Review of Last Year

Last year I made some New Year's resolutions, so let's see how well they held up.

1. Get a job

I am proud to say I got a job. Actually I got a job, lost a job, and got another job so I actually got 2 jobs! Casually employed as of the end of 2008, hoping to return in 2009. Go me!

2. Eat a vanilla slice

Done. I can't say the vanilla slices I've eaten have been that good, but they've been devoured and compared. Cake-wise, I've found a much nicer place called Citrus Cafe in Newtown and I've been pigging out on cakes there, not so much vanilla slices. And just yesterday Mr Coffee and I shared a Portuguese tart which tastes something like a grilled custard tart. Very tasty.

3. Watch certain movies.

I think I've more than watched a lot of movies this year, thanks to getting Foxtel this year and Mr Coffee's collection. I put down specifically watching Pollyanna, Mary Poppins, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Gone With the Wind. I haven't found time to watch the entire Gone With the Wind yet, but all the rest - done. Though I must say Pollyanna was most disappointing and rates as one of the worst book adaptations I've ever seen.

4. Practise playing certain games - Set, Trivial Pursuit, Chess, Jawbreaker

I got plenty of practise at Jawbreaker and I'm a bit better at playing Set. Chess I'm dead hopeless at; I'm one of those one move at a time players who waits for everyone else to get to the middle of the board before they'll get any further and then realises they're checkmated.

And Mr Coffee won't play Trivial Pursuit with me any more because he's memorised all the answers to his set, mostly. (By the way, the answer to most of the questions is "one per cent" or "Tonya Harding" if it's a sports question)

5. Improve my off blog writing

I had a go at writing stories off blog. This works til I hit about chapter four and I get writer's block, or boredom, or I start getting very annoyed that it starts sounding like whiny crap. Before then I can usually convince myself that the whiny crap is simply an artistic technique but something tells me by Chapter 4 that I should stop deluding myself. I have a few stories that stop at Chapter 4, or some at Chapter 1 or 2, or some at paragraph 1 or two.

I opened a few documents and found I'd written stories that stopped at a really good opening title! I'd written at the top of a document, emboldened it, underlined it,saved it ... and that was my artistic effort for the day!

Mr Coffee says I should stop thinking about how it sounds and just enjoy writing it if I ever want to get past Chapter 4.

Chapter 5 next week then! Or at least one sentence under the fancy emboldened title!

6. Touch typing improved.

I think it stayed the same. Damn.

7. Cooking repertoire increased.

I can now marinade chicken wings. I will count that as mission accomplished.

8. Cantonese improved.

Oh dear ....