2015 in Review
Apparently my top nine Instagram pics of 2015
Happy new year, comrades! Here's the seventh annual Review. Previous editions are here.
1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?
Visited Orkney with The Mothership.
Went to The Ashes cricket at Lord's.
Bought eggs from a vending machine! <-- obviously the pinnacle of 2015.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for this year?
I didn't make any resolutions, as I thought I'd try quieting my chipmunk brain by taking things one day at a time. Which worked a treat, except for the days I simultaneously took things 1234 days into the past and 567 days into the future. Mwahahhaa.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Lainey, Linda, Helen, Jen, Georgia, Sarah... I know I'm missing someone!?
4. Did anyone close to you pass away?
The one and only Clare and the one and only Dotto.
5. What countries did you visit?
Austria and the Netherlands.
6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked in this one?
How about less of something I had too much of in 2015? Time spent online. Just so Gareth will stop tsking, "It's too late for screens!" when I'm faffing around on my phone at 11 pm. But both me and my weary Instagram-scrolling thumb know he's right. I need to read a book, or go to sleep!
7. What dates from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
March 3 - our 10th wedding anniversary on a wild and stormy Skye.
May 31 - Cackling over a few drams of whisky at the Jolly Judge, a great end to a weekend with Up & Running comrades.
July 31 - Walking to Sandwood Bay, "perhaps the most beautiful beach in Britain". I did way too much whinging with my unfit lungs and too-small shoes that day, but crikey it was a beautiful beach!
Sandwood Bay
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Remaining self-employed.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Hermit-like behaviour.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
This gigantic bread bin, a housewarming gift from me to me. It's like the bread Tardis. You can fit a loaf, a dozen rolls and a family of four in there.Also, we have just taken delivery of a new bed. It is a Super King size. I've always wanted a huge, sprawling bed that Charlie Bucket's extended family could have fit in with room to spare.
12. Where did most of your money go?
Groceries! And moving.
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Moving into our new house. Peggy strutting down the hall in Mad Men.
14. What song will always remind you of this year?
Regret by Everything Everything. So bloody catchy.
15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
More content.
b) thinner or fatter?
Slightly lighter!
c) richer or poorer?
About the same.
16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Weight training. Fiction reading. Music listening!
17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Faffing around. Get on with it, lady!
18. How did you spend Christmas?
In our new house avec in-laws. The triumph of the day was this Self-Saucing Chocolate Cranberry pudding. Why it's a winner:
It's stupidly easy - takes 10 mins to put together or you can assemble in advance, up to the point of pouring over the boiling water.
It's a festive crowd-pleaser - the cinnamon and cranberries taste Christmasy without the involvement of evil, shrivelled dried fruit
It sauces itself! - that blew my mind at my parents' 1980s dinner parties and continues to blow my mind today!
Self-Saucing Chocolate Cranberry Pudding
19. Did you fall in love this year?
No.
20. What was your favourite TV program?
The Americans! Season 3 was a cracker, the best yet. So I'm still on my crusade to convert people to the superb spy fest. Gareth is now up to speed after I wore him down with months of pestering (reliable KGB technique).
21. What was the best book you read?
Brené Brown's Rising Strong. As I was reading it I thought, this is way too woo-woo for me. But the takeaway from that great Pixar story - to paraphrase inelegantly, when you're right in the middle of something it always feels sucky - has saved me 275 buckets of angst since. It's just the sucky middle bit! Carry on, dude!
22. What was your favourite film?
Way back on January 2 Gareth and I watched We Are The Best!, in which three girls in 1980s Stockholm start a punk band. I watched 23 films in 2015 (I kept a log! #dorkalert) and this is the one we still quote. Hate the sport! Hate the sport!
23. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?I turned 38 and I spent the day grumbling into a pile of moving boxes.
24. What kept you sane?
Chatting to Neighbour Cat during the workday. I'm still coming to terms with the one-sidedness of that relationship and accepting she's never going to trek 150 miles down the A9 back to us, like a curmudgeonly homing pigeon
What?
.25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I was in love with Philip and Elizabeth Jennings on The Americans, even in their most dodgy 1980s spy disguises.
26. Who did you miss?
I really missed my Aussie pal Jen. It was her first year of being a mum, wish I could have been there to chat and/or babysit.
Now let's get on with 2016!
