This is the first year for a long time that I have started the new year without a raging hangover. It’s not the only thing that is different about this new year, but it seems strangely positive and somewhat motivating that I am not spending the first day of a new year with my head in the toilet and a urgent need for all things bacon.*

2013 was a monster, and by the end it pretty much got the better of me. That circumstance dictated I should ferry myself about on new year’s eve, sober but for two lonesome, strategically timed beers, seemed an unfair end to a dud year. In actuality however, I got to go to two different new year’s parties without having to pick and choose. It meant I was able to spend time with friends both old and new, reminding me there was some good in the year and a whole cast of amazing people in my life. It also meant I got to start today – my 2014 – with a clear head and an open mind. I’m a little bit pleased with how it turned out.

I’m not one for resolutions, or keeping them, but I feel like I should be setting some goals for 2014, even if the list is mostly full of ordinary things like booking that overdue trip to the dentist and organising my banking. Write more, skate more, do more would also make it into my planning in one form or another, as well as last year’s roll-over goal of learning to use chopsticks (it’s a life skill, right? I should really get onto that).

All in all, my new year’s eve was far better than expected, and I hope that theme continues into the thick of 2014.

This is me theoretically basking in the new light of a January morn.

*This is not strictly true. Bacon urgency is not dependent on a hangover.