The New Year brings all sorts of easily broken promise. We all do it: out with the old attitude and in with the new. "This year, I'm gonna...", "My New Year's resolution is:...", and so on.
I don't have the energy. Really. By year's end, I'm tired and looking for a break, not making more plans, creating extra obligations and making promises I won't keep. I only make promise I can keep; that's what integrity is about.
The end of January - the end of school holidays - is when I start making plans. Living in a tourist town, we locals are constantly battling with arrogant, traffic-blind, drop-the-trash-in-the-street, strip-the-shops, whinging, whiney, loud, obnoxious, tourists!
I don't get it. They (and yes, I'm generalising) seem to leave their manners and brains at home. The crime rate lifts by 500%; prank phone calls every bloody week, litter, drunkeness, fights... They don't do it at home, so why here in this pristine environment?
Come February, they're mostly gone and we can get back to the quiet life. Those tourists who remain are polite and blend in; they enjoy the sun, the surf, the peaceful existence and plan to retire here. And we welcome them.
I'm in a bit of a pissy mood, as you've guessed. My week off from work has been... well, work, with various family members plus children turning up. It's been like a hotel around here and Saxon - my elderly sixteen-year-old dog - is exhausted from avoiding small, grasping hands and the loud squealings of excited children. Oy.
I love my family. I do. I enjoy their company, enjoy catching up, seeing the kids growing up, the laughter, the glee, the... life in them; but not all at once. It's a lot of catering, cleaning, entertaining, shopping for more food...
I've done no writing, as I'd planned: being a favoured aunt is tough work. Kids follow you everywhere - even to the bathroom, depending on the age of the aforementioned child. What's up with that?
They've all had a wonderful time, though, with the beach and each other. That's the most important part, no matter how much I want to escape. I have no energy left to make plans for a new me; that can wait until I recharge the batteries.
Tomorrow, it's back to the day job and it's going to be busy. The last of the relatives leave then too. From Christmas Eve to tomorrow, we've had family here; a constant barrage of noise and family-work for me. Finding a quiet place has been impossible, whether physically or in my head.
That's what life is all about - the sensory overloads; it makes you appreciate the quiet times all the more.
Happy New Year to one and all
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