Is there an implicit consensus for when we should stop saying Happy New Year to each other? As I make the next edition of In The Square, which should be ready as our cherry trees blossom, I’m still wishing people a prosperous 2023 in my emails. I’ve wondered if my lovely potential advertisers think I’m ‘out of time,’ or perhaps they realise that I’m spinning out the holiday vibe for as long as I can. After all the shops do it with their January sales that go on forever and anybody who’s still on a ski slope. Also as I move through the months, bagging up as many celebrations as I can, I feel underwhelmed by the one that follows New Year’s Day. Unless like online Secret Santa there’s a Secret Lover generator, traditional Valentine’s Day depends on post and many of us are still waiting for Christmas cards to arrive.
In the spring 2022 edition of In The Square I interviewed the very rich and very generous entrepreneur Simon Squibb (page 4.) His story is so motivating that a local teacher wrote to me to say that she was discussing the article with her students. Aged fifteen, Simon suddenly lost his father, was forced to leave home, dropped out of school and found himself living on the streets. Not one to give up, within a week, he had started a gardening business and before long was able to employ some of the other squatters from the place where he was sheltering.
What I remember most from my meeting with Simon is his belief that sometimes to win at the game of life we need to go against the flow. Simon spoke of at least two key moments when he experienced huge career success, despite making moves that seemed out of synch with what was going on around him. He reminded me that when in the summer of 2020 I told a couple of acquaintances how I was inspired to start a print magazine for Belsize Park, they reminded me that the internet has been invented. However as somebody who likes to sit in a café and turn the pages of newspapers or magazines, and not always be on my phone, I forged ahead against the tide of scrolling.
Like a salmon on its way to mate or an open-mouthed trout catching dinner, surely we have all experienced what’s it like to sashay upstream; although I suspect only in films does a lover climb up the descending escalator to clinch a romance. As a child I used to constantly ask my parents when we were out for dinner if I could order dessert before the main meal. I still remember the fear that I might find myself too full to reach the last course and have a sticky toffee pudding or tiramisu. This month whilst everyone is recovering from the downpour of December drinks, I’m doing wet January. As usually I drink like a nano fish and average one whisky on the rocks per week, I intentionally buy a bottle of something every New Year’s Eve and encourage myself to drink it all on wintry evenings.
Another non-conforming (dictionary definition of ‘going against the flow’) thing that I do for good mental health is to give myself rewards and prizes before I’ve achieved. So this January, I am patting myself on the shoulder, booking some self-care treatments and going to some exciting local events in Belsize Park – why schlep to town when we have it all here – to congratulate myself for all the wellness, wealth and happiness I’m going to manifest; and whilst still here at the end of January wishing it for others. Happy New Year dear readers!
