The Eighth and Ninth Day of Cheesemas

 Day 8. New Year’s Day. This was the best day of the year, so far. I hope you made the most of it. This year, the sun shone so the walk was perfect. We ate too much to have room for the post-roast cheesecake and played board games. I made my usual resolution, which was not to save self improvement for one day. There may be people out there who like themselves enough to only have to think about being better on one day a year but I’m not one of them. New Year’s Day is the day I give myself off. I hate being told what to do, so it is quite a relief to stubbornly believe that there is nothing about me that needs improving (just for one day) 

Then the 9th day of Cheesemas hits you between the eyes. The Christmas decorations are getting on your nerves, you’ve spent too much time with the same people, you’re too full of cheese, you’ve got a back to school cough before you’ve gone back, you realise you only have two days left and you had a day off self improvement. Day 9 has to be better. 

It starts well. You do the first yoga with Adrienne of the year. 30 days of flow it’s your 10th year and either she’s slowing down or you are getting better. You walk the dog in the rain and talk to the other dog walkers. 

“Happy New Year. Terrible weather. It was nice yesterday. Still, at least we’re not in Japan.”

You are caught in that moment where you need your waterproofs but you are too hot. Why? Have the hot flushes started again? But then you realise that the weather is really warm for January. 

You get home and start some work. You are determined not to start the year in your unusual, unprepared way. You get distracted and 5 hours later you’ve written a story about penguin’s knees. You’ve also accidentally kicked in a weird healthy eating plan because you ate all the carrots from the fridge and a few cheese crumbs. 

You feel a little tired and decide not to walk the dog in the storm. Storm Henk. I’m not sure it’s possible to take this one seriously. The neighbour is jet washing their car. You  turn on Big Jet TV to watch planes nearly not land at Heathrow airport. This wind makes them all look like Ryanair pilots. 

The back end of Cheesemas is proving to be a little disappointing. Maybe you’ll take the Christmas tree down tomorrow and give up cheese on day 10. You could be that wise man who got lost and never made it to see the baby cheesus.