Questions answered

Okay, having posed the questions, and it now being New Year's Eve, it's time for me to answer my own questions.

1. What has been your biggest achievement this year? Getting a first in my English Lit course (and, so my tutor told me, getting the highest mark!)
2. What made you laugh most this year? This is hard. I know that I've laughed lots this year, and I can remember one or two fits of giggles, but I can't remember what it was about.
3. What has been your favourite/most listened to piece of music this year? I've listened to Scot Joplin a lot.
4. What was your best holiday this year? I didn't have anything much of a holiday this year. I guess I'd say that my time at the Edinburgh Book Festival was the best time away, though it wasn't a holiday as I studied relentlessly.
5. What new skill, if any, have you acquired this year? Erm ... the beginnings of play writing.
6. What's your happiest/fondest memory of this year? Probably of building sand castles for my nephew (O) to prod and then knock down when we were on the beach at Bamburgh in July.
7. What's the best book you've read this year? Excluding those that I read for my course, I'd say Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader has probably been the best.
8. If you could spend next year as a film character, who would that be? Oh, what's her name in Much Ado About Nothing? Is it Beatrice? Anyway, it'd be her in the Brannagh version so that I could spend a year with Kenneth Brannagh, Denzyl Washington and Keanu Reeves all in leather trousers! ;oP
9. What new hobby did you take up/old hobby did you reinstate this year? Earlier in the year I reinstated swimming, but it only lasted a couple of months and then got interrupted by hospital. Other than that I guess I've done more with my photography this year than previously.
10. What one thing would you really like to do next year? Pass my current OU course in Advanced Creative Writing.
11. What has been your best discovery of this year? That I'm actually pretty good at literary analysis.
12. What news story of this year has had the biggest impact on you/do you most remember? A serious one has been the attacks in Mumbai. Truly awful. At the other end of the spectrum is one that I heard at the beginning of the year on Radio 4 (at least I'm pretty sure it was this year). A squirrel chewed its way through an electricity wire and caused a blackout in the whole of Devon.
13. What's the best film you've seen this year? (can be at the cinema or DVD etc) I haven't been to the cinema much this year. I did watch a fantastic, though harrowing, film on telly last night - The Magdalene Sisters. If you haven't seen it, it's well worth it.
14. What was your best buy this year? Erm ... maybe my new TV (32" flat screen), or the 30mm macro lens I bought for my camera.
15. What has been your best day out this year? Quite possibly the day at Bamburgh Beach with my nephew, brother, sister-in-law, dad, step-mum, and various friends of dad and step-mum. It was blissfully warm, a lovely family time, Dad looked well and was enjoying himself, O was really happy and cheery and some of us went swimming in the sea!
16. Is there anywhere you'd like to visit next year? Locally, I'd like to go to Allen Banks. A little further afield, I desperately want to go down to London and meet Nephew number 2. Further still, I'd like to go abroad for a holiday ... perhaps to France with my bro, s-i-l, 2 nephews and whoever else is at s-i-l's parents' French house (yes, they have a second home in France). I'm told I have an invite.
17. Name one thing you did this year that you'd like to do again. Hmm ... not sure ... survive, I guess. If I have to be less general, I guess I'd opt for being well enough to get back to supervised exercise.
18. Who gave you the best advice this year? Probably my previous pdoc, Dr M, who advised me to tell somebody something about somebody else even though it went against their wishes at the time. It was necessary for my own well-being. The person I was telling has since been told by the person who it was about. Gosh, that's all very confusing isn't it? I'm having to be a little bit more cryptic than usual to maintain a certain amount of confidentiality.
19. What new skill would you like to acquire next year? Breathing! Failing that, something fun that I haven't yet thought of.
20. What was your favourite TV/radio programme of this year? I've really enjoyed the recent series of Survivors on BBC 1. I love some of the radio comedies on Radio 4 though - Just a Minute; I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue; some others that I can't remember the names of at the moment, but I know that I've enjoyed.

Right then, that's me done for the year :o) Anyone got any more questions they want to add to the list? Any more takers for answering any of them? Go on, it's fun!

Have fun tonight, everyone, and I'll see you all next year!