New Year’s Eve is around
the corner and if you’re like most people, you have a few resolutions in mind. Are you planning to lose weight? Get more exercise? Be more productive?
I am not planning to
lose weight. The last time I checked I
weighed 120 lbs and for my height (5 feet 10 inches) I’m actually
underweight. According to Robinson’s
formula I should weigh 145 lbs. I'm not fanatic about my weight anyway, as long as I fit into my jeans I'm fine.
As for exercising … I’ve
tried all sorts of things in days gone by.
I practiced Shotokan karate and achieved the status of black belt,
second Dan. For reasons we won’t get
into now, I don’t practice anymore and I doubt I can still execute the moves.
A brief exposure to yoga
didn’t go so well. I could manage the
basic stretch exercises, but when attempting the lotus position it looked like
I was trying to tie myself into a knot.
I managed to place my right foot onto my left thigh without any problems,
but when I tried to twist my left foot onto my right thigh my companion burst
into peals of laughter. First I fell
backward, next I rolled sideways, and just when I thought I was headed for
success an almighty cramp shot through my left foot. It was enough to put me off yoga forever.
I tried aerobics and oh
boy, that was a complete disaster. The
floor workout went fine, the leg movements posed no problem, but where it came
to the arm exercises … they spelled disaster.
Fired up by the rhythmic music I spread my arms a little too
enthusiastically and flung lampshade clean off the dresser. Oh oh … how was I going to explain this? Blame it on Jane Fonda?
After that, I would have dearly
loved to take up fencing or archery, but my family wouldn't allow it.
So I took an interest in
music instead.
The first instrument I learned
to play was the Melodica.
I loved this
type of flute. Unfortunately, Pitoe (our cat) did not. As soon as I started playing,
he left the room. He didn’t just leave
the room though, he went upstairs to one of the bedrooms. Cat lover as I am I thought I’d save him the
trouble and I would go to my room to play.
According to my family this plan didn’t really work. Even though there was a ceiling between me
and Pitoe, he would wake up from his slumber and start meowing toward the ceiling like a dog howling at the moon. Eventually I retreated to the
garden to play, but then the neighbors started complaining.
Fine, I packed away my
Melodica and bought an acoustic guitar. That
didn’t last very long. I wasn’t very
good at it, and I was even worse when adjusting the strings. I had a tendency of giving them too much
tension to the point where the snapped.
One moment I would turn the nob and the next … ping, there went a
string. When one of the strings narrowly
missed my eye, I knew it was time to try something else.
To cut a long story
short … I got into writing. All things
considered, that didn't go too bad. I wrote three novels and two children's books, but with the arrival of the Internet –
and especially Facebook and its many games – I became horribly distracted.
So that’s my resolution
for 2013 … more writing, less games. I’m
planning on keeping a journal and to finish a book I’m working on. I have a title … “Temporarily Yours” and I
have five chapters so far. Let’s see if
I can make it to the epilogue before 2014, shall we?
