Reflections...
Years really do come and go thick and fast as you get older. It's also increasingly difficult to pick out milestones each time, though maybe this is no bad thing. The early part of my 2009 was dominated by fires - two near work and one a bit too near my old flat. Luckily my smoke alarm did its job, luckily these things only come in threes, and luckily I found a new, better flat.
Funny how even though Palmers Green is a far less fancy area, and even though I've had problems (broken washing machine, broken boiler) here already, it feels much more like home. I've even put pictures up and everything! It's also helping me do my bit for the environment - and my wallet - by being warm enough, relatively speaking, for me to not have turned the heating on once. Bonus!
So then I turned 30, started running, got some glasses, committed to a crazy month-long trip to South Africa next summer, and that's about it. Can't really complain, all in all. And as last days go, today has been pretty good too. A technical query to Orange turned into me getting a nice phone upgrade (said the first bloke "You might want to ring the Retentions department direct and tell them you're thinking of leaving, that's how people get the best deal." They don't even pretend anymore do they?) Then, in a blow for common decency, some bloke jumped the queue in the cinema and the girl behind the desk refused to serve him - hurrah!
Oh yeah, and I finally saw Where the Wild Things Are. After the amazing trailer there was no way this was going to fully live up to expectations, thankfully though Spike Jones has succeeded in making a lovely big-budget, kid-friendly indie film. The creatures themselves look superb, and although there's no Arcade Fire, the Karen O soundtrack is a spot-on accompaniment to the visuals. Double hurrah!
Finally, this time last year Sky magazine (the one thing I don't miss as a non-Sky subscriber) published a list of predictions by a "psychic" couple, Jane and Craig Hamilton. For shits and giggles, I cut them out and kept them for an occasion such as this. And in a year when Derek Acorah channelled Michael Jackson on live TV, further raising the profile of psychics and potentially edging them ever-closer to legitimacy, here is what the Hamiltons claimed would happen:
Funny how even though Palmers Green is a far less fancy area, and even though I've had problems (broken washing machine, broken boiler) here already, it feels much more like home. I've even put pictures up and everything! It's also helping me do my bit for the environment - and my wallet - by being warm enough, relatively speaking, for me to not have turned the heating on once. Bonus!
So then I turned 30, started running, got some glasses, committed to a crazy month-long trip to South Africa next summer, and that's about it. Can't really complain, all in all. And as last days go, today has been pretty good too. A technical query to Orange turned into me getting a nice phone upgrade (said the first bloke "You might want to ring the Retentions department direct and tell them you're thinking of leaving, that's how people get the best deal." They don't even pretend anymore do they?) Then, in a blow for common decency, some bloke jumped the queue in the cinema and the girl behind the desk refused to serve him - hurrah!
Oh yeah, and I finally saw Where the Wild Things Are. After the amazing trailer there was no way this was going to fully live up to expectations, thankfully though Spike Jones has succeeded in making a lovely big-budget, kid-friendly indie film. The creatures themselves look superb, and although there's no Arcade Fire, the Karen O soundtrack is a spot-on accompaniment to the visuals. Double hurrah!
Finally, this time last year Sky magazine (the one thing I don't miss as a non-Sky subscriber) published a list of predictions by a "psychic" couple, Jane and Craig Hamilton. For shits and giggles, I cut them out and kept them for an occasion such as this. And in a year when Derek Acorah channelled Michael Jackson on live TV, further raising the profile of psychics and potentially edging them ever-closer to legitimacy, here is what the Hamiltons claimed would happen:
"Barack Obama will survive an assassination attempt - it will be a JFK-style shooting."How many of these did YOU spot coming true in 2009?
"A celeb will be involved in a knife attack."
"Victoria Beckham will become pregnant with a longed-for baby girl."
"A major eco catastrophe in Paris will impact on the global community."
"Katie Price - aka Jordan [thanks for that, there might still be one person in the country who doesn't know who she is] - will announce a surprise pregnancy."
"The world will go even deeper into recession..... This will have disastrous repercussions in Africa."
"Gordon Brown will be ousted from power."
Happy new year.
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