Well, everyone's already commented on what a weird and terrifying year it's been. I won't bother with that, as plenty of other people have covered that ground. I think I just want to post something to signal the end of the year and the beginning of something new, hopefully with a lot of exciting things in store (on a personal level at least).
In the second half of last year I had a lot of upheaval - basically every element of my life is totally different from what it was twelve months ago, when I was eating dumplings in Taiwan and waiting for what turned out to be some rather pitiful New Year's fireworks (we'd gone to the wrong end of town by mistake). I'm pretty happy with the new life I've managed to cobble together, though. I'm settled in my new job, which thankfully is flexible enough to allow me to squeeze my hours into four days a week, leaving one day for me to pursue voluntary work and still keep the weekend for myself. The idea of "giving back" is hard to talk about without sounding clichéd and self-satisfied, but I find my role pretty challenging and interesting, and I'm glad I get to do something vaguely valuable with my time. Oh, and next week I'm moving into a new place - a place all of my own. I know it's a bit silly to find some big symbolic significance in that, but I feel like the whole idea of "new year, new me" actually has some sort of solid foundation this year. I'm already rubbing my hands at the thought of cooking in my own little kitchen as I play my music as loud as I want (well, as loud as I want without provoking the ire of the neighbours).
I've a few goals for 2017. Most relevant I guess is wanting to post at least once a week. I'm not sure about what yet, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I want to cook more. I'm not a terrible cook but my skills don't go much beyond functional. In particular I'd like to focus more on improving the basics (scrambling eggs, prepping veg etc.) and trying more recipes from different kinds of cuisine from around the world - something I wasn't able to explore as fully in Japan.
I want to maintain my Japanese level. I've already got in the habit of watching Friends dubbed into Japanese (I've watched most episodes so many times in English that it's easy enough to follow even when I don't understand every word). Once I've moved I'll be in a much more convenient place for exploring Japanese language exchanges and meetups, and I might even take up lessons again if I have the time and money. I want to brush up on my Spanish, too, and maybe learn something new.
At the moment I'm getting a decent amount of exercise a day simply through my commute to my job, but the place I'm moving to is very close to work. While I'm relishing the idea of my 8.30 lie-ins, I do feel I'm probably going to become a lot more sedentary in my lifestyle if I'm not too careful. So I'm also thinking about that New Year's resolution that will make everyone sigh and roll their eyes - I want to exercise more.
Oh, and I want to get my dual citizenship, finally. When I was a kid and the laws on passports changed - so that children had to have their own individual passports rather than travel on their parents' - my mum asked me if I wanted a British or an Irish passport. I chose British - not out of any sense of patriotism, so much as thinking unicorns were cooler than harps. I've renewed my passport twice since then, and both times I went for British simply because it was easier to prove my citizenship. There's a lot of faffing around with birth certificates and whatnot to be done if I want to get first Irish citizenship and then a passport, but with the status of British passports so up in the air it feels like the right time to get around to it. Plus I like harps more than unicorns now.
That's all, really. See you in the new year. Don't be too hard on yourself. Don't be a dick to anyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment