![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cloudsinvenice
01. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
- visited Kent and London
- met Maxine in person (and she's coming to stay for a few days as I write this! :))
- saw France (i.e. I peered at it from Dover - it was tantalising)
- met my cousin Jenny and her family
- started learning to code in Java (with Codecademy)
- tried mango chutney (it was really jelly, not bits, so I could safely eat it). The fact this is on my list tells you a lot about my lack of culinary adventure. Likewise, I discovered macaroni cheese, thanks to murkylurky's mum.
- had my (well, R's and my) work published in a national magazine
- sought professional financial advice
- helped (in tiny ways) with a professional theatrical production. It was intoxicating.
- visited a foreign embassy while procuring R's updated passport. It was in the embassy district. I have never before seen an embassy district but it was slightly surreal. I feel like we need an embassy district here, since clearly it keeps some very old and beautiful houses standing and well-cared for.
02. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I am handily editing this into a copy of last year's meme as I go along, so here are last year's resolutions:
take better care of my teeth - Well, I didn't backslide but I also didn't make using interdental brushes and that special mouthwash a priority.
and keep my diary... - That didn't work out so well (long but occasional entries), but I got back to semi-regular posting on DW/LJ.
...with some French and Dutch writing - Ah. Alas.
Also, use Livemocha to learn Dutch and French. - No, and I'm rather shocked that it's been a year since I planned to do that. Time rushes past.
2013 resolutions: still all about the teeth. Also, keep my hair this length or get it cut shorter/find a style I like. It's so much lower-maintenance than when it was really long.
03. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Friends of ours had their first child in March. We're already buying him books, for when he's older.
04. Did anyone close to you die?
As per my last meaningful entry, fizzyblogic died on the 21st.
05. What countries did you visit?
England. And the Republic of Ireland, though that's more a political border than a geographical one, if that makes sense.
06. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
The cognitive juice to actually get my head around mortgages and related insurances. It's one of those areas where I feel as if some vital intellectual capacity that friends have is missing, which is a bit scary since I'm the one who'll be handling a lot of the communication with the various people/organisations involved. I'm insecure about learning new things and I'm hoping that the fact I'm learning coding will help with this - they say that if you use your brain for new things it keeps you flexible and more able to learn. I guess we'll find out.
07. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I'll skip this one.
08. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Being persistent with the editor of the aforementioned magazine until it led to an actual commission. This is entirely down to R and he deserves the credit: if it had been up to me we would've given up. And now the editor wants more of our work, which is lovely because he's good to work with and is our best-paying client ever.
Also: finally walking away from the appalling behaviour of Client 2. Ironically considering what I've just told you, this has been a lesson in how we should not fuck around with waiting for badly-behaved clients to change: conflicting behaviour is a big, red warning sign that should be heeded. We had to chase that guy's BOSS to get our last invoice paid.
09. What was your biggest failure?
Not keeping in touch with some people well in the past six months. It's been an awful time but I need to get better at it. I'm so relieved that I was in regular contact with Jason in the last few months; I would never have forgiven myself if I'd let that slip.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had a bad infection in March/April and was ill well into May from the antibiotics, long after the infection cleared up. and I've spent the past three months having a very long, drawn-out sinus problem (I wanted to type "science problem" there, heh), resulting in two courses of antibiotics which caused equally lengthy problems of their own. Then there was that stupid tiny infected thumb wound. And the Noro virus. And a cold and assorted sore ears and throats. But, you know, any year that doesn't lead to or involve surgery is a good one in my world.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My iPod Touch turned out to be less intuitive as an mp3 player than my old Nano, but it's been wonderful for checking emails from bed (thus eliminating panicked, anxious bed-lurks on days when the depression was really bad - I can just check, and mostly there's nothing to worry about). I also got really excited about a large Pyrex dish (£8 = endless happy, happy dishes of macaroni cheese with smoked sausage) and the fact that I replaced some of our horrible flattened pillows (one of us is often reclining on the sofa with pain in the afternoon or evening, so the pillows have been doing double shifts for years and it shows) with some from Marks & Spencer. Best use of a gift card ever, and I am SO much more comfortable in bed. I'm gradually realising that sometimes it really is worth NOT buying the cheapest possible versions of things.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Sue Marsh is a campaigner against the ConDem welfare reforms. She's taken on an indescribably hard, contested and thankless task in rallying people to the cause and lobbying all parties regarding the needs of disabled people who are suffering (some dying) due to these changes and due to the government's vile propaganda against people who need to claim benefits. Like me, Sue has severe Crohn's disease and I can't fathom how she does what she does while dealing with that. If you find the whole mess of welfare reform in the UK impenetrable, confusing or depressing and want to know ways in which you can make a difference, I can't recommend her blog highly enough. It balances shrewd political analysis with good old-fashioned heart perfectly: http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.co.uk/
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Our landlord. You never think you're going to be told you should just live with that smell of leaking fuel that's permeating your house because it's probably not that serious, but hey, 2012 challenged all our preconceptions.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Savings, travel, groceries, charity shop-trawling, and donations to various campaign groups and other good causes.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Our trip to England. Seeing friends and family we don't get to see enough of. And finally seeing Avengers! Also anticipating The Last Ship.
16. What song will always remind you of 2012?
Music hasn't really been in focus for me for ages, old Police rarities aside. Or maybe I've just been more interested in albums than individual songs. Still, I'm sure I'll think of something after I hit "submit" on this, and kick myself.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c) richer or poorer?
a) Happier, overall. Though sad at the moment.
b) Why is this even a thing, actually? Why the focus on comparing my weight year-to-year?
c) About the same, I expect.
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Crafting. Working on my language-learning. Fiction-writing, though there were little achievements that reassured me.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Trying to sell that bloody article that nobody wanted to buy in the run-up to April. I'm sure it's the reason I can remember so little about the early months of the year; it just devoured every shred of energy and nerve I had.
20. How will you spend Christmas?
We went to my mum's on Christmas Eve and sorted through my dad's old papers from the attic, of which more in January. We delivered a couple of cards and presents to neighbours in the evening. Then on Christmas Day we went in to see other neighbours for drinks at lunchtime, and afterwards R and I had a huge seaside walk and came home to find some old family friends had arrived. They stayed for dinner and then we went home that night. Boxing Day we spent recovering because the above was exhausting.
21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
Already there, thanks!
22. What was your favorite TV program?
Current: The Thick of It. Old-but-new-to-me: Farscape. Old-and-rediscovered: the Granada Sherlock Holmes series.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Nobody new.
24. What was the best book you read?
2012 was spectacular for reading, so I don't know how to choose just one. I don't know when I've followed so many recs from friends and been so happy to have done so. To work backwards through the year, I fell in love with:
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson
A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King (it's the most sublime Holmesian comfort blanket of a book ever, and there's a series of them!)
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Lolita by Vladimir Nabakov (a masterclass in how to keep people reading and enjoying themselves when they're in the head of someone really, really awful, yet not just making them revel in said awfulness)
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (I think the flaws of the series are hard to unsee once you see them, but the first book in particular lived up to everything friends said about not being able to put it down and climbing the walls until you got the next one. And it reminded me how much I love stories of survival in hostile environments.)
Friendly Fire by Patrick Gale (in a "from now on I will buy any book of his that I see in charity shops"-intense way, which is really saying something considering how upset I was by one particular scene)
Lustrum by Robert Harris (*points at LJ header*)
Other books that really impressed me included The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd, Dogfellow's Ghost by Gavin Smith (it's an amazing take on The Island of Dr. Moreau, all about what it means to be a person; what it means to count. part of my heart will be forever sailing on a certain little raft.), Kill The Dead by Tanith Lee, The Amethyst Child by Sarah Singleton, Forever by Maggie Stiefvater, When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, and everything I've so far found by Laurie Halse Anderson.
I also discovered a couple of graphic novels I really related to: Blankets by Craig Thompson and Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederik Peeters. The latter reminds me so very much of me and R: different chronic illness, and a very different relationship dynamic because a child is involved, but somehow so echoing of our lives that it felt very familiar to read. And for my birthday R got me the first five omnibus collections of Strangers in Paradise, which turned out to be even more wonderful than I'd thought based on my previous exposure to it.
And I think most VC fans reading this would agree that Interview With The Vampire: Claudia's Story rounded off the year very nicely. I meant to do a review post the week I read it, but then got ill. I'll try to do something about that soon.
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I... can't remember? Bombay Bicycle Club? Some Velvet Morning? This is awful; music has lost its central place in my life. I feel old. :|
26. What did you want and get?
Finally that commission from that magazine, and the promise of more. And what looks like the beginning of an ongoing friendship with the cousin I met this year.
27. What did you want and not get?
More energy and stamina.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Avengers. *happy sigh*
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 31 and I met Mum in town for lunch on an incredibly rainy day.
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
For the general public to have a lightbulb moment about a) how welfare reform affects and could affect them and people they love, and b) the fact that so much government is by consent and they we could collectively have changed things if enough people had stood up and shouted for long enough.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
"Fuck it, just wear what's comfortable." Admittedly, I was in very few formal situations.
32. What kept you sane?
I think mostly Sherlock Holmes in all his adapted serial forms. And latterly, having the cat to cuddle. R, as usual. Tea. Having books to escape into.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Predictably, Robert Downey Jr.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Disability.
35. Who did you miss?
My friends.
36. Who was the best new person you met?
Maxine. :)
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
I got away with not needing surgery when the past fourteen years' experience implied it was a certainty, a fact which has been damaging my mental health for the same period. I am very prone to getting stuck in certain ways of thinking about my health and I still haven't fathomed the full meaning of "more surgery is not inevitable", just because so much else has happened this year.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
I decline to sum this year up neatly.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-04 03:37 pm (UTC)I hope your 2013 is likewise excellent. <3
*has a thought, and buzzes off to email you*