New Year, Old You - The Theme for January

I hate that saying "New Year, New You!" At the start of every year they wheel that one out again and every year I think, no it's still the same old me. I know what they mean, it's time to get a new, improved version of yourself but for me that never actually happens. I don't go and get a radical haircut or new wardrobe instead I usually buy   reduced bubble bath from Boots and shave my legs, read a magazine and try and feel inspired by all these amazing women who have left a career in law or so and are now running a business knitting tea cosies in their garden shed or who have moved abroad and converted a haunted house into a Provencal paradise.Very inspiring but they are all usually rich!

At the start of January we are all told that we should start that diet now but it never really works out does it? Especially if like me you have a mountain of chocolate to climb. So forget it I'm not dieting nor am I depriving myself of anything cake or chocolate like or anything that comes out of a bottle with a cork in it. Here is this month's theme...

This month we are going to start out quite easy, nothing challenging and nothing that really involves using our brains much. We want you to sign up for something...anything! Here are some ideas:

1. Sign up to dance classes

2. Sign up for night school

3. Sign up for a magazine  subscription

4. Sign up to a blog and start blogging

5. Join the RSPB

6. Sign up to Race for Life

7. Sign up to join a book group

By the end of the month we should all have signed up for something. We will present our themes on here so you can see how we got on, what we joined and why and how it's made us feel. Feel free to e-mail in and tell us about your experiences intellectualdinnerclub@gmail.com

Happy January!

A Change of Plan

It's the start of a brand New Year and already we are feeling the need to tighten our purse strings. It's a bit depressing really because The Intellectual Dinner Club has been running since 2009 and all this time we have managed to keep our dinners going each month...and I always managed to find a few extra pennies for dessert! But realistically it's just not feasible to be eating out every month and besides we've pretty much eaten our way through Huddersfield and Holmfirth now so there's not many other places to go. Our dream was to move on to travelling around the UK and discover some hidden gems that offered amazing food and service without breaking the bank. Then maybe we could eat our way around London, Paris...the World!! The aim was to offer fresh, honest (without being horrible), unpretentious restaurant reviews that didn't confuse with big words, food that you've never even heard of or would want to eat and telling you how micro-food is now a la mode; tiny little leaves arranged on top of some edible soil?...I don't think so!Unfortunately we are going to have to leave the dinner side of our club to the over-fed, pretentious, slightly rude food critics that grace the pages of our food supplements each month and instead we will focus on the Intellectual side of our club, the themes.

Each month there will be a theme posted on to our blog, a challenge, project, goal however you want to view it, that all of us can join in with if you like. How you interpret it is up to you but the aim here is to achieve something each month. By Christmas you will have achieved twelve things that you didn't know you would achieve this year. It may be something simple like seeing that film that you've always wanted to see so come 2014 you will have seen it, you've achieved something. I'm setting no goals or New Year Resolutions this year instead each month The Intellectual Dinner Club will set the themes and I will use these as my goals.

If you do decide to join in let's use our blog to talk about what we have achieved, to inspire each other to keep going. Maybe you've interpreted the theme in a different way if so, let us know...e-mail us and we can add your theme to the blog. Maybe you can suggest some themes too? We can be as creative as we like and come Christmas we will hopefully have picked up some new skills, learnt a few things and be feeling creative, inspired and intellectual! Who knows what we will do each month, I just know that I can't wait to get started, it's a new beginning ladies!