01 Jan 2026
After the year we’ve had, who in their right mind wants to make 2026 harder than it needs to be? Certainly not us at the St Albans Times. So we challenged a cross-section of different people from across the district to set themselves an ‘anti-resolution’ for the New Year which will take some of the pressure off.
Professor Tim Boatswain, chair of Conservation 50 said: “My favourite anti-resolution, which carries appropriate elements of truth for myself, is to to start more things and finish fewer.
“Why tie up loose ends when you can proudly display a collection of half- done projects?”
Founder and owner of fashion boutique The Dressing Room Deryane Tadd said: “As a super busy woman I find it difficult to switch off and feel guilty when I stop, so I am going to promise less and work on not feeling guilty if I have time out.”
CEO of Wagada Digital and President of St Albans Chamber of Commerce Cheryl Luzet pledged: “Am I allowed to say that with all the going out over Christmas I’m planning on staying in and having as lazy as possible January?
“I want to make sure that I don’t organise anything and only do what I want to do when I want to do it!”
Artistic director of OVO theatre company Adam Nichols vowed: “I’m going to stop obsessively checking the weather forecast from March onwards and worrying about heavy rain or excessive heat affecting our ticket sales for the Roman Theatre Festival.
“Our summer audiences have proven themselves to be incredibly hardy, regardless of the sometimes bizarre climactic conditions we have experienced over the past couple of years!”
Men’s wellbeing coach Ryan Parkes said: “My anti-resolution is to stop confusing business success with being too busy to watch my son grow up.”
St Albans Times restaurant reviewer James Cameron said: “I think I will happily ignore peer pressure around drinking, as I’m planning on giving up for a few months and I’ve noticed it seems to personally offend some people if you don’t drink.”
Deputy Lieutenant of Herts and former High Sheriff Annie Brewster kept it short and sweet and said she is not going to start watching a film after 9pm.
Rev Peter Crumpler, associate minister at St Paul’s Church in Fleetville said: “As we go into this new year, I’d like to focus on three key things. I want to celebrate the past for all it’s been and look to the future with hope and optimism.
“But, most importantly, I want to savour each new day as it comes, looking to invest in key relationships with family and friends, to play a small part in making the world a better place, and spend more time in prayer and reflection.
“I’ve taken and attended enough funerals to know that people are remembered, not for what they ‘achieved’ in life, but for the love they showed and received.”
Tom Dryer-Beers, a resident at Spielplatz naturist community in Park Street said: “As an enthusiastic nudist living at Spielplatz I know the value and joy to be found in living nude and in tune with nature. All bodies and all people deserve to be respected.
“My anti-resolution for 2026 is that I will no longer allow myself to be intimidated by capricious societal pressure to conform to out-dated expectations regarding the wearing of unnecessary clothing. Expect to see even more of me in 2026.”
Emma Bustamante, who recently shut her shop Cositas on Holywell Hill said: “People have been coming into the shop asking what’s next for me and I tell them the only thing I know for certain is that I’m going to be willing well within my comfort zone.
“I’m going to be like Balloo in the Jungle Book floating down a glorious river but I’ll be on a canoe and the sides of the canoe will be my comfort zone. And I won’t going out of that comfort zone as I float along gently.
“I’ll be celebrating not trying to reach my full potential and not fitting in a million jobs before 9am. Letting things slip will be a win for me as I retreat into a quiet winter of accepting, liking and celebrating myself just as I am.”
John Morewood, President of St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society, promised: “In 2026 I’m not going to allow myself to be be stressed out any longer when paid employees of the planning department of St Albans district council put unnecessary bureaucratic barriers in place to frustrate volunteers trying to protect St Albans’ heritage.”
And finally, St Albans Times editor Matt Adams added his own anti-resolution for the year: “I’m not going to panic each week about how I’m going to fill a new edition of the Times, because news always happens, and there will always be stories to report on!”
Why not join us on our mission to start the year off as we mean to go on and set yourself an anti-resolution for 2026!
