New year, same old me: It’s twenty fricking twenty three

I know we’re a little way in to the new year now and you’ll have to forgive me for that. Nowadays I tend to leave my laptop off during the holidays, in a quest for some kind of work/life balance (although, note to self, trolling the Daily Mail comment section of Facebook doesn’t actually count as ‘work’).

I spent New Year’s Even in Ireland with my boyfriend, which was rather lovely. The sun shone, the scenery was breath-taking and his dad’s wonderful homemade wine flowed to the point I assumed I just had a hangover the whole time. Alas not; I had in fact succumbed to whatever it was the kids had before Christmas and have been fighting it ever since.

New year’s resolutions: Health & Fitness

I’m not the type to set resolutions, and even if I had any, I’m really not in any fit state to actually do anything about them right now.

When I’m feeling better, I want to keep going to the gym regularly just as I did before Christmas. I enjoy the pious feeling afterwards, and the showers are nicer than mine. Also I’ve paid up for the whole year, so I kind of have to now.

At some point in the future I’d like to actually complete the couch to 5k (I’ve got up to week 7 repeatedly), but right now I’m spending a good portion of each night coughing myself into an early grave like I’ve got a 60-a-day habit and I probably wouldn’t survive a spin class in my current condition.

NB Getting fitter is not the same as losing weight. The nearer I get to 40, the more my body clings on to the extra fat like it thinks I’m about to enter a long, middle-ages style winter of starvation. It’s not to know I have an Aldi around the corner, I suppose.

I have however come to realise that being fitter, stronger, and having more stamina is more important to me than being lighter. Both would be nice, but so are carbs.

Really happy that my jeans fit well and aren't hard to do up at all now, if anything they're too big!

All it took was five mornings a week at the gym and then stopping on the way home at Tesco and getting some bigger jeans.

— Fran (@whingewine) December 13, 2022

2023 is… the year I turn 40

This year I turn forty, which I’m not massively enthused about if I’m honest with you. Kind of ambivalent, if anything.

I wish I’d burst into the new year looking wonderful and feeling glamorous, well-rested and ready to face my forties with a glossy hair toss, but thanks to this damn virus and the fact I’ve lived off biscuits for three weeks straight I am definitely feeling my age, if not 20 years older.

Stuff like this doesn’t help.

Ok ladies, can we talk about why when I cut myself a fringe while a bit tipsy it took a solid year to grow out, but this chin hair has sprung up from nowhere and grown 2 inches overnight? What's that about?

— Fran (@whingewine) December 14, 2022

And what the hell are all these spots for? I thought only teenagers had spots, not 39 year olds. I thought I’d be radiant and fabulous by now. I feel cheated.

I don’t fancy a birthday party, primarily because everyone I know is also in their 40s and as flaky and hard to pin down as I am.

I’d invite a load of people, they’d all say they were coming and then half of their kids would get the flu and the other half would fall asleep on the sofa half an hour beforehand, and there’s a real risk I would be one of them. However given I spent my 30th heavily pregnant, I am coming around to the idea of celebrating in some way. I’ve got a while to think about it…

…And some exciting news

Get ready for this to become some kind of dull interiors and gardening blog, cos I’m going to try unashamedly to get as much free stuff as I possibly can to review. After a little over a year I’m planning to move out of my rented house, into what I very much hope will be our forever home.

I don’t want to say too much and jinx it because let’s face it, the housing market is pretty volatile at the moment and it could all still go tits up, but it’s a beautiful house which meets all of our criteria – something I didn’t think we’d ever find – and all the paperwork is done. All being well, we should be in by the spring.

All the kids will have lovely bedrooms, I will have an office so I don’t have to write blog posts to the backdrop of Hey Jessie and kids screaming at each other, the garden is amazing and we’ll have enough space that when we all fall out we can easily avoid each other. I finally can get all my old furniture and random stuff out of Currie Easy Self Storage and have somewhere to put it all (or finally admit defeat and chuck it out and surviving without it so long).

I am extremely glad to be giving up my search – dealing with estate agents was getting traumatic – and, obviously, more than anything, I’m looking forward to waking up next to the man I love. I don’t talk at length about personal stuff on here, but I’m very happy and really excited, and hoping 2023 will be a fantastic year.

Happy new year x

*This is a collaborative post