2015: A Year For Doing Stuff

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2015

Every time a new year rolls around I think “What the heck happened to the old one??” I get to the end of the year and wonder what I did with it. It’s a time when thoughts of all the things I was going to do and didn’t float to the surface. (I still haven’t set up that cubby house as a writing studio.)

It was only when, out of idle curiosity, I clicked on Facebook’s “Your Year in Review” thingy that I realised that I had actually done stuff this year and not just provided people with fodder to make moth jokes at my expense for the next twelve months.

January – A Month for Rowing

I compete in my first rowing regatta at Rutherglen and come home with two gold medals. I decide that maybe competitive rowing is not so bad after all.

February – A Month for Beginnings

We send off the Eldest Son to university and the Youngest Son to secondary school for the first time. I can’t believe I’m old enough to have a child at university and wonder if can get away with telling people I was a teenage mother.

Another first day I'd swear wasn't that long ago.

Another first day I’d swear wasn’t that long ago.

March – A Month for Yankees 

I travel to New York with The Husband for a party-avoiding celebration of his 50th birthday. We leave the three offspring to fend for themselves for two weeks. While in New York, I run in Central Park twice, once wearing a tartan glengarry.

April – A Month for Running

I run in my first half marathon event, finishing in just over two hours and wonder why on earth I do these things to myself.

May – A Month for Shakespeare

I appear in the Theatre of the Winged Unicorn’s production of Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona as a servant in the first half and as an outlaw in the second. The knitted version of the #beardselfie is born.

June – A Month for Running Again

I run another half marathon at Forrest in the Otway Ranges. This takes longer because it’s up and down muddy tracks. I wonder why on earth I do these things to myself. I also wonder why I have such a short memory.

July – A Month for Connecting

I journey to Sydney for my first “Meet the Blogger” occasion, full of nerves and neuroses. Both are unfounded and unnecessary and a great time is had by all except the blogger’s cat.

IMAG0479

“So when are you leaving?”

August – A Month for Baking

I manage to keep a perpetual cake alive for four weeks. Then I kill him off. It’s not always about positive achievement.

September – A Month for Writing

My blog post on Voluntourism is ‘Freshly Pressed’, a WordPress concept disbanded not long afterwards and thus now unfamiliar to any new blogger reading this post. I don’t know if I had anything to do with its disbandment.

I achieve my first publication and have a letter published in the local metropolitan newspaper magazine in response to a very annoying article. It’s a good month for writing.

Fame at last

October – A Month for Changing the World

I travel to Nepal with World Expeditions to help rebuild one of the village schools destroyed in the earthquakes. We also get to trek through the mountains and view Mt Everest one early chilly morning. It’s an experience never to be forgotten. This is my most favourite event of the year.

Nepal Trek

Builders, trekkers, friends.

November – A Month for Falling (and I’m not talking about leaves in the Northern Hemisphere)

The universe decides that I have achieved quite enough impressive physical feats for the year and forty-eight hours after returning safely from overseas, I am felled by a small moth and end up in hospital with six broken ribs and a punctured lung. This is my least favourite event of the year.

December – A Month for Memories

My nephew gets married and having written the song for the wedding service and already earlier agreed to play the piano for it, I achieve this physical feat even with broken ribs. We rejoice but also mourn in this significant life event for my sister‘s eldest child.

Two Weddings

Twenty-three years older but they still look so cute in a vest.

2016: A Year For ????

I’m inclined to hope for 2016: A Year For The Mundane And Ordinary but I suspect I wouldn’t be able to stand it for long.

A Very Happy New Year to you. May it bring whatever you might wish of it.

 

 

 

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79 thoughts on “2015: A Year For Doing Stuff”

  4. Well, except for Mothvember, you had a fabulous year. I smiled over the month of March, because this Yankee got a taste of Australian chocolate in a box from a total stranger. Odd, though, I think the stranger and I have become internet friends over paper clips and sarcasm. What do you think?

    Happy 2016! 🙂 May it be another adventurous year in the life of H.

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    • Mothvember. 😀 😀

      I think this is the full expression of the beauty of blogging. Who would have guessed that I’d find another paper clip enthusiast? What a world we live in.

      May you have a new year filled with amusing felines, shiny stationery and plenty of snark. 🙂

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  7. I’m not even going to bother to look back at my FB year because I know mine is not nearly as eventful as your’s was! It appears that you ran through half of it! 2015 was a great year for you except for the moth episode (I had to go back and read that post and can I just say OUCH!). How exciting traveling to Nepal, and for such a great cause. Congratulations on a year well done and best wishes for the one to come!!

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    • Thanks, Nancy! It did feel like I was running through that first half of the year. I’m a bit surprised I managed to fit anything else in. And now I’ve stopped altogether. I can’t even keep up with the rest of the family just walking around town.
      It was a very full year with so many things for which to be grateful. Nepal was definitely the highlight. 🙂

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  9. I think your most impressive accomplishment is that we all don’t despise you. Or is that to OUR credit? You had an amazing year, you revoltingly amazing woman. May your healing be equally amazing (your physical condition WILL help with that) and may you have the good sense to work up gradually to more intense work-outs. Start with moderate activities: Walking…
    …birding…
    …butterfly collecting… (How could I not go there?)

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  10. Thank you for the recap with links. I’m sorry to say, I laughed at the story of being felled by a moth. I hope you are able to laugh at it retrospectively…without a searing pain in your side.

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  11. Sounded like a jam packed year for you, Heather. Lots of running around and energetic activities…yes, as you know writing is hard work too 😂 Enjoy your colourig books and have a relaxing start into the new year. It really is hot outside and by moving less we should feel more comfortable. Best wishes 😊

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  14. What a great review! And you achieved so much, not least even attending that wedding with broken ribs, let along playing the piano…AND surviving Lui Stringer!!!
    I hope that you are continuing the heal well and are in less pain. Happy New Year, and here’s to more great antics in 2016 xx

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  16. Nice try … attempting to deflect attention from the Great Moth Incident by writing a brilliant recap of 2015. I love the opening artwork … a perfect depiction of how I feel as the year comes to an end.

    Notwithstanding the GMI, you had a fantastic year and I hope the next one is also full of adventures, discoveries, and happy moments.

    btw – congratulations on being able to sleep laying down again 🙂

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    • Well, you know I was trying to remind myself as much as anyone that my life is more than my ribs. That first image was certainly how I was feeling at the end of the year. (Never gonna live down that moth story…..)

      Thank you. Not quite sleeping flat yet (two pillows) and I still can’t lie on my left side but soooooo much better than the chair. 🙂

      Wishing you a Happy New Year full of more new things, plenty of adventures and not too much snow. xx

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  17. Sounds like your year was filled with so many wonderful memories & a few not so great ones. The not so great ones are what remind us of how grateful we are for good health & the ability to do all of the things we love to do. Wishing you a wonderful 2016!

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  19. An amazing year on all levels….even the dubbed “GMI”…..I’m sure 2016 has many new adventures for our MOSY…..I just hope we can skip the painful ones this time round!

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    • It’s true. Even the “GMI” added its own epic element to the story of 2015 (even if it was a painful one). Oh good grief, now it’s got a name. I’m really never going to live that one down.
      Hope you have a wonderful year! (Dont disappear, okay??) 🙂

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      • Promise….I may have to “move”…(my blog is overfull of pix and I’m running out of space WP keeps telling me) but I’ll be here somewhere.

        P.S. That GMI adds character to your blog…..makes you even more memorable, so don’t knock it! 🙂

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  20. I would consider that one helluva year! (ribs aside 😦 ) I didn’t know FP had been mothballed. Just come to me if you want hot off the press (or last year’s fireworks video highlights 🙂 ) An achievement I’ll never make 😦 The Nepal event sounds amazing, Heather. How did you get involved in the first place- answer an ad? I cannot even imagine what you have lined up for 2016 but I know you’ll be living life to the full. Wishing you and the family a healthy, happy one! (and please give my love to the lady with the cat 🙂 )

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    • They’ve replaced FP with “Discover”. Sounds airy fairy to me. Haven’t bothered to look into it.
      Re Nepal: Six years ago I did a similar trip to Peru with the same company. I’ve kept an eye out since because I’ve always wanted to do another one. An opportunity came up to go and with support from my family, I was able to take it.
      I’m not sure what’s planned for this year. There’s a marathon on the bucket list but given I’m weeks away from even attempting to run, that may not make it onto this year’s list.
      Thank you. 🙂 And, I’ll pass on your good wishes to M-R and Lui. 🙂

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  21. Once you lay it all out like that, it’s pretty obvious that you really have had a very busy year. I think you may be onto something with those knitted beards, by the way. I can see them being the next big thing.

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      • The world has tea cosies so why not chin cosies? They’re great for women, of course, but also for men. They save all the trouble and bother of having to grow a beard. Just affix one to the chin for instant warmth. 🙂

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  26. I enjoyed reading about your year of 2015 in months. Feel like I know you now. And huh, I didn’t know they discontinued Freshly Pressed – wonder why? Shows you how ‘off the grid’ I am, but you and I – we’re still writing and blogging and meeting wonderful people…like YOU. Happy New Year.

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  27. What a diverse year you have had! I have to say you look fantastic at the wedding for someone who tried to impale themselves on a bedpost. Just shows how tough you are. Sending you many happy wishes for the year ahead. Of course I am so excited of being another blogger meeting. No pets in tow I promise.

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  29. You certainly achieved a lot in 2015 Heather! I’m sure 2016 will be just as exciting without the necessity to rest up, as you did at the end of the year. I was impressed by your knitted beards and even more so with your song writing skills. What a wonderful celebration that must have been. Happy 2016 to you and your family. Growing children still amaze me, my eldest is 45 and youngest 35 and I have to pinch myself to realise that I’m no longer 45 myself.

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    • I don’t think I set out to have such full year, a lot of it just happened. 🙂

      I feel like I’m on a run. Two years ago I had to come to terms with a child turning 18 and officially an adult, then last year that he was at university and this year he will turn 20. Yikes!

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  30. It sure seems like you achieved an awful lot. I feel guilty now, thinking I should have done more myself! Still, I think that the Nepal trip and the freshly pressed were landmark events! Congratulations and keep up the great work next, oops, now this year. And you do not look old enough to have adult children! My eldest is now 26 and I still think of him as my young son!

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  31. Interesting, how you think you have accomplished nothing in the year, but your social media reminds you of how much was accomplished. And how much fun you had.
    What did we do before social media became so much a part of our lives?

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