Shall We Dance is a watchable but unspectacular movie which will appeal, oddly enough, to non-dancers, or at the very least, the un-fussy movie viewer. Unfortunately for me, I belong to neither category. All the same, in spite of the lacklustre acting, it did make me want to return to dance.

There. I said it.

These last few months, I've always maintained that I've been taking a break from all the dance classes that I used to take and that I'll return to them someday, but in effect, I'd resigned myself to placing work over dance, my one true passion in life other than travelling, which is something of a travesty. But after watching the movie, I feel inspired to make time in my life for that one thing which brought me so much joy and taught me how to be free, how to be myself without worrying so much about what other people think. It's true that I've taken some dance classes on and off, the most recent being the Salsa Hip Hop workshop I'd signed up for a month ago, but the experienced members of the class made me feel so embarrassed by my obvious inability to grasp quite a number of the steps.

I don't quite know how to sort out everything I want to achieve this year but I'm determined, after devoting 2004 to surviving work, to do the following:

• Get my driver's license
• Return to dance - salsa, swing, ballroom, anything
• Go to the gym at least three times a week (and hopefully get my bottom half down to a size 10 by end-April-05)
  
• Learn a new language or continue French
• Work on my resume and interview skills
• Take my GMAT in March
• Get a professional qualification - CFA Level I or FRM
  

These all clearly require a lot of time and monetary investment and I am concerned about that, but God willing, I'll be able to get all of these done this year.