Auld Lang Whine

New Year's Eve, that weakest of temporal barriers between one calendar and the next. More ephemeral than a line in the sand, it's a very wet paper bag in which to carry your hopes for the next 365 days.

You'd be correct in assuming that I'm not a big fan of resolutions at this time of year. Those words that are chiselled into an ice sculpture in the middle of a room full of merry folk, glowing with the warmth of one too many beverages of choice. They inevitably fade away by the morning. Let's face it, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing whatever the time of year.

However, acknowledging the cyclical nature of things, there are new opportunities to be explored during the next four seasons. Considering my options, and in no particular order, here are my aspirations for 2010:

Share a second honeymoon - if it was a mountain, this year would be Suilven;
See a Broad-bodied Chaser - the one that got away in 2009. No... not upset at all... not a bit;
Photograph an otter in the wild - a phottergraph;
Break the 200 species barrier on my pathetic birding life list;
Learn to "play" the bodhran - after first learning how to pronounce it;
Go to the cinema more;
Spot a Clubtail or a Norfolk Hawker or a Southern Damselfly or all three;
Ignore Matt Bellamy's breathing between lines of Muse songs;
Build another water feature in our garden;
Did I mention wanting to see a Broad-bodied Chaser?

Have a Happy New Year, dear reader, and All the Best for 2010.