2011 review
I seem to like doing these round solstice. 2011 wasn't much kinder to me than last year was.
1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Went to *censored* and *censored*, did very cool stuff with *censored*, *censored* and *censored*. Made a *censored* that went down very well with the recipient.
Knit a jumper that fit. Knit a cardigan that fit. Knit a fitted jumper that fit using only my brane and not a pattern. Go me!
A lot of new brewing recipes tried out this year.
Grew veg to harvest. Ok, only the courgettes, herbs and lettuces were actually edible on harvest (unripe cucumber is an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone), but the seventy bajillion kilos of green tomatoes made a passable chutney. Made courgette cake many times as family loved it.
Went more than a month without talking to anyone who isn't in my family. Twice.
2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I'm rather disappointed that I didn't make any this year, cos now I don't get to say I failed to keep them. Bah. So I'll have to make more for next year, even though I don't quite know what yet, apart from losing 20kg. That's not so much a resolution as a goal. Resolutions are made to be broken, after all.
Ooh, wait, no, I want to learn to crochet.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
J's wife had Noah, who I haven't met cos of distance. They got a hex-blankie from me, first knitting project I got really, really excited about.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No! For once!
5. What countries did you visit?
Norn Iron counts, right? Didn't leave the island. Have I done anything this year? Fuck no.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Everything! More wine, women and song. More Cake. Lots more Cake.
7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
23rd July. First *censored*
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting the hell over some things that had been holding me back from doing stuff that I wanted to do and enjoy. Still painful at times, both physically and emotionally, but very nearly healed. Still suing the bastards, though.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Ahahahahaha!
Oh, and the social phobia that's directly attributable to biggest failure can fuck right off, thanks.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Slightly owwie post-slight-car-crash, random mystery vomiting and occasional crying with pain pain, fun with gallbladder, gastroenteritis, UTI, lumpy boob wot turned out to just be a boring old cyst (thank fucking Christ), extra hole still hurting but not as much as last year.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Yarn. Lots of yarn. I knit so I do not kill myself.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My mammy, for being great and wonderful and lots of other stuff. Pisses me off hugely from time to time, but she's my mammy and she's great.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I was saddened by someone who means a lot to people I love being a complete and utter unreliable fuckwit. Spose my own made me depressed. Don't think anyone appalled me, not enough that I can remember now anyway.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Repeating placement. There's another saddening thought.
Taking a year out of life.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Qualifying. Ha. Again, I never learn.
16. What will always remind you of 2011?
Fucking morons parking in our drive/blocking our drive/leaving a fucking fiesta or punto or something like that there for ages. When your whole family is shift workers, blocking drives is not fucking on and leaving notes is useless when you need to get out now.
Old age vestibular disease. I'd really like not to have to go through that again, it was just too traumatic for everyone involved, especially the poor dog. She did not at all like being incarcerated in the vets, even just during the days - we rescued her at night to care for her here. She has since recovered amazingly well, so well that it seems to have made her about 5 years younger. Little divil is jumping up on chairs and sofas and beds that she couldn't get up on before, yapping at horses when they're on the tellybox. Does seem to have stopped humping legs and widdling with her leg cocked, so maybe M's idea that it was like a bout of ECT for her might well be right.
"Geoff" Martha's ?parasite. Poor mite's shrunk away to nothing. My baby sister should not weigh as much as I need to lose, regardless of how short she is.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? A bit happier, not actual happy, but not anywhere near last year.
thinner or fatter? Bit rounder, according to clothes.
richer or poorer? *shrug* Neither.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
S.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
S. It's... complicated yet incredibly simple.
20. How will you spend Christmas?
Same as ever. Selection box for breakfast, ancestral home for tea and pudding, trying to stop the dog from eating Christmas. Turkey and hang and stuffings (at least three kinds) and roasties and maybe a spoonful of carrots, washed down with some mead I've been saving and followed by pudding and a mince pie.
So, eating food I prepped and then doing all the dishes, basically.
21. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
No plans yet, unlikely to make any. Unlikely to top last year, certainly :D
22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Nah. Show me the man who's good enough for me or the woman who's sane enough and I'll show you someone I'm _not interested in_. Ahem. My tastes still lean towards the self-destructive.
23. How many one-night stands?
None.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
Downton Abbey was just fabulous. Why did no-one tell me it was funny? Walking Dead was entertaining enough to make me want to read it (still haven't, though.)
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Pfaw, absolutely not.
26. What was the best book you read?
Reread pretty much all the Holmes, loved how much I could hear many voices, same yet different.
27. What was your greatest discovery?
More of a rediscovery, but one that seems to have freaked a couple of people out (and there's another couple who just don't believe me) but have been very much enjoying playing round with my switchy side. Hee hee hee.
28. What did you want and get?
Cake. Nookie. B5 box set of magnificence (<3 S.) *censored*
29. What did you want and not get?
Registration as a midwife. Still gutted. Will get there in the end but Jesus I've had enough of saying that. (Verbatim from last year.)
30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I really, really loved The King's Speech. Special mention also to Tinker, Tailor which made me want to watch the original BBC series and made mum want to re-watch it. Which nearly led to both of us giving it to the other on DVD for Christmas (thankfully I'd told dad I'd already bought it.)
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Had a scrummy pre-birthday lunch in the Eastern Seaboard, where I ate all the garlic in the world and finally got to taste bunya cauda nearly 20 years after wondering just why Mr. Garibaldi was making such a big deal of it. I can totally see why.
Birthday day chips with family. Mmm chips. Day after birthday was Taste of Louth with mum, all the noms, coffee and cake with some lovely people in the Salthouse (nyoms!) and so very nearly got dragged to Dublin for debauchery in the evening but had promised to pass on some skills early the next day to S for his exams (as well as some shenanigans. Mmm shenanigans.)
Turned 34, spent about a fortnight wahing about being older than Jesus and having done nothing with my life. Never mind, got lots of noms.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being healthy? That would have been really really nice.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Slobby. Ok, slobbier than usual.
34. What kept you sane?
More of a who - Christian, for keeping ridiculous waking hours and therefore being around when I need someone to talk to at stupid o'clock. Oh, and Cake. Or at least thoughts of Cake.
Oh, yeah, and evening primrose oil. Apparently I discovered at least three times last year that bad PMS meant scary suicidal thoughts. Yet each time it was new to me. So started taking EPO daily and bingo! no more scary thoughts. Until I forgot to take it for the fortnight leading up to the 2nd of December, when things got Bad again and stayed that way for fucking _days_. Lesson well and truly learned.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Iain Glen's voice. What? It counts!
No? Ok, River Song, then. It's definitely been a year of fancying the arses off archaeologists.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Nurses and Midwives Bill, again. Not quite an Act yet, though it's been passed by both houses.
Cuts, cuts everywhere affecting the poorest in our country the most, as usual, where do I even start with that?
37. Who did you miss?
Everyone. It's been a reclusive year.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Natasha, for fireworks, whiskey based special juice and entertainment with a cake with keys in it.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
*censored*
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
*censored*
1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Went to *censored* and *censored*, did very cool stuff with *censored*, *censored* and *censored*. Made a *censored* that went down very well with the recipient.
Knit a jumper that fit. Knit a cardigan that fit. Knit a fitted jumper that fit using only my brane and not a pattern. Go me!
A lot of new brewing recipes tried out this year.
Grew veg to harvest. Ok, only the courgettes, herbs and lettuces were actually edible on harvest (unripe cucumber is an experience I wouldn't wish on anyone), but the seventy bajillion kilos of green tomatoes made a passable chutney. Made courgette cake many times as family loved it.
Went more than a month without talking to anyone who isn't in my family. Twice.
2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I'm rather disappointed that I didn't make any this year, cos now I don't get to say I failed to keep them. Bah. So I'll have to make more for next year, even though I don't quite know what yet, apart from losing 20kg. That's not so much a resolution as a goal. Resolutions are made to be broken, after all.
Ooh, wait, no, I want to learn to crochet.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
J's wife had Noah, who I haven't met cos of distance. They got a hex-blankie from me, first knitting project I got really, really excited about.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
No! For once!
5. What countries did you visit?
Norn Iron counts, right? Didn't leave the island. Have I done anything this year? Fuck no.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2011?
Everything! More wine, women and song. More Cake. Lots more Cake.
7. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
23rd July. First *censored*
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting the hell over some things that had been holding me back from doing stuff that I wanted to do and enjoy. Still painful at times, both physically and emotionally, but very nearly healed. Still suing the bastards, though.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Ahahahahaha!
Oh, and the social phobia that's directly attributable to biggest failure can fuck right off, thanks.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Slightly owwie post-slight-car-crash, random mystery vomiting and occasional crying with pain pain, fun with gallbladder, gastroenteritis, UTI, lumpy boob wot turned out to just be a boring old cyst (thank fucking Christ), extra hole still hurting but not as much as last year.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Yarn. Lots of yarn. I knit so I do not kill myself.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My mammy, for being great and wonderful and lots of other stuff. Pisses me off hugely from time to time, but she's my mammy and she's great.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I was saddened by someone who means a lot to people I love being a complete and utter unreliable fuckwit. Spose my own made me depressed. Don't think anyone appalled me, not enough that I can remember now anyway.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Repeating placement. There's another saddening thought.
Taking a year out of life.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Qualifying. Ha. Again, I never learn.
16. What will always remind you of 2011?
Fucking morons parking in our drive/blocking our drive/leaving a fucking fiesta or punto or something like that there for ages. When your whole family is shift workers, blocking drives is not fucking on and leaving notes is useless when you need to get out now.
Old age vestibular disease. I'd really like not to have to go through that again, it was just too traumatic for everyone involved, especially the poor dog. She did not at all like being incarcerated in the vets, even just during the days - we rescued her at night to care for her here. She has since recovered amazingly well, so well that it seems to have made her about 5 years younger. Little divil is jumping up on chairs and sofas and beds that she couldn't get up on before, yapping at horses when they're on the tellybox. Does seem to have stopped humping legs and widdling with her leg cocked, so maybe M's idea that it was like a bout of ECT for her might well be right.
"Geoff" Martha's ?parasite. Poor mite's shrunk away to nothing. My baby sister should not weigh as much as I need to lose, regardless of how short she is.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
happier or sadder? A bit happier, not actual happy, but not anywhere near last year.
thinner or fatter? Bit rounder, according to clothes.
richer or poorer? *shrug* Neither.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
S.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
S. It's... complicated yet incredibly simple.
20. How will you spend Christmas?
Same as ever. Selection box for breakfast, ancestral home for tea and pudding, trying to stop the dog from eating Christmas. Turkey and hang and stuffings (at least three kinds) and roasties and maybe a spoonful of carrots, washed down with some mead I've been saving and followed by pudding and a mince pie.
So, eating food I prepped and then doing all the dishes, basically.
21. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
No plans yet, unlikely to make any. Unlikely to top last year, certainly :D
22. Did you fall in love in 2011?
Nah. Show me the man who's good enough for me or the woman who's sane enough and I'll show you someone I'm _not interested in_. Ahem. My tastes still lean towards the self-destructive.
23. How many one-night stands?
None.
24. What was your favourite TV program?
Downton Abbey was just fabulous. Why did no-one tell me it was funny? Walking Dead was entertaining enough to make me want to read it (still haven't, though.)
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Pfaw, absolutely not.
26. What was the best book you read?
Reread pretty much all the Holmes, loved how much I could hear many voices, same yet different.
27. What was your greatest discovery?
More of a rediscovery, but one that seems to have freaked a couple of people out (and there's another couple who just don't believe me) but have been very much enjoying playing round with my switchy side. Hee hee hee.
28. What did you want and get?
Cake. Nookie. B5 box set of magnificence (<3 S.) *censored*
29. What did you want and not get?
Registration as a midwife. Still gutted. Will get there in the end but Jesus I've had enough of saying that. (Verbatim from last year.)
30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I really, really loved The King's Speech. Special mention also to Tinker, Tailor which made me want to watch the original BBC series and made mum want to re-watch it. Which nearly led to both of us giving it to the other on DVD for Christmas (thankfully I'd told dad I'd already bought it.)
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Had a scrummy pre-birthday lunch in the Eastern Seaboard, where I ate all the garlic in the world and finally got to taste bunya cauda nearly 20 years after wondering just why Mr. Garibaldi was making such a big deal of it. I can totally see why.
Birthday day chips with family. Mmm chips. Day after birthday was Taste of Louth with mum, all the noms, coffee and cake with some lovely people in the Salthouse (nyoms!) and so very nearly got dragged to Dublin for debauchery in the evening but had promised to pass on some skills early the next day to S for his exams (as well as some shenanigans. Mmm shenanigans.)
Turned 34, spent about a fortnight wahing about being older than Jesus and having done nothing with my life. Never mind, got lots of noms.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being healthy? That would have been really really nice.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2011?
Slobby. Ok, slobbier than usual.
34. What kept you sane?
More of a who - Christian, for keeping ridiculous waking hours and therefore being around when I need someone to talk to at stupid o'clock. Oh, and Cake. Or at least thoughts of Cake.
Oh, yeah, and evening primrose oil. Apparently I discovered at least three times last year that bad PMS meant scary suicidal thoughts. Yet each time it was new to me. So started taking EPO daily and bingo! no more scary thoughts. Until I forgot to take it for the fortnight leading up to the 2nd of December, when things got Bad again and stayed that way for fucking _days_. Lesson well and truly learned.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Iain Glen's voice. What? It counts!
No? Ok, River Song, then. It's definitely been a year of fancying the arses off archaeologists.
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Nurses and Midwives Bill, again. Not quite an Act yet, though it's been passed by both houses.
Cuts, cuts everywhere affecting the poorest in our country the most, as usual, where do I even start with that?
37. Who did you miss?
Everyone. It's been a reclusive year.
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Natasha, for fireworks, whiskey based special juice and entertainment with a cake with keys in it.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011:
*censored*
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
*censored*