I never give up on New Year resolutions. Year after year I make them and, usually quite quickly, I break them. But I do not despair and again this year I tell myself that 2025 will be different. So what I will do now is actually write down the salient ones I have in mind.
Having become disturbingly overweight (or fat as some unkind observers say), I will this year without fail lose 25 lbs and get fit and lean by walking two miles briskly most days, playing tennis and squash again and eating 10% less than I do now. Surely this cannot be all that difficult.
Secondly, I will sort out and clear up and put in immaculate order my disgracefully disordered study/storeroom downstairs where there are dusty stacks and boxes of files, papers, diaries, correspondence and books which could one day be of interest to my descendants and even perhaps some value to scholars if I can ever get around to preserving them properly. I have been meaning to do this for at least six years but I know this year will be the one.
