On December 31st 2013, I decided to try and blog
my way through the coming year. Well, it sort of happened. In total 96 blog
posts were achieved. There were a couple of month-long gaps in there when life
got in the way but I'm actually quite proud that I managed quite as much as I
did.
And I've decided to continue with the blog for the
time-being anyway. Not least because on four months there will be a general
election to get annoyed about. But I find it quite enjoyable to put finger to keyboard.
A question I get asked quite often is ‘why?’. Why put stuff out there and let
the world see it all? Why bother with things like Twitter? I'm not sure I have
a great answer really. I enjoy it. I self-censor enough to ensure that I won’t
share things that affect other people and which they might not want to be
shared, and to ensure I don’t put anything out there that could be
career-limiting. But other than that, this is no different to keeping a diary –
just one that I let anybody read. I think that the knowledge that I am writing
for an audience does prevent there being too much introspection, but it still
has that cathartic effect.
So how has the year gone? Well – I've pulled up one of the
early posts from 2014 and taken some of the headings from that – seems as good
an idea as anything else.
Music - performance
Voxcetera continued to be a great source of pride for me –
performing as I did at St Sepulchre in March, and then on tour in Edinburgh,
before a ’home’ fixture in October and then a wonderful Christmas concert. This
year promises a concert at St Martin’s in the Fields, and then Dublin.
But I also managed to sing in a Prom for the first time – with
the Rachmaninov Choral Symphony (Crouch End Festival Chorus) being one of the
most demanding pieces of music I have ever encountered. The sense of
achievement was overwhelming.
Adding to that a Verdi Requiem, a (second) Mozart one, and six
Albert Hall Christmas gigs (plus one at Birmingham Symphony Hall) made for a full year. And that is without adding in my involvement with Balham
Ukulele Society – something I did not see in the tea leaves when looking ahead.
All the musical things I do have in common the opportunity
to spend time with groups of people, from all walks of life, who are friendly,
and who make my life a better place. I am grateful for all of them.
Music - In the audience
Two main words. Kate Bush. A dream fulfilled. But also Folk
by the Oak – Richard Thompson, Seth Lakeman, and Keston Cobblers Club among
others. James Taylor at the Albert Hall, Difford and Tilbrook at the Union
Chapel and Chas’n’ Dave.
Add that to a range of smaller gigs, from solo guitarists to
chamber and full choirs, and big bands, and it has been a busy year. I’d lost
the habit of going to gigs and have gradually built it back up again. I am sure
there will be more in 2015.
Holidays
Life got in the way a bit. The need to practice for a prom,
and move house, mean that I didn't clock up the Air Miles this year. Mixed
feelings about this. I don’t feel that I wasted my holiday entitlement, in that
I look back and can see that I did plenty. But it would be nice to get away a
little bit more in 2015. Pretty sure that the kids won’t want to come, so I can
look to some more grown-up destinations.
Books
I've kept this one going – with a lot of Kindle stuff. Quite
a bit of it has been fairly old and cheap sci-fi, but I've also read a bit of
travel and some proper fiction. And I've read quite a lot of economics and
social science-y stuff. But Thomas Piketty – just not had the drive to
read him yet.
Media do overlap of course – I continue to be a great
consumer of podcasts (one of the benefits of being a regular user of public
transport). And I would heartily recommend Freakonomics, Planet Money, This
American Life, No Such Thing as a Fish (the QI podcast) and Reply All. I
greatly enjoyed ‘Serial’ too. Yes it is voyeuristic, and at times uncomfortable,
but did have me on the edge of my seat – and we are all allowed one or two guilty
pleasures, aren't we?
Work
I look back and (quoting directly from last year’s blog) ‘I do find myself
thinking – worrying really, that I'm not sure I can, or want to, go at this
pace for too much longer’. Wow. I think the pace has increased considerably. I have coped. In fact better than
that, I feel more positive about my ability to do the job than I did then. I
think that last year’s anxieties were a part of some more general malaise going
on in my life, and that by correcting things elsewhere I had more reserves to
devote to work. Of course, now that I look back I wonder whether I am pushing
things too hard – just because I don’t see a problem at the moment doesn't mean
I am not storing up issues. I'm currently very happy with what I do, but I
suspect I should at least start to think about longer-term future options and
prospects during the next year.
Health
THE major success story of 2014 for me. I managed to lose 30
pounds in the period from May/June to September. I have managed to put about 5
of them back on over Christmas, but am disgusted enough with myself over that
to ensure they will not be sticking around. I found a level of will power I
really didn't think I had, and (no surprise) that all you need to do is eat in
a controlled way and do lots of exercise and it all comes good. Which makes me
feel all the more stupid about the decade-long search for miracle ways of
achieving it.
While dieting, I went almost entirely veggie for a couple of months. I've not stuck to
that since I hit my target weight, but am eating much less meat that I have
ever done – and I feel a lot better for it. At home, I could definitely do the
veggie thing 100% of the time – it’s going out that kills it. Particularly it was
three days away with work and the third consecutive mushroom risotto as the only
choice on the menu that made me yearn for flesh. Does this go down as a fail? No. Because
over all I am much much healthier. I have achieved something I knew I need and
wanted to, but I think never really thought I would get to with weight etc. It
would be better for me and the planet if I ate no meat, but eating it on a less frequent basis isn't a disaster for either.
Life
Big, big changes. Causing a lot of stress to me and to those
around me (thank you to all those who gave me such support during what could
have been a much trickier period without you). But I finally moved away from a
situation that wasn't making me happy (and wasn't making anyone else happy
either). With some time now elapsed between then and now, I know that I feel
much better (and worry a little about where I would have been heading if I hadn't
made the move – I think it would have been a pretty dark place). I've managed to
keep what I valued most - my kids and the relationship I continue to have with
them – whilst becoming (I hope) a much more balanced and centred individual.
So, there we go. Overall score? A few misses, a few definite hits, quite a few unexpected and unforeseen.
A year of major change, and I feel very positive about it and about the
future. So I have to put it down as a pretty good year. Of course, I now need
to think about what challenges 2015 holds, and what I want to change or
continue. More on that in future posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment