I’ve had the most brilliant Christmas! Filled with fabulous food, drunken drinks and family fun.
I’ve had two Christmas dinners and one buffet, plenty of Prosecco and the occasional Bailey’s coffee. My family and I have played Bingo, The Game of Life (junior edition) and Minion Monopoly with my five year old Nephew.
2016 has been a year of losing some great creative people. Death comes to us all, but this year we’ve all felt these deaths. We started in January with the loss of David Bowie (which I blogged about here: The Life of David Bowie), then it was Alan Rickman. In April we lost Victoria Wood (which I blogged about here: Today the World has Lost a Great Source of Laughter). Unfortunately Death wasn’t going to give us a break over Christmas. Over Christmas we have lost George Michael, Liz Smith and Carrie Fisher:
Past Away This Christmas: George Michael, Liz Smith & Carrie Fisher
Lets hope that Death is kinder in 2017 and doesn’t continue to take so many of our wonderfully creative people. Lets also hope that currently unknown creative people have the right luck and opportunities to find their public.
Read & Review at least 20 books. I have read 19 books this year and reviewed 17 of them. The two books that I have not reviewed yet, will be reviewed in January 2017. See my Book List 2016 for a list books that I’ve read this year, along with links to reviews I’ve written for each book.
To create more time for creative projects. I am more than happy with my creative output this year. I’ve reduced my working hours, so that I can still afford to live, but so that I have more time for creative projects. I have also been careful about how I use the limited time and energy I have to get the most out of it. This combination of working less and using my time and energy better has significantly increased my creative output.
To complete 2 creative projects. I’ve completed 12 creative projects this year. This is a massive achievement when compared with my creative output in previous years. For more details of my creative projects see: 11 Creative Projects That I Never Intended To Do… This Year and The Finished Project (candle making project).
To get up-to-date with my financial obligations and continue to reduce the balance on my debts. I am up-to-date on my mortgage and other household bills. I have continued to reduce the balance on my debts. I have paid monies back to family that I owed monies to.
Save up for and buy a new rug and corner sofa for the living room. I still need to do this. The sofa is getting in desperate need of replacement. Both of these will be goals for 2017.
To give up smoking. I’m still working on this on a semi regular basis.
Monthly Goals
January
Start a new creative project. I published my latest short story Soulmates, here is an excerpt:
Treat yourself to a reiki treatment. I haven’t had a single reiki treatment this year. At the start of the year it was due to lack of money. Towards the end of the year it has been due to my Reiki Practitioner changing where she works.
April
See a sunrise. This has been a goal for the last few years. I think I need to take a day of annual leave off work to experience this next year. So this will be a goal/new experience for 2017.
May
Celebrate your 30th in style, including a night out in Newcastle and a family meal. I didn’t manage the night out in Newcastle, but did do the family meal which was wonderful. I blogged about the family meal here: My Thirtieth Birthday.
June
Visit Chester Zoo Islands Exhibit. I actually did this in May, as part of my birthday celebrations. See A Day Trip to Chester Zoo. Start a new creative project. One weekend in June I wrote, edited and then published an article on The History of the National Health Service (NHS). It was a creative project that I have been thinking about for sometime and I was proud of myself because I had finally done it.
July
Spend time in nature. Go for walks in places of natural beauty. I visited Astley Hall Park with my friend Simon. I would have liked to spend more time in nature during July, but the variable weather influenced what I was able to do. Visit a botanical gardens. I visited Southport Botanic Gardens (Churchtown) with Simon in August.
August
Visit a castle, one that you haven’t been to before. Okay, technically I didn’t visit a new castle this year. But I did do a tour of acient sites along Hadrian’s Wall with Simon. See The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure (Part 1) and The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure (Part 2). A goal/new experience for 2017 will be the finishing off of The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure, meaning that Simon and I will have followed the wall from one end of the country to the other.
Celebrate Samhain. Celebrated Samhain in style with my friends Simon & Chrys. Great food, drink, fire, music and company.
November
Take it easy. I tried to do the bare-minimum in November. This was probably why there were only a few blog posts in November.
December
Bring people together to celebrate Yule. Yule fell on a Wednesday, which made it difficult to arrange a get together. Perhaps I will put this on future goals when it lands on a weekend.
This year I’ve completed 14 of 22 goals/new experiences for 2016. That’s over half and not at all bad when you consider the 12 creative projects I’ve completed this year, along with how busy the year has been otherwise.
I’ve had a look at my stats to discover my top 10 blog posts/pages this year. Here is the list, click any title or image below to be taken to the blog post/page in a new tab or window:
The story starts with an old man, sitting on a bench looking at a pond at the farm at the end of the lane. He remembers his childhood.
He remembers when he was just seven years old. Seven years old when he saw the body of the dead opal miner in the back of his father’s car.
Seven years old when he met the Hempstocks’. Lettie Hempstocks, the girl that looks eleven years old, who speaks the first and most ancient language of the world. Lettie knows so much about everything and who he suspects is really, much older than she looks. Ginnie Hempstocks is the mother who cooks the most amazing food the boy has ever tasted and at one point in the story takes him into her bosom.
And finally Old Mrs. Hempstocks the woman so old that she remembers the moon being made, always has a full moon shinning on the back of the farmhouse at night and is full of wisdom, knowing how to solve the problems that the other two Hempstocks’ don’t know how to solve. (Maidan. Mother. Crone. She what Gaiman did there?)
After the death of the opal miner, a malevolent spirit enters the seven year old boy’s life. This spirit appears as Ursula Monkton, a lodger who will pay her way by looking after the boy and his older sister. But Ursula means no good for the boy, quickly manipulating the boy’s parents and threatening to keep him in the attic. That is until she is done with him, at which point, Ursula will tell the boy’s father to kill him. The boy believes his father will listen to Ursula and do as she says, rather than listen him because he is only a child.
So the boy goes to the Hempstocks’ for help. What follows is a magical, frightening, exciting, heart racing and wonderful story told from the perspective of the seven year old boy remembering in his old age.
The description is vivid and allows the reader to imagine every scene perfectly. There are some scenes in this book that should go down in descriptive history for being so simple with very few words, but yet so effective and powerful. The plot is fantastic and full of twists and turns. It is completely captivating and makes The Ocean at the End of the Lane almost impossible to put down. Gaiman put a lot of what he remembers about his own childhood into the story. The ending is inventive, almost spiritual/god-like at one point and wholly satisfying to the reader.
Read & Review at least 20 books.
To create more time for creative projects.
