Walking The Dog

  Do you ever have one of those early-in-the-New-Year days when Christmas is over; the house is empty and in that state of untidiness that lies somewhere between chaos and happily messy; there are leftovers filling the fridge, and new books to read, but despite all these things, nothing quite goes according to whatever plan you might have tentatively planned for the day?     - o ne of those short January days, when you are uncomfortably aware of a list beginning to evolve inside your head which promises (!) to be The List of the year - The One that will unlock your creative potential, super-charge your motivation and place you on a wobbly and barbed pedestal entirely of your own making. A list that, based on previous form, you'll have shredded into a hundred-thousand tiny pieces before you even reach the middle of January. Hmm ... yes, the kind of day perhaps, from which you'd quite like to escape?       - the kind of day filled from an hour before first light - owing to the ca