clearly ambiguous – of words & books

(I’m borrowing shamelessly from last year’s post title.)

This year has been immensely eventful. I’ve worked a lot, travelled a little, and attempted to study. I’ve picked up hobbies, I’ve laid down hobbies, I’ve done an entire year of learning Mandarin (shout out to my tutor who is very patient with my snail-slow progress), sat a few exams, read 100 books and have done very, very, very little writing.

I’m studying it instead, you see. So it kinda counts?

me telling this bloke a joke. obviously it is very funny.

LIFE

Life was lived and it’s had some very lovely turns of events and other rather tricky ones and all the emotions in-between. Our brains are not always the kindest things, but you have to keep going – joy comes with the morning, as the good book says.

(I still can’t believe I got to travel with Hayden, who visited this blog long before visiting me.)

i learned that if a country is hot – you must use an umbrella for shade. i then used one in london during a heatwave and a man made a snarky comment about expecting rain. ah, the british. this photo is not of london though, it is of porto

But, dear friends, Romans, countrymen … 2023 has left me feeling tired and recovering from a particularly horrid cold, and so you will forgive me if I’m content in closing its chapter; I’m ready, and indeed, quite excited, for the new one.

READING

100 books have been completed. Thank you, thank you – I did stay up late reading The Angel of the Crows , and I learned that it started life as fanfiction; a final plot twist in a surprising Sherlock Holmes retelling by the author of my favourite book. And no, it did not unseat The Goblin Emperor. What could?

I’ve just finished the Hunger Games Trilogy which was interesting. Yes, I’m late to read them but pfft. Better late than never!

This year, I also read three books on cephalopods and one, ah, enlightening book about animal penises. What can I say? My curiosity cannot be contained. I also went on an environmental exploration and became very upset about the fate of vaquitas, dragged ‘The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History’ all the way to Portugal with me, reread the Red Rising trilogy, went on a Greek Mythology kick and … okay, look, it’s been a busy year of reading.

And I’ve … really enjoyed it?

I would recommend ‘the sixth extinction: an unnatural history’ but it is also very very depressing

WRITING

The less we speak of this, the better. I’m studying it now. And that means you simply have to write short stories, and poems, and little blips etc etc.

However, on the topic of my bigger projects – they are forever and always in the back of my brain. They haunt me. I am hoping that in 2024 I’ll be able to lay at least one of them to rest. And by that I mean … completing them.

Thank you.

MUSIC

As you know, I’m part of a musical duo and this year? We released this absolute bop. Yes. I’m allowed to call it that. It has 20 YouTube views now, so we’re like, super famous. (Let me know if you want an autograph.)

a b s o l u t e [cowboy] b o p

I’ve been informed that it needs words. But pfft, does it though? DOES IT THOUGH?

MISC

By now, I’m heartily sick of tales of my own ~~hubris~~ life. I wish for you that if there were any wounds inflicted in 2023, that 2024 heals them, that whatever joys you encountered carry on into the new year and that we all remember – in this often unhinged and tumultuous world we inhabit – to find our courage, and to be a little kinder.

(And my gosh, let’s pray, hope, and work for a kinder world for everyone. Our circles of influence may be small, but ripples … er, ripple. Butterfly effect and all that.)