askygoneonfire | Review of the year

1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?
Bought a house. That's a biggie.

Found a therapist I like.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year

Last year I said my resolution to buy a house was too close to success, and getting made permanent too unlikely. I acheived both.

I resolved to: keep looking after my body with an absolute, non-negotiable committment to exercising regularly - keep doing pilates, maintain a minimum of 50,000 steps a week (the level I've ended up at during the dark nights, in the summer 70,000 is my minimum), keep listening to my body in how I eat.

I didn't manage it past May. When everything went tits up. Overall my health is still good, how I eat has been perplexing and I'm losing weight for no good reason, still. I think I have managed the 50k steps, but not really on purpose. Overall, this wasn't a fail, it just wasn't anything.

My resolution for 2022 is simple. Find places and ways I am happy.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yep. A friend had baby number 5.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I think not, this year. Somehow. Some people I know at a distance, but nobody directly. Incredible, really.

5. What countries did you visit?
Lol

6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?
Calm. Love. I had, in the end, a lot of love, in 2021. I just didn't always see where it was, and for a time I couldn't feel it when it was there. So I want to be able to keep feeling it, and believe it.

7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
26th March, completion day.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting out alive

9. What was your biggest failure?
Nothing. I worked so hard, at everything.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I was really, really ill this summer. Perhaps the most ill I've ever been. It was as hard to get better as it was to turn in to it. It was scary and sad and I never want to be back there.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My house.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
A person who I'm going to call 'Rock', like Rock Hudson. Cos of reasons. They were remarkable.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Boris Johnson and his cronies.

14. Where did most of your money go?
The house. Oh god the house. It's a money pit. I love it.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Rock. My gorgeous cat coming to live with me.

16. What song will always remind you of 2021?
Oh, easy easy: Chaise Longue.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. Happier or sadder? Sadder
ii. Thinner or fatter? Thinner
iii. Richer or poorer? Poorer

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Exercise. Caring for myself.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
I wish the great big chunks of time I'd lost to being ill were not lost. I guess "less waiting to ring the emergency bell".

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
With my bud K, who I have known for 12 years now? We're going to have a gorgeous week.

21. Did you fall in love in 2021?
Yes

22. How many one-night stands?
None

23. What was your favourite TV program?
I honestly can't remember. I watched loads of TV, I can't put my finger on anything. American Crime Story: Impeachment was great, but so recent in my mind.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No. I feel sad they made the choices they did. I see more than they ever realise, or will know. And I feel a deep loss. But hate came and went in a summer storm.

25. What was the best book you read?
Ha.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Wet Leg! Also, a bunch of afrobeats stuff via 6Music.

27. What did you want and get?
Safety, security, care, reassurance.

28. What did you want and not get?
Reciprocal love and care

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
Rebel Dykes! Wonderful.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 37. I spent it playing board games with friends.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I think I need to stop wishing away my life. It was the year it was.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?
Rediscovering my wardrobe....and finding it all was too big.

33. What kept you sane?
Ha. Not much for a period. But then industrial strength meds.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Pass

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
*gestures at the entire government*

36. Who did you miss?
Too many people. It gnaws. Those I get to see again and am counting down to seeing, those who are gone for good, those who were never really here.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
I met a cool new person who lives down the road - they invited me to be on a podcast about our work and then invited me to be their friend. They are super cool and I am so excited they have been so straightforward about wanting to be friends.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021:
Play the cards you're dealt. Trite, perhaps, but true.

39. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with and/or most time chatting with via Whatsapp etc?:
Rock.