To begin with, let me be the first to admit that blogging has not been high on the 2016 agenda. This is my only post in December, following only one in November. Must try harder.

2016 has been a pretty immense year, as all of the various news outlets and social media will agree. Plenty has gone wrong, or “not-my-version-of-right-thank-you-very-much”, and I think that beside the news, I’ve managed to let that impact on my commentary on here quite significantly – because I enjoy a good rant – but anyway.

I initially thought that a really “bloggy” thing to do would be to write a list of 2016 things which were good about this year, but seriously, that is a lot of things. Two thousand and sixteen things. It’s basically too many things. So I’m going to write a list of my top 20 things this year, and then embolden number 16. You can decide if that’s meaningful or not.

1 – Eating amazing food at the Man Behind the Curtain.
2 – Making candles
3 – Not having hypermobility or ADHD
4 – Two weddings of two very close friends
5 – Getting a new(ish) job
6 – Writing 6 months worth of a bullet journal
7 – Turning 26
8 – Finishing my Masters and getting a distinction
9 – Meeting Boyfriend’s adorable niece
10 – Spending a lot of time painting my nails
11 – Making cakes for the work baking league
12 – Having my cousin and lil bro come to stay, and being the awkward grownups at a gig
13 – Drinking lots of coffee and having lots of chats
14 – Finding new secret nice bits of Leeds
15 – Spending a night in a penthouse suite
16 – Making plans of all kinds
17 – Watching some exceptional theatre
18 – Rediscovering reading
19 – Being a trustee of the excellent Northern Opera Group
20 – Eating ice cream with friends

All in all, a lovely year. Not to mention this, which I’ve been meaning to share for a while. I drew a little sketch of Boyfriend and me, and he made it into a fabulous little canvas, which is hanging above our bed. So I guess that makes me an artist now.

Happy New Year