You expats in China may not realise how fortunate you are to have at least two new years to celebrate. The biggest advantage is that you get two bites at the new year resolutions cherry. That's a boon I've already benefitted from here in Russia. On 1st January ("new" New Year by the Gregorian calendar) I made two bold resolutions - to improve my physical fitness and my mental agility. I would manage the first by joining a gym in winter and taking up race walking in summer; the second goal would be achieved by vastly improving my ungrammatical and badly pronounced Russian and by learning two other languages - Chuvash (the local ethnic language) and Mandarin Chinese (our pedagogical university has opened a Chinese language faculty with teachers from China). By 14th January ("old" New Year by the Julian calendar), I knew I had been a little too hasty and over ambitious, so I scrapped the gym and the Chinese course. As the Year of the Monkey finally ground to a halt (see my previous post), I reduced my linguistic goals to shoring up what limited stock of Russian words I have and not forgetting the seven words of Chuvash I already know. All that remains of my get fit resolution (just walking is difficult, never mind race walking) is a vow to stop wearing anti-slip studs on my boots as soon as the ice hazard is over (late March on the sunny side of the streets, up to a month later elsewhere) and to stop using my Scandinavian hiking sticks for everyday purposes come summer. Of course, some further modifications may be necessary if the Year of the Rooster doesn't bring swift improvements. Oh well, there's always Navrouz on 21st March!