Wandering Around Talking To Rainbows

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr! Well, it's been a year, hasn't it. We survived, that's the important part. I like the theory I've seen about that this last couple of years is like a film trilogy, 2016 is when things fell apart, 2017 was the middle installment when it felt like all hope was lost, so 2018 will be the triumphant resurrgence when we kill the monster and save the day. So here's to 2018. As our favourite General/Princess said, 'we have everything we need'.

ETA: Also I'd lack to take this opportunity to thank all the people who commented here over the last year. I didn't always have the spoons to reply in a remotely timely fashion, but I've really appreciated all your support and silliness over this shitshow of a year. Thank you for being there.

I read 39 books (up from 32 last year) and watched 34 films up from 30 last year. On the book front, 10 of them were non-fiction, 7 were books of poetry, 1 was in Gaelic, 14 qualified for 50books_poc, 15 were written or edited by women, 16 were from my shelf and of those 16, 3 books had been on my shelf for around a decade. Film wise 18 films were documentaries (of which 8 were directed by women), I set myself overly strict terms for my run at doing the 12 films challenge so I failed utterly on that front but by the normal terms of that challenge I saw 4 films which qualified which is still pretty poor. (Though until late September, I wasn't sure I was going to make it into double figures in terms of ANY films seen. I saw more films in November than I saw in the first 9 months of the year.)

Writing wise I wrote less than I wanted but more than last year. I managed another 1754 words during December, a fic, a food blog post and a film blog post. And really there were years when just that would have been enough to be considered a success. As my fic writing was roughly steady that means that the difference was mostly made up in blogging at the film and food blogs. Which is cheering because for most of 2017 I felt like I was writing nothing over there. But I guess that extra 4000 words I managed for Nablopomo this year as compared to last year made all the difference in terms of catching up.



Other things achieved were: more and different freelancing, regular attendence of arty meet-up/networking group, had an actual holiday, visited friends, saw several friends I haven't seen in nearly a decade, planted a herb garden gave up alcohol for four months, faced up to my health issues.

Technically I did in fact finish walking back from Mordor this year, as I made it back to Hobbiton back in October, but I didn't quite make it all the way to the Grey Havens. I only managed 66 miles in December leaving me 45.5 miles short of my target. Giving me a total for the year of 1075.5 miles, which was only 53 miles less than last year so not terrible!

Resolutions Kept
Read 12 books I own and haven't read - 17 in total
Read a book in Gaelic - finally
Go to more gigs - 9 gigs this year
Spend at least an hour a week doing Gaelic practice
Meet up with Inverness friends regularly (there were brunches and coffees and lunches and movies and swimming dates!)
Write more - not as much as I hoped but still more

Progress Made
Watched 18 documentaries
Watched 6 films I owned on DVD
Finished two knitting projects I already had on needles
Walked over 1000 miles!

Resolutions for 2018
Let go of stuff that I no longer need, take better care of things I want to keep.
Visit 5 new places (whether in the UK or abroad) - 5/5 (Riga, Helsinki, Helmsdale, Forfar, Salford)
Read 12 books I owned prior to 2018 11/12
Watch 12 films I own on DVD - 3/12
Watch 20 feature-length documentaries - 17/20
Read 10 non-fiction books - 6/10
Read 20 50books_poc qualifying books - 11/20
Complete 2 things a month from my 101in1001 list - 12/24
Write 75,000 words
Write 3 things that are over 5000 words. 2/3
Spend an hour a week working on my Gaelic
Re-Learn to crochet
Blog about something in Gaelic
Complete a colouring book (I seem to have acquired a collection of half-completed ones)
Finish off 5 of the knitting projects I currently have on needles - 3/5
Finish my current big cross-stitch project
Grow some vegetables - spinach & spring onions!
Go to more gigs
See more art
Watch all my current DVD boxsets
Read all my currently owned but unread graphic novels/comics tpbs - 7/9
Generally be the change I want to see in the world


I'm starting this year with a clear-out. Last night I had a serious clear out of my DVDs (and doing so prompted my parents to do the same) and today I'm going to do the same with my wardrobe and books that I store at my parents. When I get back to Inverness, I'm going to buy myself a shredder. I feel like that might be a theme for this year, prune out the dead wood, give myself space to grow.