The New Year cannot be denied

So, okay, like everyone else, I've been procrastinating... After spending ten days, socialising, stuffing my face, drinking wine, walking the city and generally trying to squeeze all my favorite things about life in Boston into a week and half, I was pretty wrecked. Jet-lag was wicked - lots of late nights and painfully early mornings getting back into the routine of work. Only now that we're easily halfway through January, am I fully back into the swing.

I joined the gym this winter to try and stave off the lethargy of life in the far northern hemisphere - The sun has only really fully woken up around 9am these days and it's back in hiding by 4:30pm at it's lowest point... I think there is definitely a tendency for hibernation written into my genes - I just want to sleep and eat biscuits (that's cookies for all u yanks ;) ) and lie on the couch with the remote. While I have been hitting the treadmill (and the climbing wall and the pool), I've still managed to get entirely sucked into the void of the couch and the telly on a few occasions. In keeping with the Irish tendencies toward overindulgence followed by repentance - January TV has made the shift from Dessert Porn (soft focus and close-up on the chocolate fudge cake) to documentaries about tummy tucks and industrial food production. Those of you who know how riveted I was reading 'Fast Food Nation' (and how I tortured you all with "fun" facts about meat production for months after) will know that I am powerless to resist a show about battery chickens or chemicals in the food supply. It's like a car crash. I just can't look away. And it wasn't just one documentary - it must have been industrial food week on Channel 4 because I watched a three-part series on free range chicken, a 'Dispatches' expose on ready meals and a screening of the film 'Super Size Me' all in the course of 4 days. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me - I missed Jamie Oliver's exploration into chicken parts and their many uses... To add insult to injury, I was also reading 'The Omnivore's Dilmena' a book about the evolution of food chains and the environmental consequences of industrial agriculture... Bring it on! The fact that I'm not a raw-food vegan (or even a proper vegetarian) at this point, is a minor miracle. Just don't ask me to eat any chicken nuggets okay?!

Well, viva la new year... 'onwards and upwards' I guess. 'Start as you mean to go on' and all the rest of it. Only 11 months until everyone's pouring booze down their necks and sucking down battery chickens and sticky-toffee-pudding by the bucket-load. Untill then, maybe it's time for an organic, sustainably-farmed, locally grown fair-trade salad with your guilt?!