Christine, Wondering

Random Musings of a Human Becoming

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

And What Have You Done?


I started out this year full of fire and fierce hopes, but like all years it's been a mixed bag.

Today, the novel stands at 51,867 words. That's not bad. It's more than double my previous total words written on a project. It's not finished, but it's more than half finished, so I think I'm content with my efforts given how difficult some parts of this year have been.

I've been on a mild SSRI anti-anxiety medication since shortly after my last post, and it has helped immensely with the panic and fight-or-flight responses I was having to my workload. I'm still not sure whether the not coping was due to a chemical imbalance, or whether the chemical imbalance was caused by the workload being absurd, but either way I'm coping a bit better.

The high points of this year included my brother-in-law's lovely wedding, seeing the house where my mother grew up in Nottingham, travelling around the UK a bit, celebrating our first wedding anniversary (I did a video but it's too long to post here, and I don't suppose you lot want to sit for 14 minutes looking at wedding and honeymoon pictures really!), Munchkin starting Year 1, finding the heritage-listed gravestones of my ancestors, spending an enchanted week with the SCA at Raglan Castle in Wales, and losing around a stone through Weight Watchers. 

Aha! Oho!
Australia Day is not quite the same in England.
Making friends at his uncle's wedding.
7 Magdala Road, Nottingham: my mother's childhood home.
Surprise awesome park stop in Yorkshire.
 
Robin Hood's Bay.

Bridge Farm in Almeley, Herefordshire. My great-great-grandfather, Arthur William Dew, was living here in 1871 aged 2.
In the ongoing storage fight in Munchkin's tiny bedroom, I sewed a bookshelf.
Theme park day.
Raglan Castle, Wales
Caution: Archery
Sightseeing in Chichester.
Boarding the plane in Dubai en route to Perth.
A park in Glen Forrest, Perth. My father and I sat on the play equipment, drank coffee and talked.
The graves of my direct ancestors and their relatives, Ashurst, Kent.
Apropos.
6:15am, 25/12/2013
It's been mild so far, but the frost will come.


The low point of the year was, of course, losing my grandmother Jean. Here's some photos of her, just because.
Aged 4, growing up in Liverpool.
Aged 19.

With my grandfather Paul, and their children: (back) Mark, Penny, Nicola; (front) Jonquil, David, Erica, Leonora.
Mum, me, Jean, about 2001.
My first university graduation, 2003.
Family Gathering in 2009.

 It's been a year of big events, lots of weddings and lots of driving - from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the north east to Southampton on the south coast, west to Shropshire and Herefordshire and out to Raglan, and down in the south east to Kent... I've covered a lot of ground this year, and enjoyed it. There's been new babies (though alas still not one of my own yet) and a few people have left us. Certainly a memorable year.

I haven't got a lot of big goals for 2014. Keep writing the book until it is done, then edit it and start on something new. Keep losing weight, until I hit my goal. Try to get a masters application accepted and funded to start next October, on a Heritage theme. Cope at school. Write another Christmas play. Take more photographs. Go for more walks. See more of this amazing country. Make more garb. Sleep properly. Wear interesting clothes. Have some fun. Blog regularly?

Happy new year, everyone!