A long, long time ago...

... I wrote a post about goals for April, before merrily jetting off on a two-week holiday.

Which, thanks to that bloody volcano, turned into a three-and-a-half-week holiday. As somebody pointed out, some people are in the Big Brother house for less time than that. And with 10 of us together sometimes it felt a bit like Big Brother. But I've finally made it back to soggy green Britain, so let's see how those goals shaped up (warning: contains excuses):

Early April goals

• Try to exercise 3 times a week for at least half an hour.  Yeah... not so much. There was always a good reason not to go for a run. Like "I'm sleepy: I need sleep." "I just ate breakfast.:" "It's 2pm. It's too hot." "I'm already drunk." Verdict: entirely own-fault FAIL.

• Improve my swimming. It was not actually that hot, at least in the first part of the holiday, and at the beginning of April the pools hadn't had a chance to warm up properly. My non-mobile breaststroke didn't keep me warm enough and I can't swim at all when I'm shivering. Verdict: partially climate-imposed FAIL.
• Get some serious R&R. Sat in the sun, drank about 2831457 brandy sours and generally did some hardcore relaxing. Verdict: WIN. 
• Eat reasonably.  Er, yeah. About that. Cypriot restaurants believe that a vastly overfed customer is a happy customer. We kept eating Meze, which at times felt like the steak-eating contest Homer Simpson got into with a trucker. Most of the party put on an appreciable amount of weight after being there for nearly a month. Verdict: OH DEAR.

Late April goals

• Gym/other exercise 3 times a week. I managed to break my big toe on the day we were supposed to come home, in a manner so boring I won't repeat it here. I'm yet to find any exercise other than swimming that doesn't hurt, and my issues with swimming are well-documented. Verdict: excusable FAIL.
• WeightWatchers.  Wasn't in the country.
• Blog 4 times a week. Didn't have a computer.
• Get 8 hours' sleep a night. Well, I certainly managed that one.

So, in short, the only goals achieved were, er, the ones that involved not doing much. Still, the circumstances were exceptional. May will be a month of achievement!

I would highly recommend Cyprus as a holiday destination, though, although perhaps not for 25 days... And if you do go, I can give you some truly wondrous restaurant recommendations!

April Goals

My April splits into two parts – for the first two weeks I’m on holiday, then it’s back to work and the daily grind (albeit a new daily grind) for the rest. So I’ve made separate goals for each part to acknowledge this

Early April goals

• Try to exercise 3 times a week for at least half an hour. By exercise, I really mean running as there won’t be a gym available to us. We do have a swimming pool in both lots of accommodation but I swim so badly that I’d die of chlorine poisoning before I got a meaningful workout. Which brings me on to...
• Improve my swimming. The Boy tried to teach me breaststroke in Turkey last year. I’d like to try and master that and maybe be able to swim a length of breaststroke (in our weeny villa pool) by the end of the fortnight.
• Get some serious R&R. It feels like a long time since Christmas. I’ve been through an audit busy season since then, with no time off to speak of, and I am exhausted. I look forward to spending a reasonable amount of the next fortnight doing absolutely sod all.
• Eat reasonably. It’s a holiday. We’ve already discussed my, erm, issues with Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. But neither of those are excuses to go totally nuts. Sure, I’m going to eat some things I wouldn’t normally have, but there’s no reason to do that at every meal. 

Late April goals

• Gym/other exercise 3 times a week. I’ve been matching or exceeding this one every week for some time, so it should just be a question of getting back into it post-holiday.
• WeightWatchers. I aim to go to my first meeting in the week of the 19th. Watch this space...
• Blog 4 times a week. Posting here really encourages me to think about my actions and choices, so I want to commit to doing it more in the hope of upping the mindfulness quotient.
• Get 8 hours’ sleep a night. I’ll be starting a new job and establishing a new routine. That should be a chance to give a decent night’s sleep the importance it should have, and hopefully make holiday relaxation last a bit longer.

What are your goals? What do you think about when you’re setting them?