The first few days of a New Year can be a flurry of activity for some of us. 

After the always hectic lead up to the Festive Season, with its shopping & cooking & preXmas get-togethers, its school end of year award assemblies, and all manner of end of year dance concerts, it’s just plain nice to wind down, to relax, but to also do all sorts of things we simply had little time for at the previous year’s end. 

Like spending hours on the couch watching or listening to Test Cricket. Yes, I am a Cricket Tragic.

Or hitting the beach for a day. Always pleasurable.

Or starting on our summer book reads. 

Or lazing in a cafe watching the world go by.

Which is what I’m doing at this very moment.

I’m perched in one of Kiama’s many delightful coffee spots, and lovingly sipping my flat white whilst observing Human Behaviour. 

People watching is something I like to do, and I’ve been doing it for many years. A harmless, engaging pastime from which you can learn a lot about your fellow man.

At this time of the year, in fact, at almost any time of the year in Kiama, there’s a lot to take in. You can be entertained for quite a while , depending on how slowly you consume your coffee, or how quickly the cafe wants you to move on because they rightfully want their table back. But there’s always fun stuff to see, like what people are ordering, or what they’re wearing, or how cute their dog is, or how naughty their children are. 

Back to reality. I have a house to get into shape after Xmas Family visits and stay overs. There’s a mountain of sheet and towel washing, remaking of beds, a fridge to restore to normality by removing now very old and unappetising leftovers, and the taking down of Xmas lights, decorations, and a very much sadder, almost dead version of my formerly green, but now brownish Xmas tree. Which has to be chopped up for the green bin. Full steam ahead on the housework front.

So there you have it.  Just a few days into 2026 and for me its go go go all over again. Clearly my New year’s Resolution to slow down a bit didn’t make it past the first days. Neither did my resolution to ease up on the Xmas Prosecco. 

Oh well, I’ll try again next year.