Here we are, here we are, here we are, and he we are again.

[gnommi]

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Went to Berlin Medizinhistoriches Museum (brilliant)
Went to a spa (more fun than I would have believed)
Sat naked in the snow in public after boiling in a sauna
Cooked and ate a goose (VERY GOOD)
Met some lovely new people in Berlin
Spent Christmas in a foreign country
Learned woodcut printmaking
Cracked collagraph-making
Started a foundation course in printmaking
Wrote an artists statement
Visited the Horniman Collection
Had weisswurst and didn't embarrass myself eating them
Made my own crochet and knitting patterns
Had a stall at a craft fair and sold my stuff to people I don't know!
Joined a folk club, and participated!
Sang karaoke onstage in public
Started playing FFXIV
Started cooking weekly from a veg box
Went to Wandlitszee and trekked around a frozen lake
Saw Berlin in the snow and nearly got injured by falling icicles
Went up the Brocken on a steam train
Visited Wernigerode Schloss and the wonkiest house ever
Mourned the retirement of my wonderful GP
Had a root canal filling (twice)
Paid for psychotherapy
Taught myself chine colle
Participated in a proper print exchange
Had a Proper Artist ask for one of my prints when I wanted to buy a print from them
Stayed in a posh hotel with an entire floor of bathroom
Had norovirus (DO NOT RECOMMEND)
Discovered multichrome nail polish (don't judge me!)
Found dinosaur bone and fossil turtle shell fragments whilst out fossil-hunting
Went fossil-hunting by myself in Yarmouth
Went to a pumpkin festival
Missed halloween at the house o doom for the first time in over a decade
Got made a fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Science
Did some UrbEx along the Old Blackgang Road and discovered an abandoned nudist camp
Started making my own game, chicken and vegetable stock and freezing it
Acted as a crochet pattern tester for someone selling patterns online

2. Did you keep your New Years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Done far better at Keeping Out Of Drama, kept relatively fit, stopped over-indulging by accident. Will try to keep it up this year, with a bit more on the exercise front.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
An ex-girlfriend did, but I seem to be mercifully past that phase of life now. I hope. Jason and Marianne also had a wee yin.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
The wrangling over my great uncle's will continues. My old hippie friend Richard passed on. RIP in festival heaven, dude.

5. What countries did you visit?
Germany, several times. Harz mountains and Berlin.

6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
A new job with actual training opportunities.
The wherewithal to make my own training opportunities.
More friends of the no drama variety.
To finally buy a house.
Wider dissection experience in gynaecology.

7. What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Malcolm's festschritf was fun, all of our holidays were good in their own way, though the other half getting food poisoning for an entire trip was memorable for the wrong reasons. Seeing an amazing sunset for a full two hours on the plane back from Berlin. Christmas dinner in Berlin! Creeping around an abandoned nudist camp that was falling into the sea (literally) on the Isle of Wight. The Horniman collection was great too.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Evening out my mood and anxiety problems somewhat. Learning to be more supportive of people without feeling threatened. Singing carols at folk club without blubbing. Learning The Boars Head to sing including the latin.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Annoyingly, somewhat the same as last year: Not seeing my close friends enough (though this has improved a bit). Not having the wherewithal to get this dissection course sorted.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Well The Ear Problem continues to be an issue, and I got norovirus and thought that death might be preferable to the hideous stomach pains and hallucinations...

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Dave bought me a watercolour by Peter Jarvis (this one), which is astoundingly beautiful. I also bought a lovely woodturned bowl and one of Robert Race's small surprise birds which have brought a great many smiles :) I also bought a really hideous pair of leggings with eyeballs on for £2 which I unreservedly love and unashamedly wear everywhere.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Again, massive shout out to Ian Hislop, without whom I would have lost faith in the world decades ago. Although slightly less than last year due to the vaccination/autism issue. David Attenborough. Jeff. Jeff Theaker is the best pathologist in the world to work for, highly skilled, enormously enthusiastic about his field at all times (sometimes to the point of mania), slightly odd and a genuinely lovely man.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Politicians. All of them. Rich, entitled, clueless people with no social skills. SURGEONS WHO WILL REMAIN NAMELESS. Mine, on occasion.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Going to Berlin and back as often as possible. Eating and staying at The Pig. Doing my Foundation in Printmaking at Red Hot Press.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Printmaking. Crochet. Berlin. The potential opportunity to partake in the RCPath reporting pilot (though pigs may fly with that becoming reality...)

16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
Whilst Shepherds Watched Thier Flocks By Night sung to the tune of Ilkley Moor (which we sang at the Fo'c'sle Folk Club christmas party).

17. Answer these for 2013:
a) happier or sadder? I hadn't thought about this before, but I am pretty sure that the answer is "happier". Wow.
b) thinner or fatter? *no comment*
c) richer or poorer? A little better off due to going back to work full-time. Also spending less on crap.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Relaxing. Being productive. Looking at the world through my eyeballs and not a screen. Seeing people face to face. Learning.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Stressing about stuff. Overthinking things. Procrastinating (though getting a lot better at this). Getting inadvertently drawn into pointless drama.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
We went to Berlin this year, cooked christmas dinner for 8 (1 Swede, 2 Germans, 1 Bulgarian and 4 Englischer Pig-Dogs) and did gaybar karaoke on christmas eve. Best. Christmas. Ever.

21. Did you fall in love in 2013?
10 years and counting. How did that happen? Ha for accidental long-term monogamy...

22. How many one-night stands?
HAHAHAHAHAHA. For that I would have to leave the house, right?

23. What was your favourite TV program?
Masterchef - The Professionals, How It's Made, anything with David Attenborough, that program about whales. That was awesome. I love documentaries. LOVE. Forget fiction.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope. Though have learned some hard truths about who the drama mongers *really* are.

25. What's the best book you read?
Tough one. I'm wading through several massive tomes at the moment, all non-fiction. Have listened to a lot of horror stories on audio book? Quite enjoyed the New Cthulhu horror anthology.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Skjolbrot - Maersk!!! SO GOOD.
Also remembered how amazing Venetian Snares are and listened to Detrimentalist about 100000000 times.

27. What did you want and get?
Dunno. Do I want anything? Not that I notice. I'm pretty contented, so that's nice.

28. What did you want and not get?
A new job, started on the IBMS Diploma of Expert Practice in Dissection. More training of any kind.

29. What was your favourite film of this year?
GRABBERS. Tentacles. Stunning scenery. MORE TENTACLES. I actually quite liked The Conjuring as well: pretty restrained for an exorcism flick. A Field In England blew us away as well, though it does tend to divide people. I thought it was terrifying! We also really enjoyed Cockneys Vs Zombies for a bit of silliness with a great script.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Had dinner with a very select few at The Pig (YUMMERS) and wore some ridiculous shoes and spent a small fortune on pink champagne. 41.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Southampton airport connecting to Berlin Schoenefeld directly...

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
More colour this year. I even painted my nails sometimes. Mostly hideous, HIDEOUS leggings and neutral sacks. ORANGE hair again.

33. What kept you sane?
Dave, my friends, pathology, crazy museums, Private Eye, printmaking. Same as last year with added yarn-based crafts. PINKEL. She one craaaaazy cat.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Hrm tough. Dunno really? I'm not sure I really noticed anyone. Cate Blanchett still a fine-looking woman. I don't think I watch things with "hot" people in.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
The whole ridiculous trumped up Daily Mail us vs. "them" scenarios designed to make us hate the poor/different/foreign. It's like the Nazis all over again with their Jew-hating. They steal our jobs and our taxes and make money off of us, hardworking native white people. Etc etc.

36. Who did you miss?
All the far flung distant people, and the old WoW guildies. PIE and tFO forever! <3

37. Who was the best new person you met?
I don't meet new people often really but Daniel, Maria and Torsten were all really great to meet. Hope we keep in touch.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
I don't have to get angry/offended/upset/threatened by things - it's a choice that I *can* make if I notice it in time.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year
Caput apri defero, reddens laudes Domino
Only cos I can't get the damn song out of my head now...

RIP 2013 - quite looking forward to 2014 actually - now that really *does* make a change...


Here's 2012,
2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008. I can discern from this that I am a miserable, overworked, navel-gazing sod, easily distracted by dead stuff and travelling, but that might actually be cheering the hell up at long last ;)