Hello, and welcome to Nige's Christmas message for 2015! I hope you are keeping well.
On the whole it has been a good year for me. I've generally been in good health apart from the odd twinge, I'm still gainfully employed, happily single, and my house is still standing.
I've made a couple of significant decisions this year though. The first is to drop to working just 4 days a week, starting from January 2016. Much as I enjoy my work, I enjoy not working even more, and I simply need more time to do everything I want to. Some of my friends already work or have worked 4-day weeks and they recommend it. The way I see it, I'm losing less than 20% of my take-home pay (because a smaller portion of my gross pay will be taxed), and I'm getting 50% extra days off per week. I'm looking forward to the extra time.
My second significant decision is to call time on my cricketing career. I have played Dorset league cricket for nearly 30 years now, and age is catching up with me. I can't hit the ball as well as I used to, and when in the field I chase a ball to the boundary, not only does it feel like running through treacle, but when I turn to throw in, I see my team mates waiting at about half the distance to the wicket because that's as far as I can throw it nowadays! I've had some very enjoyable times and met some great people, and I wish Kingston Lacy cricket club well for the future.
So what am I going to do with my summer weekends now? Well, it's liberating not to be committed to one particular hobby every Saturday from May to August, and I plan to join my volleyball club friends and go kayaking in and around Poole harbour. I've been out a couple of times with them already this autumn and enjoyed it, and why not take advantage of the facilities that I live right next to? And a trip to the Isle of Wight festival in June is also booked, with an excellent line-up forming - we shan't be camping though.
I'm keeping up my other hobbies: aikido, swimming, tennis, bridge, and I've even dabbled in golf this year, although I don't intend to take that seriously. My volunteering work with St John Ambulance is rewarding but taking a lot of my free time, as Bournemouth and Poole merged this year and I help to run the larger combined unit.
I hope you have a lovely Christmas, and I wish you all the best for 2016.
Nige.