Ne touchez pas à ça revisited: Maintaining the status quo into 2019

Last year I made a list of 18 aspects of my life that I thought were pretty wonderful as they were, and which I resolved not to change. Since I hadn’t looked back at the post in question since its creation, I thought that I ought, out of politeness if nothing else, to check on my progress.

Did I succeed in my resolution to do, in effect, absolutely nothing? My 2018 resolutions are still very much unfinished business, so a morale boost here, however unmerited, would help to soothe my bruised ego considerably. Here are my results:

1. I still adore cooking with my son. It still makes so much mess;
2. Painting with my son is still one of my all-time favourite pastimes, particularly now that he has discovered that painting with his hands and feet (and then smearing them EVERYWHERE) is not only fun in itself but also brilliant for obtaining his mother’s forgiveness for any previous or planned misdemeanours. I feel like we have now covered most of the basic zoo “amimal” prints:

   

   22 “amimal” hand and footprints

3. My husband does still occasionally cut my hair for me (as I have still not got over my fear of the coiffeuse), although my Chou has very sweetly offered, on more than one occasion, to take over that duty himself…
4. I still love watching Mr. Tulkinghorn (our handsome puddle duck) splashing about in his bath in the garden. I still have not bought a replacement sandpit for my Chou…I must better at this ‘change nothing’ resolution than I thought;
5. I still have no idea what goes on in nursery school, except that there is still a slide (clearly visible from the road so an easy deduction to make);
6. I still gossip with my Mum on a twice-weekly basis, usually about such hard-hitting news items as today’s offering (thanks to The Daily Telegraph, via WhatsApp):

   

7. I still listen to BBC Radio 2 all day long, although my Pop Master training has been sadly neglected since school ends for lunch just as Pop Master starts;
8. I still love watching period dramas, and I am still irrevocably in love with Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy, as portrayed in the BBC’s 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice. I wholeheartedly believe (as does my Mother: see point 6) that Andrew Davies deserves a knighthood for services to womankind, for without him there would be no lake scene…the horror!;
9. We still collect fresh eggs from our 2 surviving chickens, Esther III and Ada Clare;
10. I still bulk buy as much of the ‘unusual-for-our-part-of-rural-France’ food items as I can find on trial offer, although okra seems to be still too exotic to reach our local Carrefour, which is still struggling with the notion of chou kale;
11. I still devour as much raclette as my tummy will allow;
12. Whenever my Chou will permit it (which isn’t often admittedly) I still enjoy playing the piano;
13. I still adore the views from the walks surrounding our home;
14. I still adore cuddles with my son (despite his dismissive assertions that “I already cuddled oo, Mama”);
15. Tea is still not my cup of tea.

 

Conclusion: 15 out of 18 aspects of my (terribly glamorous) lifestyle remain untampered with – surely a resounding success to be celebrated by continuing to do absolutely nothing at all!

 

 

Mots du jour:

ne touchez pas a ça – don’t touch/interfere with that coiffeuse – female hairdresser chou kale – kale (it doesn’t appear to translate well)