... of your own Will-Power and Determination, digging deep into yourselves for the required Hutzpah and Pzazz to achieve the ideal in life after the Tinsel-strewn Orgy of Indulgence which is Christmas. I admire you all, and I WILL grow some motivation and determination and all other necessary '-ations', after I have shared with you that I am Totally Out of Love with:
... this grey, boring windy month in which folk chuck out Yuletide trees and desiccated bunches of holly and mistletoe to bowl around the pavements like some unloved tumbleweed and the street decs drip dirty water onto your head...
... the Once Exciting but now Elderly Food which lurks in drawers and fridges and which must somehow now be confronted, then eaten or chucked...
... the spangly Christmas decs which I must now take down, so losing the shiny reflections and havens of coloured light which lit up My Dark Corners - well, not mine as such, that would be too Gothic, but the dark corners in my rooms...
... the seasonal novel, which seemed Such Fun before Christmas but which I haven't finished and which seems so unseasonal and inappropriately gay (old meaning) now.
...and am peed awf by the toothily grinning females on my pre-Christmas magazines telling me about their GOOOrgeous Christmases and which are now replaced by January Toothy-Smilers telling me How Very Easy It Is to regain my shape for the skiing holiday which I am surely going to have at Klosters with 50 of my very Bestest Fwends...
Bah, Humbug and May January's Socks Rot. Auld Betty's Proper Pee'd Awf and So Ova the Hole Seezun.
SO, before someone says, the Next Best Thing is to Get over Myself, Shut-up and Move on.
love to you all, and may you be better at this month than I...😡🤪 Badass Betty xx
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Under each post there is always a question - has anyone else ever noticed this? It says “ How does this post make you feel?”
Well Betty, your posts make me feel so much better for a laugh! I wish I were such a clever wordsmith, such an amazing logodaedalus! (I can come out with some big words, but I can’t order them as cleverly as you! 😂)
You fill the bunnies up with baileys, eat the malteaser bunny and toast the hot cross buns or melt down all the choc and make monster choccy crispie cakes, oh those were the days😂
Yes, of course you're right Elibee; I'm just being a Miserable Old Trout. I just hate the greyness of it all: January gives us an Elephant-coloured world.
Never mind; your right. We'll all make each other larf... BB x
Oh ScouseTaffy that sounds Just Wonderful. I do dress in black things sometimes, but only in order to contrast a black top with a jewel-coloured scarf etc. Trouble is that black coats cover us all up and make us look as if we were about to attend a funeral. Germans like bright colours, and as a matter of fact I've just been to the sales in town. Some Jolly Things are very tempting but I have to be so careful. I'll only wear what I called Nylonbear because to me the real thing looks better on the animal, but nylon fluffy coats (there was a red one this morning) make me look like a giant soft toy, or a fluffy billiard ball, or an aging Womble. Not a Good Look.
There's still a cherry-red coat which tempts... Meanwhile, I love the sound of your outfit. Good On You for having Festival Flair. BB x
Hi bb, there used to be a shop in the Traffird centre that sold German made clothing for the 'larger lady' and their range was fabulous; occasionally I find similar in TKMax, I love the styles and colours. Hopefully one day I wont need the larger sizes but until then I'll continue to seek them.
They sound nice! The clothes are good here in Berlin if you choose appropriately and it helps that I have lost quite a lot of weight but not necessarily in the desired places! I'll have to will myself to go and try things on, something I hate.
Not as bad, however, as going to a lovely spa in Liverpool which was one of my eldest's lovely Christmas prezzies and then all the YOUNG women just stripped awf in the communal changing room - fine when you're Young and Svelt and Gorgeous. Not so good when most of what you've got has stopped defying Nature and has obeyed the Laws of Gravity to Ghastly Effect.
Fortunately I have learned not to take myself quite as seriously as I used to!
It’s definitely a combination of the short days, the lights which make the darkness more bareable come down too which adds to it, then everyone has over spent and over eaten! Feeling fat and poor isn’t the best ha ha.
I’m on a reset this month and this year anyway! Time to get back on track and stay there.. Going to keep positive and keep counting my blessings it’s the only way! X
Very timely post BB. 😁 I have just got home from a fairly miserable first day back at work. My tree is drooping so much I think the baubles may fall of on their own at any moment. The remains of Christmas are still littered around my little flat and I was feeling pretty dejected if I’m in honest. So tonight I will make a little effort to make my surroundings more cosy, light my candles, put on my pjs and write a list of things to look forward to this year. Hopefully that will stave off the January blues. Thanks for making me feel I’m not on my own with my feelings!! X
This is SO RIGHT Nowisthetime, especially about lighting winter candles. They do some lovely scented ones nowadays, don't they? Sometimes I'll do a little display of winter twigs and cones near my candles which acknowledges the season but somehow helps to replace the Xmas displays. And like you, I'm all for writing down some realistic ambitions and ideas.
Thank you for cheering me up and cheering me on. Betty will Bathwards-Go, sluice down the Auld Hide, don the jammies and do similar.
I just love this community. Not awfully sure what I did without it before...
But you are such a ray of sunshine darling Betty! I agree with you though, coming home through the village just now and seeing the Christmas lights still up made me very ‘bah humbug’. I want to get out into the garden and see the evidence and promise of new beginnings, feel the days lengthening - albeit imperceptibly just at the moment - but to feel that I am looking forwards rather than back. But the tree must be taken down and the baubles repacked, the food has all gone - apart from copious amounts of chocolate which I can - strangely- ration myself! New year was a non-event in the russet household. Roll on March and April!
Yes, absolutely, though I bet you'll be able to find the odd shy snowdrop in or around your village in just a few weeks time; you are obviously very Nature-aware. BB x
And our neighbour’s daffs are up and in bud! I have a couple of lovely pink hellebores- will try to post a pic - but snowdrops are just so delicate and tough as old boots once they get going!
Gosh that's so early! Global warming I suppose, but the effect is still jolly, and much needed. Where we live in Central Portugal the activity is necessarily bent towards functional growing for food so they look slightly surprised at flowers for their own sake, but the garden centre idea is growing to cater for the spoilt retired like the Brits.
Here in Berlin it's pretty cold and snowing, though not effectively. There will be no little snowdrops here for a while!
Hi BB! Aw I'm sorry to hear you're feeling less shiny and bubbly thought it totally understandable and relatable! I'm on my last day of holidays and will be getting back to my dreary dorm room first thing tomorrow. As I lay in bed this morning I was anticipating that when o get back I'll feel just like you described in this post, so reading your post made me feel like at least we are in this together! I am not allowed candles and there aren't any surfaces for pretty displays. But I was thinking of putting up some fairy lights maybe and deliberating on a new work out plan. Hope you find something lovely to cheer you up until the sun starts shining again.
Hello ohsofierce , yes I remember well boring but necessary dorm rules, which are always health-and-safety related. You mention fairy lights, and I must admit that false light is more missed by me after Christmas than even the sparkly things, and that's saying something, my being a Species of Wrinkly Child, so I too keep plain white lights going in corners inside and out, and I have discovered that solar lights will work outside even in winter if the little panel is pointing towards where the sun should be: little bulbs are like candles - little rays of hope and dreams.
I hope that your January dorm is jollier than you expect...
BB x
p.s when I was young and in a dorm I drew and painted a life-sized portrait of Terence Stamp in uniform after I'd recently seen the original 'Far from the Madding Crowd'. I seem to remember matron making me take it down; I think she thought it inspired Unclean Thoughts... I like to think things have improved since then - that was back in medieval times.
Hi Badassbetty. I too hate January. I just want to hibernate till the spring arrives.
I have set myself a target deadline of April to lose a stone. Today I did 2 hrs at the gym Zumba and Pilates, only to let myself down when I came home and ate half a chocolate orange. I need to totally rid the larder of the Christmas leftovers.
Im sorry about the chocolate orange and do sympathise since they used to be my Go-to favourite at Christmas. I'm afraid the only way to cope with the remains of the Christmas goodies is to bin them and pour something noxious on them to stop yourself retrieving them. I usually spray my rejected stuff with disinfectant then they're not tempting me any more!
Trouble is, as you say, January is such a pooey grey old month that we think we need goodies to cheer us up!
However, 2 hrs of Zumba and Pilates is truly impressive. You must have burnt a lot of calories, so the half chocky orange can be forgiven?
Well done margary . I know this is hard, I really do: I have the same trouble with both chocolate and crisps. And then when I was working they used to supply bickies, including The Dreaded Kitkat, at break-time, so going back to work didn't stop the problems for me. Now I'm retired, I have to resist going down to the shops, which I could all too easily do. In some ways, not being time-poor anymore has its disadvantages!
These conversations always makes me feel in a Very Good Way that we are All In This Together.
Yes thanks. I think my meals are pretty healthy. It's sticking to NOT eating the other stuff in between which is the challenge but I have my methods... x
So true, IndigoBlue61 and margary , and in general I don't; nor have I ever been a fridge-raider. It's the evening tv which is my temptation time. Drinking water is a good wheeze (tricked out to look and taste nice, in an attractive glass with ice and a slice each of lemon and clementine) but the distaff side of that is it makes you pee like a race-horse at intervals through the night if, like me, you are an Oldish Nag....
Of course, as I'm Sitting On The Throne for the second time in a night, I tell myself, to the accompaniment of hooting owls, that at least I'm ridding the bod of toxins...
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What do people do with their old clothes? 
