2024 Year-End Review
Does LiveJournal not have an HTML compose option any more? What fresh hell is this? There are a number of reasons I don't use LJ too much any more, and this is the latest one! Mind you, it's probably worth dredging out the old form and filling it in once more. Just to prove I'm still alive, or something.
1. What did you do in 2024 that you'd never done before?
Hmmm, let's think. Attended a 40th birthday party of someone in my generation. Related, got the special disabled treatment at two airports (although Stansted is better at this; Karlsruhe Baden-Baden didn't even have any staff at all when I turned up). Went to trade union conferences (two!) and got elected as a trade union officer. Related, went to committee meetings including one which got cancelled! Worked in Year 9. Did Taskmaster Live. Had a heart attack (although not during Taskmaster). Finished Indiana Jones' Desktop Adventures. Went to the RLD in Amsterdam (I've been to Amsterdam before, but at the age of 9 I'm not entirely sure my parents wanted me wandering the RLD). Gave a presentation at an NEU conference (two!). Broke my glasses; went for two weeks without any. Started taking beta blockers. Went into a school during the holidays. Visited Manchester for less than a day. Had support bars fitted in my shower (note the plural; I had one single bar in my last flat). Lived in Enfield Town. Hired a removals firm! Been to Ciné Lumiere. Visited Monken Hadley, although this took me ages to complete!
2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Sadly I did not. My New Year's Resolution was to help my wife get a new job. One year later and they are still in the same job. I'd seriously be okay with them just quitting at this point. It's causing a lot of issues right now.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I wouldn't say close, but two people I know from social media did. In fact, both of those came as a bit of a surprise! Soon I'm going to meet a couple of friends' babies that I never have before, so that will be an interesting experience.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Again, I wouldn't day close, but my consultant neurologist Dr Richard Orrell died in the summer and nobody thought to tell me this. I found out months later at a completely unrelated appointment. They kept cancelling my appointments with him and not telling me why!
5. What countries did you visit?
Germany (again) and The Netherlands. I also, technically, visited Belgium, although I never really left Bruxelles-Midi Station. Jill wanted me to sample Belgian frites, which I did - and they were nice - but I found the station itself to be a little lacking in comfort. Probably not Belgium's fault. Our Amsterdam holiday was a little disappointing as well, but that's almost entirely the hotel's fault.
6. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2024?
I would very much like to have a toaster. I'm not sure what happened to our toaster, but it got mislaid somewhere during my house move and I no longer have one! I asked for one for Christmas, but didn't get one. I shall have to hit up the January sales or something.
7. What dates from 2024 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
I'll remember meeting a new friend at Disabled Members' Conference, the horrendous experience in Manchester, and the three weeks I spent in hospital. More specifically, I'll remember Election Day - getting broken out of hospital by my mum to go and vote, then getting driven back, charging my 'phone and joyously watching the BBC election coverage on it through the night, practically crying with happiness as I did so!
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
This one's always difficult to answer as I'm finding it less and less believable that I'm actually achieving anything!
9. What was your biggest failure?
I realised this a bit too late. This summer I set myself the target of visiting every station on the DLR. I was going to on several little trips and take a picture of the roundel at every one. It got to the final weekend before school started again and I suddenly realised I'd forgotten to do this. Still kicking myself that something so simple eluded my grasp.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
In Summer Term 2 I had a heart attack. I wasn't quite sure what had happened and didn't even know what to do, but I ended up dialling 111 and they forwarded on an ambulance. On account of the fact that I'd had a heart attack, that was probably a good idea. I ended up in hospital for a week reading books I've read before and getting bored. I had a few occasional visitors, but was mostly just alone around the clock. The day after I was discharged I started vomiting profusely and went back to hospital. As it turns out, I had picked up gastroenteritis at hopsicle and spent another week there. At the end of this, somebody found something wrong with my gall bladder so I spent another week waiting for a scan!
All in all I spent four weeks off school. I made it back for the final two days of term but I missed so much! My glorious return was fun, though - I walked into the room at exactly the right time!
11. What was the best thing you bought?
Tempted here to say that it's my guitalele, but a) I didn't actually buy it and b) I'm finding it difficult to vibe with, so I'm not sure about that. I usually mention a game here, right? Perhaps it's my new flat, although (again) I'm just renting it; it's not a thing I bought.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
My best friend Bill, who has been a stalwart this year. Jack, too, who made special efforts to come and see me in hospital. Another special shout out to Mehmet in the sandwich shop, who (as well as making sandwiches) helps me with my coat in the mornings!
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
I won't name her here, but the (other) HLTA I was working with last year was very difficult. I did quite enjoy the hissy fit she threw at the end of the year and how upset she was that Sadiq Khan got re-elected as mayor. Maybe there was a difference in attitude between us, but she wasn't a good fit for our school. Class seemed to like her, though.
14. Where did most of your money go?
Amsterdam. I budgeted for this but ended up going way over budget, mostly because of hidden fees and the like. Hotel we stayed in was absolutely awful - overpriced, very expensive food, not in a central location as advertised, no chairs in the room, shower an absolute deathtrap, bed like concrete - it wasn't worth what we paid and definitely not worth surprise tourist tax! I'm ending the year with very low money mostly because of going to Amsterdam. I'm meant to be holidaying twice next year and I'm not sure I'll be able to afford either of them.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
All the times I saw Bill, really. I was fairly hyped for FOP London again, even though I was playing an instrument I can't play, and just hanging out with him after getting out of hospital was the sort of thing I needed. I was quite excited for my first conference too, but I'm not sure how much of that was "conference!" and how much was "free hotel! free food! free drinks! free weekend in Manchester!".
16. What song will always remind you of 2024?
I think it's Mobile God by James. It's probably my favourite song from Yummy, although my wife disagrees.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? It depends. Right now I'm a lot more nervous than I was last year,
b) thinner or fatter? Every year I get fatter due to lack of movement. I look hideous in this year's Christmas photos, but I don't know how to fix this as I can't just "go to the gym" any more. This is making me sad; I'm going to stop talking about it.
c) richer or poorer? Poorer. I still haven't recovered from Amsterdam, plus I have a more expensive rent to pay this year and a higher council tax. This is one of the reasons I'm so nervous, probably.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I could have done with doing more "adult things", like doing big shops at supermarkets and the like. I do suspect that I would still end up going to Tesco every day whether or not I did that. But it might have helped.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Sleeping. This is an unusual thing to say on account of the fact that I am an insomniac, but my sleeping pattern is completely out. I'm having incredibly long lie-ins, I usually slip off around 7pm every day, and I've even fallen asleep at school a few times. I had a sleep test in hospital on the last day of term, which ended with the earth-shattering revelation that I don't sleep particularly well.
20. How did you spend Christmas?
With my family again... I seriously doubt that this will ever change. This year was a big one, as we had two children and two extra dogs joining us, so it was a busy day. I enjoyed Doctor Who and Vengeance Most Fowl and I did get a fair amount of nice presents. The day beforehand there was a bit of a hoo-ha about whether I'd go to midnight mass or not, but after having a long shower I decided that I really wanted to go. This was the right decision, in the end. I don't often go to church as my church is a lot further from my new flat as it was from my old one. It's at least a bus ride away and that's not an appealing prospect on Sunday mornings.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
Still my parents. Nobody ever calls me except my dad, so I'm fairly certain this isn't really going to change.
22. Did you fall in love in 2024?
Yes. 😊
23. How many one-night stands?
...
24. What was your favourite TV programme?
I can't even think of any brand-brand-new programmes as I'm not a big TV person. I've been watching Mastermind, University Challenge, Only Connect and Have I Got News For You. I've been doing a Glee rewatch and a Knightmare one too. I watched Love Island and the latest series of Too Hot to Handle. That's about it, really. I did, however, marathon Doctor Who while in hospital, having missed most of the series until then, and really enjoyed that. Maybe the BBC election coverage counts?
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
I'm still not even sure that I can hate. I still can't stand to see Nigel Farage's smug, gurning face on TV, though. I mean, I've never liked him, but now he's in the House of Commons... where he does not belong. Makes me so angry.
26. What was the best book you read?
I've been reading Red Wine and Oreos recently, which is a great read, although that's tempered slightly by the fact that it's by a friend who died last year. I got Tim Booth's book for Christmas and I'll read that next.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I can't really call James a discovery, but this year was quite James-heavy. I saw Tim Booth do a solo gig / reading early in the year, with Lee "Muddy" Baker once again, and then a big James gig in the summer (and a good one, at that!). Their number one album Yummy is unequivocally my album of the year, as it's very listenable. I wasn't very fond of their last two releases, really, so it's nice to have them release something that doesn't suck.
28. What did you want and get?
A yucca... FINALLY!!!
29. What did you want and not get?
A combination DVD and Blu-ray player to replace our old DVD player which I haven't bothered to plug in. In all honesty, it would be nice to have something with a remote control, which our DVD player doesn't have, and Jill wants to buy horror Blu-rays. The sales are on now, so let's hit up Argos or something. I could go to the Big Tesco in Ponders End, actually; they'd probably have it.
30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I genuinely didn't see as many films as I usually do. My wife saw a lot more films than me, but then they are a staff writer for a film website with a horror movie newsletter, so there's that. As usual, I put together a list of films! We put together all the films with a mark between one and five and then a combined score out of ten. We then picked ten from all the films that scored 6 or more, and ordered them. Mine were:
01. American Fiction
02. The Wild Robot
03. Deadpool & Wolverine
04. Paddington in Peru
05. Venom: The Last Dance
06. Lisa Frankenstein
07. The Holdovers
08. Wicked Little Letters
09. Priscilla
10. Twisters
Honourable Mention: Yodha (an Indian film I saw at random. I picked it blind. I enjoyed it!)
Worst Film: Emmanuelle (2024 remake of one of the most iconic films ever. It's so catastrophic it makes you wonder where it started going wrong!)
31. What did you do on your birthday?
My parents and my mum's best friend took me to Hobgoblin and bought me a guitalele. That was fun and I got to try a few different things, including an Appalachian dulcimer! We then went for a meal and I had a whole baked Camembert, so yeah, that was a good birthday.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Some more money. Realistically quite a lot more money, really.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2024?
Continuously Limited. I don't own a lot of clothes that I wear, and some of the clothes that I do have gone missing! Over the next week I am going to be organising a lot of my clothes, so hopefully that will yield some.
35. Which celebrity / public figure did you fancy the most?
But I don't do this!
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
It's probably all the gender critical stuff - the transphobia and institutionalised TERFery which appears to be more and more apparent every time you look. As with most of the things I've been saying here, though, this shouldn't be an issue, and it's amazing that it is!
37. Who did you miss?
All the people who have passed on, of course. (I still cry about Jenny, on occasion, and I've met her in my dreams.) I still occasionally have memories of Woodcraft, Knightmare, B&B people and others, who I don't really see at all any more. Interestingly, this weekend I am going to see practically everyone for the first time in quite a while. I'm looking forward to this and hope it's not too awkward!
38. Who was the best new person you met?
Chloe! My new friend I met at conference! We bonded completely by accident over a shared love of musical theatre and sci-fi!
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2024.
Not everyone has the same memory as you. If you've told somebody something, they may not remember it months later. Try not to be confused by this.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"My mind is set on overdrive / The clock is laughing in my face / A crooked spine, my senses dulled / Past the point of delirium..."