An occasional (but hopefully, in the future, an annual) January series, based on a post in 2009, A tally. Finally, this was a year that felt more normal, with travel, eating out, interactions with friends and family. Yet this was also a year that feels as if it showed the passage of time – both in terms of ageing, and the effects of climate change. Personal numbers will remain vaguely hidden!
- My success of the year = one tidy office. Finally! I’m writing this in an uncharacteristically tidy room. I managed to gift some books to my sister, and we have weeks more recycling to go out. I still feel ready to keep cleaning, and that’s a success in itself.
- Two international trips, the first for four years, and two new countries. In May we went to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana for a month, and had an amazing time. We went to celebrate my “birthday with a zero” even though it was about eight months late, splashed out big time, and had wonderful experience after experience, including bucket list events like visiting Victoria Falls, seeing a leopard in a tree (twice), driving South Africa’s Panorama Route, etc. Then in September, a family-oriented trip that was lovely in itself. Life feels so much more normal when the world feels closer in this way.
- Eight months of winter. Well, that’s what it felt like. We started getting unseasonally cold days in March, and even though warm days intervened, it really felt as if winter started exceptionally early. Then August and September were cold (for us), with many days where the temperature never got into double figures (celsius, of course). I blame a conversation with a friend in early August, when she declared, “Wellington never has highs under ten degrees!” She was well and truly proven wrong, and ruefully admits it! We then had a long, cool spring, and I only got out of long sleeved thermal tops in the second week of December. That’s the longest winter I can remember. Fortunately, summer did turn up, however belated.
- As always, a lot of writing online = a total of 199 blog posts. 54 Blog posts here on A Separate Life, meaning I am sticking to my weekly Monday/Tuesday posts quite faithfully. I wrote a few more on my other blog. Though in March, after a total of 200 posts (87 in 2023), I suspended my daily blog, Daily Delights, which reduced a lot of the pressure I’d been feeling. I sometimes wonder if anyone is reading, here especially. But I enjoy the writing, and it has become a little record of my life and my thoughts, so I will keep doing it.
- TV series of the Year – This is hard, as there are so many that are so good. And they are all so different. Oddly, because I’m not an outdoorsy adventurous camping-sort, I loved all the different versions of Alone that we discovered. A reality survivor series, I think that maybe I loved them because I would never do what they are doing. And although it feels as if I have been watching it forever, The Extraordinary Attorney Woo stole my heart back in the first months of 2023, and I recently rewatched it again. It’s the ultimate comfort TV.
- Movie of the Year – It has to be Barbie. I saw others I enjoyed, but Barbie – in a real theatre, with a good friend, really did it for me!
- Recipe of the year: That’s a tough one, because there are many old favourites on repeat, including my easy cheese scones. I found a new Chili Chipotle Meatball recipe that is easy (as long as I make the meatballs in advance) and delicious. I served it for Christmas visitors when they arrived, having made and frozen the meatballs ahead of time, and whipped up the sauce and rice when they arrived, and my sister made a zucchini salad, which went perfectly. However, a recipe made much more regularly this year, thanks to our supermarket stocking fresh coriander complete with roots, has been Thai barbecued chicken, or Gai Yang, with sticky (glutinous) rice. In fact, we’re having it tonight, as our New Year’s Eve treat. (I drafted this paragraph last week, but then didn’t post it). The chicken is currently in the kitchen, marinating in garlic, coriander root, turmeric and other spices. The sticky rice is pre-soaked, ready to be steamed. Yum. (Update: It was GOOD!)
- 40 ½ books read. I set a target of about 40 (I can’t quite remember) at the beginning of the year (having achieved 40 ½ books last year too), but then reduced it down to 30 half-way through the year, thinking I might struggle to reach that. After travel planning the first half of the year, I read a lot of good books in the second half, and thoroughly enjoyed getting back up to 40.
- Book of the Year – As always, I struggle to come up with a best book of 2023. Recently, I loved Madeline Miller’s A Song of Achilles, and John Boyne’s All the Broken Places. Sam Neill’s Did I ever tell you this? deserves a special mention for sheer delight. But maybe my book of the year was Lessons in Chemistry, by Bonnie Garmus, because it began and ended the year (first with the book, then the excellent adaptation to a TV series), because it shared a 2023 zeitgeist with Barbie, my movie of the year, and because I loved it so much.
- Purchase of the Year – Apart from the expensive overseas trips, I splashed out on a new phone when it was heavily discounted. (I guess that means a new model is coming out very soon. lol) My old phone was four years old, but still good. It was far from top of the line, but took excellent photos, and did everything else I wanted it to do, easily and quickly. But this new one has an amazing camera, reducing the need to carry my mirrorless camera with me on trips, and it will also take E-sims, which will be very useful for future international travel too. So when I saw it discounted, I agonised over it for a week or two, then caved, and bought it. I love it.
You know I am always reading, even if I don’t always leave a comment. One of my new year’s resolutions is to do better at commenting this year, even if it’s just a one-liner!
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You had me at “tidy office”! You are my inspiration that I can do this too!
I’m also with you on “Barbie” as movie of the year. It’s just everything.
Happy 2024!
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And a Happy New Year to you too! (It took me YEARS to get a tidy office. lol)
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This anyone is still reading your posts, although I admit I am an unfaithful reader. I resolve to remedy that, although hopefully this resolution won’t meet the same fate as most of the ones I have made over my lifetime.
I also loved Barbie. And thanks for the mention of The Extraordinary Attorney Wu. I recently signed up for Netflix for a month so that my mother could watch the Lincoln Lawyer, and was just searching the internet before I came here for recommendations on what else to watch. Serendipity!
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I hope you like it. It’s feel good, very sweet, sometimes just what I want. There’s so much that’s good on Netflix it is always hard to remember what’s there!
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PS. Thanks for reading! AND commenting.
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