Happy New Year? How did it come around so quickly? They say time flies when you’re having fun, and I certainly hope everyone had a good festive period. I wonder what you all ticked off your Cornish Christmas bucket list.

Last year, Daughter and I enjoyed our own little Boxing Day swim and pledged to don Santa hats at a communal event this year. Sadly, we both succumbed to whatever lurgy is currently doing the rounds, and decided that stripping off and entering the icy briny was probably unwise. That’s one for next year, then.

We did manage to stir our stumps for a Boxing Day walk, and not just any old stroll. Reader, we hiked from Mousehole to Lamorna along the South West Coast Path. This was advertised by the uninformed grown-ups as “only a couple of miles”, but even two miles can seem like 20 when boulder-strewn and accompanied by ups and downs. The weather was what the locals would call “mizzly” and, as the sun went down, “dimpsy”.

In Lamorna Cove, I contemplated paying a Boxing Day taxi fare before bumping into a friend who turned out to be our guardian angel in a hi-vis jacket. “Turn right at the Wink and the lane wiggles its way back to Mousehole,” she said. We arrived back to cheers - the famous harbour lights had just been switched on, and people were arriving in their droves to admire them.

I trust your Christmas Day conversation flowed uneventfully, having learned from last week’s column which conversational topics to avoid (namely career prospects and romantic persuasions), although I regret not asking my captive pair of teens which subjects were safe to broach.

Thankfully, Daughter did the job for me by asking everyone for their highlights of 2024, and their hopes for the year ahead. This was the perfect choice. At this time of year, we often emulate Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and endings: he of the two faces, one facing the past, the other the future.

There came a slew of answers: a week’s holiday in Ireland, an Easter weekend break in Brighton, a new baby. Personally, there was the satisfaction of paying off the mortgage to own our own home; and from a work perspective, I absolutely loved the all-night thrill of covering my first General Election – and what a momentous one to choose.

There were inevitably some downtimes that deserved moments of reflection – most notably, the loss of a close family member following a lengthy and difficult illness, and the increasing unrest around the globe. The mere mention of Donald Trump brings my mother-in-law out in hives.

And so to the year ahead. It’s the time we set ourselves those impossibly ambitious goals known as “New Year’s resolutions”, like turning from couch potato to shining beacon of fitness perfection in 31 days.

These all seem eminently achievable when made within the space of the festive holiday. I would love to say that we will all eat well and get plenty of exercise throughout 2025 – Lord knows we need it – but experience tells me that as soon as normal life kicks in on January 2, all best-laid plans will go out the window.

I note that fellow columnists have long stopped making resolutions for this reason, but I can’t help slipping back into old habits each year. So how to keep the bloody things? Apparently, the trick is to make them realistic and in keeping with your lifestyle, setting clear goals with rewards.

My own resolutions include a few returning faces: to be chilled at all times, to be better organised, to juggle more effectively without dropping any balls. These, the experts would argue, are all rather large concepts, and need breaking down into smaller chunks with something concrete to aim for. The experts can [expletive deleted] (that’s the “staying chilled” one broken already, and it’s barely January 1).

A little more definable is my new hobby: trig bagging, that is, finding all the existing Ordnance Survey trig pillars in Cornwall and ticking them off. It’s very nerdy, and as such I am very excited. I have bought a new book with all the locations and have already started planning outings around the Duchy in search of these orienteering aids.

This leads nicely to my second resolution: to walk from Mousehole to Lamorna again, in nicer weather and allowing more time to walk back the farmland way, and bag the trig point en route (with the farmer’s permission).

The Other Half, meanwhile, will doubtless be keen to ride his bike more, especially as I had it fixed for Christmas (I even wrapped the handlebars in tinsel for festive effect).

However you decide to celebrate the closing of one door as another opens, I wish you all happiness and health for 2025. See you on the other side!