Top 5 New Year Resolutions 2013

Hello and a Happy New Year to anyone who didn't follow my possibly monotonous series of Songs for Xmas over the last few days. I had suggested my first top five of the year was going to be my favourite tunes of 2012 but I've decided to put that back a week and focus on the year ahead instead.

For the second year in succession I failed pretty miserably with all of my resolutions. You can check them out in full here but below is a summary of my complete lack of will power;

Play Guitar - I'd really love to achieve this but the key to playing the guitar well is spending a lot of time practicing and I just don't have enough free time to fit this in. I managed to keep going until around mid-feb but haven't picked it up since.

Decide what I want to be when I grow up - Yeah right. I think we all know I'm unlikely to grow up any time soon so I can safely kick this into touch for a little while yet.

Finish the year no heavier than I start it - *cough* Probably not if I'm honest.

Get more done at weekends - Possibly, though not entirely what I intended. Certainly the DIY list hasn't got any smaller.

Find a cool hat - Geez. I even failed to complete the simplest of tasks. Mrs Top Five did buy me a summer hat which was close, but it sat a bit awkwardly on my head so we took it back and never sorted out a replacement.

So, what I have learned from this experience. A) I am crap at keeping resolutions, B) Perhaps I'm aiming too high, C) It's all the blog's fault. I was going to skip resolutions all together but then inspiration struck and I'm going to give it one last shot.

1. Blog a little less - I like my weekly post schedule as without it I probably wouldn't write anything but I'd like to improve my writing and make it more interesting for people to read. To help me out here I'm going try some non-top five posts to fill in the gaps. I've got a couple of ideas but will see how they turn out before announcing them. Hopefully that will mean the top fives I do write will be worth reading. I'm also on the look out for more guest contributions, so if you fancy writing one let me know.

2. Exercise at least three times a week - I'm 45 this year (I think) and need to sort out my fat stomach, so I'm gonna try to eat more healthily again but more importantly I'm going to get back on track with my exercise rota. I made too many excuses last year to skip exercise and don't intend to do the same this year.

3. Learn about Flags & Capitals & The Periodic Table - Mrs Top Five and I are big fans of Pointless, and quiz shows in general. We've realised the benefit of knowing certain easy to learn facts and in particular, flags of the world, capital cities and the Periodic table. I'm going to try and learn all three. You can test me in December and see how well I did.

4. Cook more regularly - I like cooking and do the roast every Sunday but my recipe repertoire is a little limited. I'm going to add a few new dishes that hopefully the kids will like as well and try and help out a bit more with the weekly struggle of deciding what to eat when we're all together.

5. Find A Cool Hat - Blimey, I mean how hard can this one be!

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