautiful emails with tips and explanations. There’s also an idea forming in my mind for a V.I.P. Text and email service. Oh! and look out at the end of the year for my new 2017 calendar which will help you develop the habit of ‘little and often’, improving your English everyday.
So I wish you all the best for 2016 and hope it brings you all the happiness and love you deserve and keep working on your English. Don’t forget to leave me your New Year’s Resolutions below in the comments. I read them all, I promise.
Richard.
