The importance of being slightly late

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to January! After contemplating my conduct in recent years, I've decided that my life is rather hectic and not a little stressful. With this in mind I have come up with two new resolutions, as per the poorly-designed but popular consensus that the most miserable time of the year is the ideal period to radically change one's lifestyle in pursuit of unrealistic and lofty dreams, at a time when one is already struggling with the sudden taper of post-Christmas feasting and cheer. Going cold turkey, if you will.

So, without further ado here they are. One easy and one extremely difficult.

1. No rushing.

I'm rather pleased with this one, and I've certainly managed to adhere to it so far. I have a tendency to rush from place to place, generally slightly late for everything, and all the while becoming more and more concerned about the fact that if I rush, I could arrive a handful of minutes earlier than if I didn't rush, which hardly negates the associated risks of road accidents, speed fines and stress-related cardiovascular disease. 

And so I decided that as I am often late anyway - living in Ireland for five years will do that to an Englishwoman - this is already the norm, and I may as well relax a bit. This morning I relaxed so much that at the time I was due to leave for work, I remembered that I was to spend the morning at some lectures, and listening to back-to-back Powerpoint presentations always makes me hungry, so I prepared some oeufs en cocotte (eggs baked in the oven, with goat's cheese). By the time I had eaten them, I was half an hour late, and was pleasantly surprised to discover when I arrived for the lectures that I was, in fact, early, as I had mistaken the start time. Happy days.

2. Be Extremely Kind.

It looks so simple written down. 

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