A Grand Plan

Giles Catchpole makes some surprising New Year’s resolutions

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HERE IN THE heart of winter it is hard to remember, perhaps, the exquisite joy of the dry-fly. The balmy days on loch and bank. Rosé wine and a Munro Killer. “Aye,” as the Great Red Bearded Gillie says, as he sucks his pipe and grinds his teeth, “them were the days!” And those days will come again, if we’re spared. But in the meantime we must, as is traditional at this time of year, plan to make the most of our opportunities and that can only mean one thing: the New Year’s Resolutions.

I know we have discussed this sort of thing before; and I recognise that not everything that is determined now will necessarily come to pass, but it always helps to have a bit of ambition in one’s life and so, for the record, here are my projects for the coming twelvemonth.