To summarise

I saw this on a few peoples’ LJs a while back, and was inspired to copy it. The idea is you post the first couple of lines of the first entry of each month (or at least, the first non-friends-only, non-meme entry), and see what it tells you about the year.

January: 7 am and watching the weather
The worst bit about having been on holiday is that you get yourself into a nice lazy rhythm of late nights and even later mornings, which is always so hard to break when suddenly your holiday is over and it’s Monday morning.

February: I love the smell of vinegar in the afternoon
While we were helping rarsberry shift yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice that the plum tree at their old place was fair groaning with fruit, so in a quiet moment lytteltonwitch and I grabbed a bag from the car and stripped all the branches we could reach.

March: A quiet time
As in, I’ve been quiet for quite some time. My life certainly hasn’t. Most of the unquiet has been on the work front. A time of year that’s normally incredibly busy anyway has gone beyond busy to frantic, and my workload just keeps going up. Doesn’t leave a lot of energy at the end of the day for thinking up exciting things to write about.

April: Thick, yellow and wobbly
All of a sudden, everything seems to be turning to custard. For a start, one of our guest speakers is in hospital, and while he seems to be making a good recovery, it was serious enough that I can’t really ring and ask if he thinks he’ll be well enough by the 18th to do his talk.

May: New hobbies
Ok, you knew I wouldn’t be able to resist finding something new to occupy my time now that the convention is over. Actually, I’ve found two new hobbies which both look like being suitable time-sinks.

June: More pretties
I seem to be getting worse and worse at actually updating my diary lately. I blame work. I seem to spend more and more of my day staring at a computer screen, which doesn’t exactly inspire me to stare at a computer screen for fun when I get home (which is saying something for this confirmed geek). Anyway, rather than make some feeble attempt to catch up, here’s some pretty pictures of my latest lace-making efforts.

July: Even more random stuff
I remembered a couple more random things I’d been meaning to blog about, before being distracted by deleting half my entry the other day. For a start, I’d promised to post the official list of books from our fabulous “When Ballycumber went to Dunedin…” memory game we played on our way down to the booksale.

August: It’s never a question of need
A morning that started off frustrating ended quite pleasantly. I’d arranged to meet Jenny for lunch, so as MrPloppy and I had a couple of bits and pieces we wanted to get done in town before that, we decided to try and catch an earlier bus than we usually would. Of course given that, it was pretty much guaranteed that the outlaws would ring and want to spend hours telling us they really had nothing to tell us…

September
Only one entry for September, and it was friends only.

October: Busy busy busy
(Yeah, when am I not busy?) After a nice quiet weekend, life has reverted to its usual whirl of activity (but it’s ok, it’s in a good way). Last week of term, so work has been the usual madhouse, of course, and it’s turning into quite a social week as well.

November: Curried cats and bird attacks
Sapphy discovered something important tonight: cats and curry shouldn’t mix. Every so often my ESOL student makes a bit extra of whatever they’re having for dinner and gives me some to take home for me and MrPloppy. Tonight’s dish was a rather spicy lamb curry. Really tasty, but with quite a bite.

December: Pretty Sparkles
Note the cat stocking lytteltonwitch sent us from the UK, hanging in pride of place on the fireplace. I keep hinting to MrPloppy that stockings should always contain chocolates by Christmas morning…

Ok, the first thing this exercise told me is that I didn’t post much in 2009. Most months only had a couple of entries. The other thing it reminds me is what a year of highs and lows this has been! The main high was of course the convention – to have been part of the organising committee for such a successful convention is definitely something I’m very proud of. The lows… well, where do I start? It was a tough year. Not the worst I’ve ever had, but certainly up (or down) there.

But I reckon 2010’s going to be a good one.