DO people still make New Year's resolutions? I'm trying to rack my brain to remember the last time I sat down and made a list. I was probably a teenager. And that wasn't yesterday.
The reason I ask is that as many of us enter these first days of 2021 with level four restrictions, facing the twin woes of Brexit and the pandemic, wondering if we will be stuck in purgatory forever, do we really need to throw self-flagellation on top of that already blazing pyre?
Perhaps I need to reframe that. Let's be kind to ourselves. The grey gloom of January is hard enough in a typical year. This time it has levelled up in the grimness stakes like when you have to fight the big baddie at the end of a video game.
It will be even harder when we put the Christmas decorations away and no longer have the twinkling fairy lights to take the edge off the winter darkness.
When I lived in a tenement flat in the east end of Glasgow, I had a neighbour who kept their Christmas tree up past Valentine's Day. I'm beginning to think they had the right idea.
READ MORE: Susan Swarbrick's Week: Greetings from the hinterland of the festive season
With the excesses of the festive season behind us, I will try to endeavour – not a full-blown resolution, more of a vague notion at this stage – to do little things that help stave off the creeping feelings of existential doom.
I can't wait until we get a bit more daylight in the mornings and evenings. It will be nice to go out with the dog without wearing a head torch like a miner or jumping out my skin every time I hear a rustle in the trees. I curse the day I ever watched The Blair Witch Project.
That said, I have been enjoying the nightlife. Up at 3am to warm some milk (that's how I rock 'n' roll), I watched a fox in the garden, leaping between the raised beds, digging up all the nuts that had been freshly buried by the squirrel like it was at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
I was quite envious, mind you. I love a buffet. I tried to create one by laying out some deli tubs from M&S on the coffee table the other week, but it wasn't the same without being elbowed in the ribs by someone reaching for the potato salad or seeing the last pakora snatched from under my nose.
READ MORE: Susan Swarbrick's Week: Five important life lessons from my dog
I have made myself a list of things to look forward to. The daffodil bulbs I planted will soon start to poke their heads through. Before that, the snowdrops will appear. There's the annual Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of this month.
The new series of Line of Duty is set to air sometime before March. The days will get longer. The Covid-19 vaccination programme will – all being well – continue to roll out. We may not see it yet, but better times are on the way.
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