Good riddance to 2016

The one thing no-one could accuse 2016 of is being boring. There were global political rumbles, actual seismic rumbles and a Grim Reaper busier than Trump's propaganda team.

On a personal level, it was a real snakes and ladders year - one step forward, one slide back. Thankfully nothing too major, just a bunch of annoyances strung together like baubles on a necklace that made me roll my eyes more than I probably ever have.

BUT, everything comes to an end and, thank Christ, 2016 is almost done. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Here's my once-over-lightly post-mortem of 2016:         


Things I loved:

• Media trips to Italy, Vietnam, Canada, the US, Australia and Dubai
• A new rental property
• A milestone birthday (and the freedom it gave me to decide the life I want and go about creating it, as well as not giving any f*cks anymore about what anyone thinks. Getting older is way cooler than it's given credit for). 
• Finally chucking in govt contracting (it only took 10 years!!)
• A fabulous part-time PR/copywriting gig (NOT govt!)
• Lots of interesting commissions to write the shizzle out of
• A couple of new magazines to write for
• Monday night SPCA puppy waking volunteering - the highlight of my week 
• The Welly Childfree Chicks group - so nice to have like-minded women to talk to. I only wish I had made it to more events but I will definitely be a starter in 2017.  
• Red wine
• Running; it may be a bit optimistic to put this in the 'love' category but it keeps me sane and helps with the lard-arse management   
• New friends, old friends and my two favourite boys.

Things I didn't love so much:

• The world's shocking slide into the toilet (Brexit and Trump, I'm looking at you)  
• Earthquakes - enough already
• A contract that made me want to chop my head off
• Work that didn't make my soul sing
• Bitchy, arsey editors who treat freelancers like something stuck to the bottom of their shoe (I'm convinced there is a special place in hell for these women)
• The dickhead bogan who moved a house onto the section next to us at the beach, prompting us to sell our beach-house (actually, it worked out okay in the end because we made some dosh and it's actually quite a relief to have one less house to worry about, so maybe this should be in the above category).   

Movies I laughed and cried at:

• Hunt for the Wilderpeople
• Spotlight
• Nocturnal Animals
• The Light Between Oceans
• Captain Fantastic
• The Girl on the Train
• Sing Street
• The BFG
• A Bigger Splash
• Loving
• Zootopia.

Books I adored (of the 25 review books I read this year):

• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
• The Ballroom by Anna Hope
• The Long Room by Francesca Kay
• Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley
• The Mother by Yvette Edwards
• Under the Influence by Joyce Maynard
• The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
• Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasserberg.  

Unmissable tee-vee (to be fair, the list of films above is so light because telly really is the new cinema, in our house, anyway):

• Transparent
• The Affair
• Stranger Things
• American Crime
• The Crown
• Girls
• America Divided
• Orange is the New Black 
• Homeland
• Happy-ish
• Suits
• Divorce
• Empire
• United Shades of America.

The soundtrack to my year:

• Prince/Bowie/Cohen and now George Michael - all gone too soon
• Sia
• Beyonce
• The jazz and classical music stations on Pandora, the only music I can work to. 

Happy New Year, y'all. Hope 2017 is everything you want it to be. 

(Pic credit: Dreamstime.com)