Everyone else: ‘Hey, this is how my 2016 is going!’
Me: ‘Shit, I still haven’t written that 2015 recap post’.
(I blame Vegas for the backlog. Going through 5,000+ photos and picking out the best to edit and upload is taking for. ever).
So, even though I’m not yet ready to blog about my trip from nearly a month ago, in the interests of recapping 2015 before I need to be late for recapping 2016, here’s my round up post. In bullets. Because appparently bullet journalling is what the cool kids are doing now, but I don’t have enough time to actually read up on it properly so who even knows what that is. It might be so last year by now too. Anyway.
January
- Went to a friend’s New Year party (and accidentally took a cat with us, but it was fine).
- Went to a million local tech events.
- Hannah came to visit.
- Worked on new reincarnation of this site.
- Saw The Theory of Everything at the cinema.
- Hosted a couple of nights in/out with work friends.
(Quiet month…I can’t actually remember what happened because apparently I wasn’t really keeping much of a diary back then, but I imagine a lot of it was working anyway.)
February
- Hardcore gymming (that really didn’t last!)
- Went to Wordcamp Birmingham and finally met Jem in person after following her blog for at least a decade!
- Visited a local windmill with friends and bought flour for baking.
- Moved to byjenni.com
- Went to Joe’s university friend’s wedding (awesome, despite being on a weekday evening in February!)
- Saw To Kill A Mockingbird at the theatre.
March
- Spent a few days in Paris.
- Celebrated Joe’s birthday by making Doctor Who cupcakes.
April
- Old uni friends came to visit.
- Went to London with a couple of friends for a concert (see The 3 day week).
- Had a super early picnic by the lake!
- Made an exceptionally geeky birthday cake for the gaming group I’m part of.
May
- Saw Dara Ó Briain perform on stage (I tried to get a photo but that man never stops moving. Seriously, I’ve never seen anything like it. Hilarious though).
- Joe’s parents came to visit for a weekend.
- Visited more old uni friends in their new house in Northampton.
June
- Took part in Fortnight, which I totally never blogged about and wish I had. It’s hard to explain, it was a two week long experience around the city involving tasks to complete every day. It was really fun and I met a lot of great people!
- Went to Wales for the weekend with a bunch of people. I didn’t blog about that either, but here’s a pic:
- Saw Animal Farm at the theatre.
- Handed in my notice at work, which led to my manager taking me to the cat cafe for the first time and making me a ton of cupcakes. So sweet. So were the cats!
- Did a free crafting workshop with a couple of friends and made a notebook and some cards.
July
- Started a new job! This was a turning point in the year for me as it meant I had a lot more free time and a lot less stress.
- Went to see a funny parody show, Mario: The Musical (I’ll leave this geek hat on permanently. It’s just easier).
- Couple of friends came to stay and we had a BBQ. It didn’t go well.
- Went to London for a Seedcamp workshop with the delightful Will Critchlow from Distilled.
- Saw a local showing of Serenity for Can’t Stop The Serenity. This is something we do every year in memory of a friend who died from cancer a few years ago (he was a huge fan).
- Went to an outdoor screening of Mean Girls. Fun despite the rain and cold!
- Huge geek group picnic in the park. It was fun, there was cake. And deer.
- Got a new TV (you 4k curved screen beauty).
- Had a film night to celebrate new TV (and to quash suspicions that I only bought a big TV to see Super Smash Bros better with eight players).
August
- I got involved with a charity baking group (see Things I learned selling on a market stall).
- Got a new kitchen – HUGE tick off the list because the kitchen was the original one that came with the house. And the house is about 20 years old. (‘Jeeeennnnni…did you realise that your kitchen walls are the EXACT same colour as your KitchenAid mixer?!’ ‘Susan, you know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of the time Mike asked me if I’d only bought a big TV to see Super Smash Bros better with eight players’).
- Had a leaving thing for one of my friends who was moving away (sad face).
- Actually went round the National Video Game Arcade properly, after going there for many events and never getting past the function room and bar.
September
- Went to Sussex, then London, as a slight detour from going to…
- Austria (see Adventures in Austria). This is where the cover photo for this post was taken.
- Went to see 1984 with Joe, an old college friend and her boyfriend. It was a super dark adaptation and actually really disturbing.
- Went to see Richard O’Brien on stage in Rocky Horror. He’s one of my heroes so life goal = achieved. You can read more about both of the above here: A very theatrical weekend.
October
- Organised pretty much the whole house to obsessive levels. But now we know where everything is (mostly), and there are lots of storage-y things, particularly boxes, which I LOVE.
- Went to Cheryl and Stu’s wedding. It was fun, AND I hadn’t seen either of them in ages (I used to work with Stu, and then he moved to London to work for LoveFilm, which then turned into working for Amazon, which then turned into moving to California to work for Amazon). They had an amazing wedding cake:
- Hosted a murder mystery party. The theme was fantasy, the food was Chinese (don’t ask).
November
- More friends visiting (yay).
- Met up with my cousin in Sheffield. We had lunch, listened to a random concert, and got lost. You can read more about that here: A weekend in the life
- Went to my first Christmas party of the year, a local marketing meetup one (what was it I was saying about giving up the Gregorian calendar?)
- Learned how to ice cookies, courtesy of a local class:
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December
- More Christmas parties! There was pizza! And chicken! And more gaming!
- Got my hair cut, for the first time in over a year. By a psycho hairdresser who reminded me why exactly it was I don’t get my hair cut often enough.
- Went to Vegas with Joe and a couple of friends – wayyy too much to cover here and way too many highlights. It’s probably my all-time favourite holiday to date (although it has a lot of stiff competition!). We went to shows, we met crazy people, we took 5,049 photos, we met up with Cheryl and Stu, and generally had an epic time.
- Went to Arizona (more specifically, the Grand Canyon, and nearly died – again I’ll cover this in another blog post).
- I turned 29! And recapped 28 things I learned at 28.
- Went to London to see Star Wars and the Royal Philharmonic orchestra, and ended up chatting to a minor celebrity who was sitting in front of me. Kind of weird to have been watching someone on your TV recently and then go to a concert and have the person in front turn around and talk to you and it’s the same guy. What.
- Went to Sussex for Christmas by the beach with Joe’s parents:
- Went back to Nottingham to host a New Year party, which included making steampunk cupcakes:
Whew! This year just got busier and busier, but it’s been fantastic – and 2016 is looking good so far too! How was your 2015?
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