Iesus Non Amat Me

Well, so far the first day of 2021 is going pretty well. Work was fairly quiet with no problems or horrible customers. Possibly because most people assume we'll be closed New Year's Day. Which, to be honest, I think we could be. It would make us all a lot happier too.

This is the point where I look back at the resolutions specific goals I made for myself this time last year and have to admit that I have failed every single one of them in every single way.

1. Find a form of exercise that I don't hate. I'm sorry, I just hate exercise. I could say I was hampered by the gyms having to close, but if I'm honest with myself I'd have been too scared to go anyway.

2. Post all of my 2019 365 photos before the end of 2020. Did I post a single 365 photo last year? No. No, I did not. I don't know why I keep procrastinating this so much. Possibly because most days I took quite a few pics and I'll have to choose which ones to use and, as we all know, I am forever paralysed by indecision.

3. Finish reading all the books I've got on the go right now (Furiously Happy, Wild Magic, The President is Missing, A Dance With Dragons: Dreams and Dust) before the end of 2020. I did not finish a single one of those books. But I did read bucketloads of fanfic. Of which I also have multiple stories on the go at any one time cos I keep starting a new one before I've finished the old.

4. Post the fanfiction that I'm currently working on. It is still not posted. It is also still not finished and, as with everything else on this list, I have made little to no progress on it in the last twelve months. I did start writing three other fics though, which is not at all helpful for this particular goal.

So there we have it. Total fail. I feel like I should be able to blame 2020 for this. Everything about that year was just crazy and I don't think it should count.

Actually, yeah, that's what I'm going to do. 2020 doesn't count and I'm trying again. Here are my New Year's Goals for 2021:

1. Walk more. (I'm never going to like formal exercise, but I do enjoy walking around places. Especially if it's a good place for photography. Hopefully it won't be long before I can travel again too.)

2. Post all of my 2019 365 photos before the end of 2021. (I'm not giving up on this just because it's two years ago now.)

3. Get back into reading books and finish all the ones I've got on the go right now. (I do love fics and I'm not going to stop reading them, but I should try and branch out a little. Get a bit more variety in my reading habits.)

4. Post the fanfictions that I'm currently working on. (Yes, all of them. Probably won't happen but I can try. I need to make myself sit down and actually focus on writing though, which has been difficult lately.)

So there we have it. My goals for this year. Hopefully I will do a better job of achieving them this time around!

Right, well, my running is going nowhere fast. It's looking more and more like I'm going to be walking this 7k in May! Hopefully I'll be able to get back at it soon though. I haven't had much of a chance lately cos I've been getting more hours at work, which on the one hand means more money (yay) but also means less free time (boo). And rather than allocate what little free time I have to sensible, healthy things like exercise, I'm instead choosing to spend it all on The Mentalist.

Ah, yes, The Mentalist. My newest obsession. Some people are able to just watch a show and enjoy it for what it is, but not me. Oh no. I have to latch on to my favourite ship (Lisbon/Jane naturally) and just go to town reading as much fic as I can about the two of them! It's a different situation to my usual obsessions though cos this time the show is actually finished, which means I've got to be careful about what I read so as not to spoil myself. I'm quite amazed at how little I know about what happens and I hope to keep it that way. (While there is one major event that I do know about, I have no idea of the details of how it gets to that point or even anything more specific than the fact that it happens.) I'm about halfway through season two now, so I've still got a bit of a way to go!

As for my other New Year's Resolutions, the photography is coming along. I'm managing to take a photo a day and haven't yet run out of ideas. I have a new batch that I need to upload to Flickr and post here at some point soon. Of course I also still have to finish my Canada posts, cos I still have a couple of those left. I should probably do that before my memory fades and I can't remember what the photos are of, but as we all know I am the Queen of Procrastination so it may be a while.

(And the less said about my third Resolution, the better. I've managed to finish one book so far and am not making much progress on any of the others!)

Happy New Year! I hope everyone is having a wonderful 2019 so far!

I don't normally make New Year's Resolutions, but there are a few things I want to do and now seems as good a time as any to start them, so turning them into resolutions makes sense...

1. Take up running. I have foolishly agreed to do a 7km run in May, mainly due to the promise of beer at the end, and I am very much out of practice. In fact I'm pretty sure that the last time I ran any significant distance would have been when I was at school, nearly twenty years ago, so unless I want to collapse and die after about fifty metres I should probably get my running shoes on sooner rather than later.

2. Do a 365 Project where you take a photo a day for the whole year. I'm hoping it'll help me with my photography cos I'll have to come up with new ideas and use new techniques to avoid taking the same photos every single day. And I'm hoping it'll be fun to do.

3. Finish reading books. I have this terrible habit of starting a book before finishing the one I'm currently reading. Sometimes this is because I've grown bored with the book (looking at you George RR Martin) but usually it's because something will make me think of another book I want to read and I don't want to wait so I'll start it immediately. I currently have five books on the go and I really must make myself finish them before starting anything new.

I could probably come up with more, but three seems like a reasonable and achievable number. And to end this entry I present to you the first of my 365 photos:

( 365 Project Day One )

Mum and I went to the Jane Austen House museum in Chawton for my birthday today. I filled in their survey at the end and when I got to the question about age I had to hesitate cos this particular birthday puts me in a whole new age bracket and I've always been a stickler for recognising the exact time I was born, which we had not yet reached. I stuck to that and went for the younger bracket, although now I would be in the higher one.

It was a good trip, really interesting to see the house that Jane Austen lived in, and the garden was lovely. There was also a really cute cat roaming around, which is always a good thing!

I took lots of photos, naturally:



( House )

( Garden )

I took a lot more pictures of the garden, mainly close ups of flowers, which I'll put in another post cos I don't want to overload this one too much!

Of course as it is my birthday it's traditional for me to regale you all with my epic poem of birthday brilliance:

This morning I was 34
That's not the case any more
Now it's time to laugh and smile
Cos 35 is now in style.

(That was harder than usual, cos my brain just kept singing "35" to the tune of "Stayin' Alive"!)

And finally, I've noticed a bit of a theme with my presents this year:



Those are from three different people. Clearly my love of gin is well known!

Time for the second of the November topics: Favourite Book

Whenever I think about this question I always feel like I should go for a "grown up" book like Pride & Prejudice or Moll Flanders or Persuasion, all of which I loved, but my heart always comes back to A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It's just such a lovely story and an amazing book.

And, no, it is not about an actual princess who wears pretty dresses and goes to parties. And yes, I'm still bitter about this 15 years later. (In our first English Lit lesson at college the teacher asked us all to name our favourite and least favourite books. I said that although I know it's a children's book I really like 'A Little Princess' and she went 'Ok. So does she wear dresses and go to parties and stuff?' and I was incensed. First of all that an English Lit teacher had never heard of this book, but also that she apparently thought so little of me that my favourite book would be something that a five year old reads. I mean, I know I said it was a children's book but that still covers a wide range of literature. The Harry Potter series are children's books. Little Women is a children's book. The Hobbit is a children's book. Why would you immediately assume that someone who's chosen to study English Literature would say that a book about a princess dressing up and going to parties is her favourite? Ugh.)

Wow, I wasn't expecting to rant about that today. But, like I said, I'm still bitter. And probably will be for the rest of my life.

Birthday time! I am now the grand old age of 28. It seems nice so far, I think I may keep it for the full year.

Presents include the Lego Millennium Falcon, Monopoly, Mateus Rose & Ferrero Rocher, Tangled 3D, Absinthe, the Avenue Q book and a really rather awesome cocktail set.

Mum and I went to Winchester for the day. I'm sure I've been there before but it was a long time ago and I didn't remember it at all, so it was like I was seeing it all for the first time. It's a lovely city, very much like Canterbury in many ways (although Winchester's Westgate isn't nearly as impressive for not having double decker buses going through it!) We went to see the Round Table and the Cathedral and Jane Austen's grave. I had a lovely time.

The plan for this evening is to order pizza and I may or may not try out my new cocktail set (depends on if I want to risk ruining the champagne by adding stuff to it!)

So far, today has been a very good birthday.

But, of course, no birthday would be complete without my epic poem of epic brilliance moving you all to tears, so, without further ado, here it is:

Twenty seven was hard to rhyme,
But it's not so bad this time.
And now that I am twenty eight,
I'm gonna make it really great.

You're welcome.

I'm trying to write a presentation on why the book I have chosen is suitable for the age range I wish to teach.

I fear I am talking complete bollocks.

Overall, I really liked the book. It was so much better than Half-Blood Prince, which really was a load of crap.

I've written down some of my thoughts. They're long and rambling and not read though so probably full of typos and bits that don't make sense, but whatever:

( Deathly Hallows )

Only a few hours to go until the apocalypse is upon us the last Harry Potter book is released. I've been avoiding most of the internet for a while since people seem determined to post spoilers everywhere, including places that have nothing to do with Potter.

So I've taken this opportunity to write down my predictions. They're just off the top of my head so I may be missing people or have forgotten previous events that make what I've said invalid but here goes.

( Who's going to die? )

So there we go. I'm probably completely wrong in everything I've said. We'll see soon.