Happy New Year to everyone!

As I've almost certainly said somewhere here before, I'm not really one for making resolutions in the New Year, partly because I think that the coldest, wettest, grimmest time of the year is the worst possible environment for encouraging you to stick to them. However, I have been thinking about some things I'd like to change a bit in the coming year.

The second half of 2006 involved a lot of upheaval; we bought and moved to our first house, I had a long trip to Brazil, and then I was in hospital or recuperating for much of the rest of the year. So in 2007, I want to slow down a bit. I know that it's going to be incredibly busy (particularly the first half of the year), but I want to make sure that I make time to relax properly.

You all know what an inveterate geek I am, so I'm sure you'll appreciate the import of the following resolution -- I want to spend more time away from the computer, preferably outside. Now, I *love* messing about on the computer, writing, coding and tinkering, but it does tend to suck you in. A vague idea that you might spend an hour or so working on something turns into an entire day hunched over a keyboard. So, while I still want to write here, post my photos and work on Tracks, I want to focus that activity into smaller amounts of time, and spend the rest reading, listening to music, working in the garden with Mr. Bsag, walking or cycling. [Getting rid of the car](http://www.rousette.org.uk/blog/archives/christmas-roundup/) should certainly increase the walking and cycling (I plan to cycle to work most days, rather than taking the train), and we've also got another incentive to spend more time outdoors. A short while after we moved in, we rented an allotment plot at the end of our street, for the princely sum of £25 a year. Our plot had been under grass for a couple of years, so we were waiting for the Council to rotovate it to plough the grass into the soil and break it up. I was excited to find on a walk to the allotments this morning that it has finally been done, so we can start planning all the lovely vegetables we're going to grow in the spring. Healthy outdoor exercise with some fresh, tasty, organic vegetables and salads as the end result sounds like just the ticket for 2007.