Health

My New Year’s ambitions: See the back of Covid and see some live music again

After the year we’ve had, the only resolution worth making is to have fun in 2021

I didn’t make any New Year resolutions. Photograph: iStock

Paddy Murray
Wed Jan 6 2021 - 06:01

I didn’t make any New Year resolutions. After the year we’ve had, I think the only resolution worth making is to have as much fun as possible this year.

January is Health Month in The Irish Times. Throughout the month, in print and online, we will be offering encouragement and inspiration to help us all improve our physical and mental health in 2021. See irishtimes.com/health

What I did instead of resolutions, was make a list of ambitions I hope to fulfil in 2021.

You may think they are not ambitious at all.

But, bearing in mind the last prognosis I got relating to my Stage 4 COPD, suggested that I wouldn’t be here today, I think it’s a pretty sensible ambition to keep my feet on the ground. Or rather, above ground.

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If I manage that, I suppose the next thing I’d love to happen this year, is to see the back of Covid.

And by that I don’t just mean that a vaccine which is 90 per cent effective becomes available for everyone.

It may be my life as a journalist that makes me question everything but, well, there’s something about that “90 per cent effective” thing that worries me. Because it means that if we are all vaccinated, then 10 per cent of us still might carry the virus.

New normal

I remember, many years ago, a colleague brought out a book of statistics relating to a particular sport. At the launch he proudly said he was confident it was 99 per cent accurate.

I don’t think I was the only one wondering that night, how we were to know which of the statistics fell into the 1 per cent inaccurate bracket.

Anyway, when I talk about seeing the back of Covid, I mean 200 days or more of no new cases and no deaths, statistics that might give us confidence to begin getting back to something like normal. New normal, if you like.

Even then, I will be a little bit nervous when it comes to crowds and I doubt I’ll be alone in that.

Which brings me to another of my ambitions for 2021.

I really want to see some live music.

Having missed 14 gigs due to my own illness early last year and then to have Covid ruin any chance of a live gig in the latter part of the year, I’ve been a bit reluctant to splash out on tickets.

But between rescheduling and taking the odd risk, I have at least four or five to look forward to. I somehow think the Declan McKenna gig in April might be too soon.

And while I have a few during the summer, I’ll be happy enough if the next sound I hear live is The Stunning next October. If I have to wait that long, I know it will be a gig worth seeing.

I also have ambition to have a family holiday.

For the past 15 years, my doctors have advised against flying. If they hadn’t done so, we’d be walking down Fifth Avenue next summer.

The result of the strict medical advice is that we’ve got to know Ireland pretty well.

This summer, it might be Sligo, Mayo, Kerry and Waterford. Don’t ask why, they just popped into my mind. I’d be just as happy in Galway or Cork or Wexford. I might even throw in a weekend in Monaghan where I once slept in the bed previously occupied by Sir Paul McCartney!

I’d love to have a book published. I know that involves the little matter of actually writing one and editing it and so on. But hopefully, I can get it done. The trouble with my butterfly mind is that it flits from project to project so right now I’m working on four different books, some fiction some non-fiction and I have to be careful not to confuse the two genres.

I’d love to see Tipp with the hurling again. And I’d love to see Ireland win the Six Nations.

Stop bickering

I’d love to see politicians vote to cut their allowances by at least half and I’d love to see them stop bickering and point scoring for 10 minutes and solve the housing problem and the problem of drug addiction, which doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s radar.

I think if politicians were all barred from appearing on RTÉ for a month – every one of them – more get work might be done.

I’d love to see my daughter be happy with her Junior Cert results. Far more important that she’s happy with the results than I am.

I’d like too if we could sit down somewhere with all my siblings and their partners. We’re all pushing on now so it’s not something we’ll be doing too often as time does its thing.

Oh yes, there’s one more thing on my list.

I’d love to have a really happy Christmas this year.

Too early for that?

There are just a little more than 350 days to go.

And not much more than half that until the BT Christmas Store opens on Grafton Street.

Can’t wait.

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