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bugshaw at 10:52am on 24/12/2013
bugshaw at 10:52am on 24/12/2013I get to this time of year and reflect on what I've done in the year that has been good, but it is so easy to forget things as time passes and people tell you to do emergency graphs that I often forget the good things. This year I have been writing them down.
... transition at work from a Strategic Health Authority to Health Education England in April. Many colleagues kept their jobs through the restructure, we're still working out at many levels what the new organisation does, and things are settling down. Jolly busy though, and we have not yet sorted out the firewall issue to allow us to connect to the online database.
... proofreading and transcription. Proofread a couple of short sf novels/novellas. I like this, I get to be helpful and fully indulge the pickier aspects of my nature :-) I started transcribing some interviews for Take One, a film reviews site which started out as the Cambridge Film Festival newsletter but has massively expanded. I have tried and failed to write reviews, it's like blood from a stone, but I can type up interviews, especially with scientists. It has been very interesting at the beginning, noticing how different people speak, that some slow speakers are easy to transcribe and others not so much, how people talk over each other and trail off sentences and while listening your brain is happy that it has absorbed all the concepts but it doesn't make any sense as plain transcribed words. One chap was a lecturer and managed to speak in whole sentences, a skill I had not properly appreciated before.
... met and fed lemurs (LJ post). Lemurs! I can still smell the banana in my hair and feel their little paddy paws.
... physio. Made massive leaps on the long-standing (sic) back problem to the extent I can now use underground trains when in London and drive to work and stay at the pub till nearly closing time. I hope to travel further afield next year. Several "I can never do this without hurting my back" have turned into things I can generally do.
Driving includes reversing into the garage, which I have been terrified of for the ten years I've lived here, but now it's fine, largely thanks to a parking lesson with Máiréad who I recommend if you are in Cambridge and want to learn to drive.
I have renewed my passport which expired a couple of years ago and has been languishing unvalidly in a filing cabinet while I give grouchy glares at people who said "You should renew it (for £££), it's useful for ID!" Now its corner is snipped off and I have a shiny new one. Paris in the the Spring, maybe?
... made a beaded butterfly bracelet for my mum who was very pleased with it, didn't get a good photo though. Painted some dinosaurs (Twitter pic). Made three cross stitch Christmas cards. Did not finish Many Other Things.
... had kitchen out of order in the summer due to a leak. Kitchen is so well repaired now I forget it happened.
... had some very nice meals, including at Alimentum who are always good about the dietary restrictions while being inventive and delicious. I'm tempted to see if I can get a gfdf tasting menu one day. Had a Fumo Martini (not at Alimentum), which had oaky smoky liquor and was garnished with a thin slice of bacon. I have had the experience, so now you don't have to.
Plus all the good films, gigs, concerts, comedy gigs, theatre, art exhibitions, first ever trip to the opera, books etc that I write up every month. I've had a good, rich cultural year.
... transition at work from a Strategic Health Authority to Health Education England in April. Many colleagues kept their jobs through the restructure, we're still working out at many levels what the new organisation does, and things are settling down. Jolly busy though, and we have not yet sorted out the firewall issue to allow us to connect to the online database.
... proofreading and transcription. Proofread a couple of short sf novels/novellas. I like this, I get to be helpful and fully indulge the pickier aspects of my nature :-) I started transcribing some interviews for Take One, a film reviews site which started out as the Cambridge Film Festival newsletter but has massively expanded. I have tried and failed to write reviews, it's like blood from a stone, but I can type up interviews, especially with scientists. It has been very interesting at the beginning, noticing how different people speak, that some slow speakers are easy to transcribe and others not so much, how people talk over each other and trail off sentences and while listening your brain is happy that it has absorbed all the concepts but it doesn't make any sense as plain transcribed words. One chap was a lecturer and managed to speak in whole sentences, a skill I had not properly appreciated before.
... met and fed lemurs (LJ post). Lemurs! I can still smell the banana in my hair and feel their little paddy paws.
... physio. Made massive leaps on the long-standing (sic) back problem to the extent I can now use underground trains when in London and drive to work and stay at the pub till nearly closing time. I hope to travel further afield next year. Several "I can never do this without hurting my back" have turned into things I can generally do.
Driving includes reversing into the garage, which I have been terrified of for the ten years I've lived here, but now it's fine, largely thanks to a parking lesson with Máiréad who I recommend if you are in Cambridge and want to learn to drive.
I have renewed my passport which expired a couple of years ago and has been languishing unvalidly in a filing cabinet while I give grouchy glares at people who said "You should renew it (for £££), it's useful for ID!" Now its corner is snipped off and I have a shiny new one. Paris in the the Spring, maybe?
... made a beaded butterfly bracelet for my mum who was very pleased with it, didn't get a good photo though. Painted some dinosaurs (Twitter pic). Made three cross stitch Christmas cards. Did not finish Many Other Things.
... had kitchen out of order in the summer due to a leak. Kitchen is so well repaired now I forget it happened.
... had some very nice meals, including at Alimentum who are always good about the dietary restrictions while being inventive and delicious. I'm tempted to see if I can get a gfdf tasting menu one day. Had a Fumo Martini (not at Alimentum), which had oaky smoky liquor and was garnished with a thin slice of bacon. I have had the experience, so now you don't have to.
Plus all the good films, gigs, concerts, comedy gigs, theatre, art exhibitions, first ever trip to the opera, books etc that I write up every month. I've had a good, rich cultural year.
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